Burial traditions
Originally uploaded by natavillage.
When a person dies in Nata, there are many burial traditions that are observed. Most funerals are held at sunrise on Saturday morning. If the person dies on a Monday, the family will hold prayers at their home every evening at 5:30 (or near dusk) until the burial. If a mother loses her child or woman loses her spouse, she must stay in the home all week until the funeral is held. The people who attend the prayers are served bread and tea. On Friday night, the body
is brought from the mortuary to the home. The coffin is placed inside the rondavel and the family prays and sings over the casket all night. At about 3am people leave to go bathe and return for the burial at dawn. The funeral is held in the yard of the deceased and there is much praying and singing. Then the body is taken to the cemetery and all the men in the community help to bury the coffin and a marker (similar to the one shown above) is placed in the dirt to mark the grave. Everyone then returns to the yard of the deceased and if the family can afford it, a cow is killed and everyone is served lunch. In western culture, friends bring food to the family of the deceased. In Botswana, the family of the deceased often has to feed half the village. It can often be a financial burden to the family. Thanks to ARVs the funerals have really slowed down in Nata. During the height of the pandemic, so many people were dying that there could easily be 10 funerals on the same day. Now that over 400 people in Nata are on ARVs, the number of funerals has thankfully been on the decline.
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