About namibian funeral tradition – Chapter 3

Hello everybody

Today we are going to speak about an unusual subject: death, which is also part of our life cycle.

Ester, who is Iroline’s sister, gives us on overview of the Damara tribe funeral tradition.

Most people take funeral insurance. It is not just in Namibia, Ester said in the whole of Africa. Especially from middle to lower income people. Many people take family funeral insurance for their parents, brothers, sisters, aunties…It is common practice.
Depending on the tradition/tribe, they will bury the deceased within a week. For the Damara tribe, to which Ester belongs, it can take up to 2 weeks’ mourning period between when the person dies and the funeral ceremony. In general, the funeral ceremony is on Saturdays.

During the mourning period, the family gets together, the neighbours come, they sing, etc.

And then, the day before, on Friday, they bring the casket of their beloved back home, in the living room, they open the casket so that people can view the body, if they wish, until the funeral day. They all sleep in the house. Ester said that sometimes they also have old people sleeping next to the casket, while it is opened. In the Damara tradition, it is a way to show their last respect to the deceased person.

With Iroline, as we were driving through the Shanty town, she pointed out the house with the black flag with a white cross, which indicates that there has been a recent death in the family.
The flag indicates to show respect and to keep quiet in the area close to the house.

Iroline told me that if the flag were white with a black cross, it means that there is a wedding in the family.

Thereafter, we briefly visited the cemetery in the shanty town of Kuisebmond.

Iroline said that it may be a picture of a freshly buried person.
Mostly, afterwards, the body is placed in a tomb.
Depending on the funeral insurance payment and design for the tomb, it may even take a couple of years before transferring the remains of the person into the tomb.

I was quite surprised when I saw some atypical tombs…Like Paulus Felitas may have had a car business, and Engelbrecht Benedick presumably was working or had his own truck company.

As you can see from these few tombs, people die quite young. Looking at the statistics, life expectancy in Namibia in 2021 was 62 years’ old for women and 55 years’ old for men.

But, surprisingly, apparently, the average life expectancy in the Himba community is 80-85 years, and some members of the tribe live up to 100 years ‘old.

Have a nice evening.
Until next time.
Kind regards
Murielle