Children

Beliefs about Ancestors

In 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 context, 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 waterproof separation between the world of the living and the ancestral world, but, much to the contrary, 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 protection 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 living 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 minerals, 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 context, 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 remember one. This is why, everywhere in Africa, marriage and procreation are of the utmost importance.

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