As I mentioned before my host grandmother passed away on Saturday evening, the funeral happened as soon as possible as is apparently done in the Islamic faith. The funeral was at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
When she died they brought her to the house and the women of the family cleaned and dressed the body. Apparently you aren’t supposed to sleep before the body is buried, so people were at the house all night, talking and drinking (fanta and coke, no alcohol). At 9:30 a.m., my friend David from my program, who just happens to also live in Nyamirambo, came by to join me for the funeral. It turned out that it was nice to have a fellow Muzungu to share the experience with.
When David arrived we headed into the compound where a whole lot of people were gathered. My host grandmother apparently had a huge impact on the people that surrounded her. There were a good 200 people packed into our courtyard. My host uncle Semy asked me to pay my last respects and so I entered the room where her body lay. They had stripped the bed of the sheets and mattress and she was surrounded by many women in their Islamic garb. Only her face was exposed. David and I were asked to pray for her and after doing so we left the room and took a seat on a couch in the courtyard.
Uncle Semy came and sat with us and a few minutes later a large green litter was brought in and placed in the middle of everyone. Soon, about eight men emerged carrying the body and gently placed her into the litter. They then covered her in a yellow cloth and the men then lifted her into the air and began to carry her to the mosque. All of the men followed. The women on the other hand were required to stay back at the house and do their mourning there.
David and I trekked up the hill and reached the mosque. After removing our shoes, we entered the mosque and joined a line of men. All the men lined up in about eight lines all facing toward the front of the mosque (and Mecca I think). A number of prayers were said for about fifteen minutes then we all filtered back out into the warm sun of an increasingly warm day. Then the crowd, again only the men, piled into a caravan of cars and drove to the graveyard. We walked up a hill to get to the grave, on the left side were the graves of the Christians, all decked out with crosses and tombstones, and on the right, bare hillside. We turned right. And in front of us was an open grave.
Many men gathered in a circle around the grave and waited for the arrival of the body. When the litter arrived, members of the family got into the grave and helped to lower the body to its final resting place. There was no coffin and the body was wrapped in cloth. After she was lowered into the grave, the men took turns passing around a few shovels and filling in the dirt that had been removed. After this, a man led a round of prayers. Apparently, according to Ashiraf my host brother, this man happened to be the head of the Islamic faith in Rwanda. Pretty cool. After the prayers everyone filed back to the cars and drove to the house.
Another important part of the Muslim funerary ceremonies is the three days after the death with are reserved for mourning. Ashiraf stayed home from school until Wednesday and people have been at the house literally 24 hours a day for the past three days. Needless to say, sleep has been a constant struggle as the walls here are thin and everyone likes to converse. It’s like a big social gathering, a place for people to catch up on life and to celebrate and remember the life of the deceased. My uncle Semy said that because a lot of the people here are unemployed, the free drinks and social aspect of the event give everyone something to do for three full days so people take full advantage and stay up all night to chat and remember.
All in all it has been an incredible process and experience to be a part of.
Now begins our first week full of classes and lectures. Our Academic Director Stephanie is off to Uganda for a training session but we still have Apollon and Issa, our other directors, to keep us in line and working hard. We head to visit some NGO’s tomorrow so I am interested to see what that entails but I will post again with my what goes on there.
Muzungu finishing the mourning process in Kigali, Rwanda
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