Funeral Rite Season One: How some five ethic groups undertake funeral in Ghana

Ghana is a country that has over ten ethic groups or tribes,some of which are the Gas of Greater Accra region,  Ewes of Volta, Ashantis of Ashanti region, Fantes etc and among these people are diverse ways of doing things including funeral activities.

In the audio are 5 short audio stories telling how the Fantes, Ahantas, Muslims and some parts of the Ewe land undertakes funeral, right from the day one die during and after burial ceremony.  Enjoy it.

https://anchor.fm/albert-gooddays/episodes/Funeral-rites-among-some-Ghanaian-ethnic-groups-ecq1t6

Albert Kuzor writes: Funeral rites among the Èʋetomeo (Central Volta)

Residents at a funeral ground at a community centre in Avatime 

Volta region is one of the sixteen administrative regions in Ghana, sharing it's boarders on the east to Eastern region, west to the republic of Togo, south to the gulf of Guinea and having Ho as it's regional capital.

The present Volta region has over three sub tribes some of which are the Anlos, Èʋetome, and the people of Tongu, among these people are diverse ways of foods, norms, beliefs, way of speaking and ways of life living. For instance, the Anlos speak Anlo Èʋe dialect which is far different from what the Tongus and Èʋetomeo speak.

These people within the region has diverse ways of performing funeral rites right from the day of death, during and after burial ceremony.

  Who are the Èʋetomeo, and how do they perform funerals?

Èʋetomeo are people who migrated from the once lived, King Akorkoli of Togo to the present place called Volta, Èʋetomeo are the people who dominated central parts of the region, areas such as Ho, Ho West, Afadzato, Dayi and Hohoe areas, however, these people have similar ways of life living and perform similar funeral activities.

Among the Èʋetomeo, whenever a person pass away, children of the late person meet to decide whether the body should be deposited at the morgue or organize a traditional burial, whatever comes from such meeting will be communicated to the external family.

Some sympathizers at a funeral ground at Avatime 

The external families together with children of the deceased will then have a bigger family meeting to decide on budget for the funeral and date for burial ceremony,

And before that, the body will be deposited at the mortuary, then elders from families will be assigned by family heads to deliver the death news to the traditional rulers of the community including other skateboarders within and outside the community when necessary.

Traditionally, family members are also task to inform the date of the funeral to residents house after house, a gongo bitter or the Chief of the community will speak of it to the entire community during a public gathering, but in recent times, most families uses the media, on announcement segments on radio and community information centres.

If the deceased is a notable person in the community, the norm is the Chief will decide any amount of money every clan will donate to support the funeral (it is commonly done for deceased from royal family), some cases residents who can afford food stuffs do donate instead of cash.

If the deceased is of youthful age, the entire community especially the youths on Thursday a day before collection of the body from morgue, organizes vigil.

At early dawn of that Thursday, there will be singing and mourning (use of jama song is common) throughout the streets of the community and finally end at the deceased's house.  The idea behind this activity is the death is painful and they wish in keeping a vigil  and mourning the death could come back to life, but if the deceased is of age, nothing of such will be done.

When the date of the funeral approaches, sympathizers, friends, family delegations visit the house of the deceased to pay condolences, during this days there will be variety of foods and drinks, such as palm wine to welcome visitors (this is mostly observed if the deceased is of age) .

              What happens on Fridays and Saturdays? 

Before Friday, all necessary arrangements will be conducted to pave way for collection of the body on Friday evening.

Chiefs and elders of the deceased family pours libation when the body arrive into the town on that Friday, after which other activities follows such as, singing of dirges and wake keeping, during this moment everyone is expected to be in black or red attires, especially if the deceased is not of age.

Elders praying to the gods during a funeral in Vane

On Saturday,, there will be a church Service from at least 8am to 10am and by 11 or 12pm, the body will be buried, this is quite different from what the Anlos do. Then after burial, family members from both sides gives account of the Friday  and Saturday to the chief of the community, after which other activities follows such as eating and drinking.

On Sunday, there will be a sermon in the memory of the late. Then seven days after burial,  there will a short ceremony in the house of the late person to finally mourn the late, and on this 7th day, family members go round the community to thank each household for their contributions during and after the burial.

After this, the deceased seemed to be forgotten until 12 months later when they will be another ceremony to remember the late person,  and some families choose to organize such memorials ceremony each year.


By: Albert Kuzor (DCS20720)

Samuel Aidoo writes: The funeral rite among the Ahantas

The Ayindas or Ahantas are a Guan people who live to the north of the Nzema . Ayinda literally means the land of Twins .The Ahanta land spans from Beposo to Ankobra in what is now the Western Region of the Republic of Ghana. come in early contact

In Agona Nkwanta, my hometown, in the some part of Western  Region such Ahanta west district, funerals [ Ayile in Ahanta], often referred to as a homegoing, are held quite frequently.

The funerals are extremely intricate and elaborate and if you blink you just might miss something meaningful.
The four-day cultural celebration and traditional funeral rites are normally held from Friday to Monday.

Before the actual funeral on Ahanta land, there are certain rituals that the family of the deceased must follow. For instance, the buying of the cloth known as Edaame, for the funeral. Most prevalent is the black and white, which is used on the Sunday for Thanksgiving after the hectic Friday and Saturday events.

On day one, the Friday preceding the main function on Saturday, the entire family meet in the evening at the family house to finalize the arrangements for the main activity on Saturday, which includes the acceptance of the Ayuwaledee, which comprises a sponge, toothpaste, water, toilet paper, towel, soap, lotion, body wash, and so on. If the deceased person has sons, the wives of the sons are responsible for bringing the items.

Day two is usually on a Saturday. The body is prepared and laid in state to be received by the family in the early hours of the morning, usually before sunrise.  As is to be expected, the family wails after a Pastor or Reverend Minister has blessed the body before it is opened for general public viewing. After the prayer and viewing, another presentation of items takes place. Loved ones bring clothe, drinks and more to bid farewell to the deceased.

Between 7 am and 8 am, well-wishers and sympathizers arrive to join the immediate family members to share in their grief. At this point, some family members and friends also donate bouquets, flowers, rings, handkerchiefs and other items including money to be taken away by the deceased. These items are normally placed in the coffin.

On Sunday, day three, the family and friends gather at church for thanksgiving service in the morning with everyone in black and white traditional attire. In the afternoon after service, the family meets at the same place where the festivity was held on the previous day to received people who were unable to attend on Saturday. Also in attendance are a few of the traditional musical groups from the previous day.

Monday is considered a day of the funeral activities and is mainly confined to the immediate family to take stock and discuss any shortfalls or anything that happened in the preceding days. This is where the family gets to know whether they made a loss or made a gain after all of the activities.

Written by: Samuel Aidoo (DCS20664)

Funeral rites among the Gbi Ewes of Volta region

Ewes are one of the few main ethic groups in Ghana and reside mainly in the southern region in the country but also inhabit the southern half of Togo. Ewes originally came from Ketu , a Yoruba land in Nigeria .ewes have rich tradition and culture in terms of food, various dialect spoken, marriage, outdooring, puberty and traditional funeral rites.

For the purpose of this discussion, highlights will be thrown more on the traditional funeral rites by the people of Gbi ewes. Ewes believe in the Supreme Being (Mawu) but they also believe in their ancestors and reincarnation. Ewe culture inherently believes in the concept of death and life hereafter, marks a threshold that opens a door for a new and blissful life.

When a man or woman dies in the family of the Gbi ewes, the body will sent to the mortuary or preserved in the room for few days for funeral arrangements to be announced by the elders of the family. Before the funeral rites are performed for the dead body to be laid to rest, custom demands that the family goes to a fetish priest to enquire the cause of the death and to find out whether or not the deceased is witch.

According to Gbi ewe tradition, it is believed that the spirit of the dead hovers around for forty days before finally disappearing to the land of the dead. The spirit of the deceased is believed to be the one who speaks directly to fetish priest on the cause of their death and other issues.  Ewe tradition does not permit for a witch or wizard to be buried in the same cemetery as others, therefore, this rite is important especially when the deceased is of old age.

After these traditions are performed, the family then sets day for the final funeral rites by inviting friends and sympathizers to bid farewell  to the their beloved. Libation is poured and traditional prayers said to pave way for the rites. In the evening of the funeral, the dead body will be brought from the mortuary to the family house.

A close relation is contracted to bath the dead body as tradition demands amidst traditional libations and prayers. Funeral rites are mostly performed on Friday on Saturday amongst Ewes however, if a child dies for the first in a family, that child will be buried on the same day irrespective of time or day.

On Friday night , family and sympathizers gather in the house to mourn the dead by crying , others will be dancing and singing to traditional Agbadza or borbor music to keep themselves awake whiles the body is laid on state for viewing to those who want to pay their last respect to the deceased .

The children of the deceased are made to shave their hairs on the head as a sign of grieve and lost. Throughout the funeral rites, the children are required by custom to perform all the rites needed so that, there will be no consequence later on the family.

On Saturday morning, elders, chiefs and the other mourners troops to the funeral ground to console the family of the deceased and also take part in the  final performance of the rites for the dead body to be put in coffin and sent to its final resting place.

The family and other close mourners come back to the funeral grounds after burial in the cemetery to continue with traditional rites of drumming and dancing amidst libations and chanting of the deceased name as a way of showing pain and grieve of their lost.

The family goes from house to house to greet and thank the townshtownship for supporting and thank the township for supporting.

By; Kwame Krade DCS20719

Bless Kotoku writes: The final journey (funeral); the Akans way

The Ashanti's funeral(Ayie) is performed in a grand style.The Ashanti's funeral is then performed for basically four days.That is starting from Friday -Monday.

The family members of the deceased will have to buy cloth(Ntama) and basically the colour of the cloth is red and black or white and black.On Friday the deceased family members and all sympathizers will then be awake the whole of Friday night(wake-keeping).The body of the deceased will then be taken from the mortuary to home.

The body of the deceased will be brought home either mid night or at dawn on Saturday and will be bath before laid in state at dawn,from the time the deceased was brought from the mortuary to the next day,which is Saturday.

On saturday,early in the morning the pastor will have a word of prayer on to the deceased after which the family members will wail,After which sympathizers,love ones and everyone will get the chance to go and look at the deceased.

Around 7am-8am,loved ones,sympathizers together with the family wail and sob the death of their beloved.At this time items like flowers,handkerchiefs etc are then given to the deceased and this items are from the loved ones,sympathizers and family members of the deceased.

These items are placed into the coffin of the deceased.
Around 9:30am,the corps is  then be taken to the local church for prayers and tribute of the deceased is been read at the church as well.After that the body is then conveyed to the cemetery for burial.at the cemetery the pastors does the last prayer for the deceased and after that the deceased is placed into the the ground,After which they placed a flower on the tomb.

After that they all come back to the funeral grounds.but some do go home and prepare for the main activity,which mostly starts from 2pm.And at times too the family members of the deceased do change their clothes and wore another cloth but it suits the funeral.

Some activities such as dancing,playing of dirges,playing of drums,contributions mostly money been made by love ones,sympathizers are then announced.So at exactly ,6pm the funeral is over.

Early the next morning which is sunday,The family members, loved ones and sympathizers do go for Thanksgiving service at church and the attire they do wore is black and white.They wore this black and white to signify that although they lost their loved one but also give thanks to God for how far he has brought them, so after church the family members do meet at where the funeral was held together with some musical groups to welcome those who couldn't make it to the funeral.

The last thing done is on Monday,where the family members do sit down to have an account on the expenses about the funeral, This is where they got to know whether they incur losses or they earn profit.

The Akan funeral(Ayie) holds a lot of meaning. As the saying goes funeral is also one major festive that bring people to gather.

Written by:  Bless Kotoku, DCS 20718