COVID-19 burial guidelines in Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on mundane daily tasks and significant cultural practices, including funerals and burials. Growing up, I observed that death in my family is a well-respected cultural process. It is believed that those who departed into the spirit world will be joining the living dead in the afterlife. For the deceased to be welcomed into the spirit world in the traditional sense, families perform specific rites of passage rituals during the burial. This is an important exercise to avert the wrath of the spirit world on the bereaved family. Attention to detail during these rituals is vital to assist the bereaved family in expressing their grief while simultaneously showing respect to the spirit world. As a non-practising sangoma, I had observed traditional funeral and burial processes long before the outbreak of the pandemic and understood their importance. While the pandemic shook traditional burial processes and made some rituals impossible, I found comfort in the knowledge that indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) could be used to appease the spirit world. In this article, I explain how IKS can assist bereaved families during funerals and burials to avert the wrath of the spirit world and find closure.