83 Chapter 5. Feasts to Send-off the Dead … During my fieldwork, I attended burial rituals more than 20 times, and each burial contained variations with respect to their details. I gained information concerning the rituals’ composition from elders via interviews. Burial is one of the most spectacular events in the village, with the burial ceremony held at the house of the deceased. Regardless of whether an individual works and resides in another town, or lives a double life by traveling back to the village only on weekends or holidays, they build a hut in their native village and are buried in their compound. Even if they die in a hospital, their body is transported back to be buried in the compound. People believe in the potential intrusion of spirits; attacks by such spirits are called mwonjo. Therefore, each ceremony is carefully conducted not to invite any mwonjo. A series of ritual steps calms and wards off the anger of the spirits (Umeya 2018a: 420). First, women wash the liel (‘the corpse’) using the stem of a rotten banana and banana juice, and then dress the body.4 This series of steps comprises of lwoko liel (‘washing the bodies’), tweyo liel 4 This practice seems to be almost extinct today. There are very few bananas in Padhola, and the washing of bodies is discouraged by medical professionals. The Jopadhola are generally educated and have embraced many of the modern ways of burial. Fig. 1. People beating buli to inform about a death (Photo: Kiyoshi Umeya)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE5NDY5MQ==