departed parents. Second, they allow departed
ones to come back into the world of the living.
This entry looks at the underlying beliefs about
ancestors and explains each of the child’s critical
functions in turn.
Beliefs About AncestorsIn the African worldview, there is no fundamental
difference between life and death because the latter
is perceived as being simply a different mode of
existence. Life, by definition, is infinite and eternal,
and can, therefore, never end. Death, in that con-
text, is a rite of passage that allows one to enter the
ancestral realm. The primary difference between
the world of the living and the ancestral universe
has to do with their respective level of materiality,
with the world of the living being totally visible and
the realm of the ancestors being partially visible.
Therefore, as expected, there is not a water-
proof separation between the world of the living
and the ancestral world, but, much to the con-
trary, constant interactions and communication.
The ancestors are still very much a part of their
community. Among many African people, like the
Guen-Mina of Togo, for example, it is believed
that the dead keep the living company when they
sleep or move around. When water must be
thrown on the floor, for example, the ancestors
are first warned with “Agoo” so that they can
move away and not get wet.
The living cultivate and welcome the presence
of the ancestors among them because, as spiritual
entities, the ancestors are able to bestow protec-
tion and guidance on them on a constant basis. In
fact, the ancestors are the guardians of the family
and community’s traditions, ethics, and affairs.
The ancestors speak both the language of the liv-
ing and the language of God and are therefore in
a uniquely privileged position to intervene on
behalf of the living and ensure their well-being,
provided, of course, that they are satisfied with
the way the living treat them.
The ancestors, in contrast, imperatively need
the living so that they will not experience the
worst possible form of death, that is, social death.
Indeed, although death is understood and
accepted as a necessary rite of passage leading to
a higher form of existence, it is also, nonetheless,
experienced as a loss. What matters foremost,
then, is that the person who died is not forgotten
by those still on Earth. In the African universe,
where one draws one’s sense of existence from
being related into a cosmic web to all that is in the
world, be it other human beings, animals, or min-
erals, the importance of being remembered on
one’s death takes on its full meaning.
Being remembered means that one is still part of
one’s community and still exists. Conversely, being
forgotten means being excluded, which is a terrible
fate as far as Africans are concerned. In that con-
text, to die without having had the chance or time
to give birth to children is a real calamity because it
is one’s children’s primary responsibility to remem-
ber one. This is why, everywhere in Africa, mar-
riage and procreation are of the utmost importance.Children’s Role
The first responsibility of children is to ensure that
all necessary funerary rituals are correctly and duly
performed upon their mother’s or father’s death.
The importance of such a responsibility cannot be
underestimated because a person whose death and
departure are not handled correctly might be
denied access to the world of the ancestors and
never be able to enjoy peace. Such a troubled spirit
would, in turn, prove quite dangerous for mem-
bers of the family as well as members of the com-
munity by mercilessly unleashing its fury and anger
on them. Such a disaster must be avoided at all
costs by performing appropriate funerary rituals
that will allow the departed person to smoothly
transition into the abode of the ancestors.
Once such rituals have been performed, it is
incumbent on the children to perform other ritu-
als throughout their own lives to maintain their
parents alive, such as making offerings (like liba-
tions or sacrifices) to them, or maintaining family
traditions, such as ancestral ceremonies or observ-
ing taboos. The memory of the deceased is usually
cultivated for about five generations. Some
African people, like the Yoruba, hold special and
collectiveEgungunrituals to honor all those spir-
its who are no longer remembered individually
due to the passage of time.
The second major role played by children in the
African religious universe is that, through them, the162 Children