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THE CONCEPT OF DEATH IN THE CHANGING WORLD OF 
AFRICAN WORLDVIEW

Dr. James N. Nnoruga
Department of Religion & Human Relations
NnamdiAzikiwe University Awka, Nigeria

Email: jn.nnoruga@unizik.edu.ng

Abstract 

Death is considered a scary phenomenon among many people in different cultures of Africa and 
many things are done to prevent it by all means. But finally, it comes when it will come, African 
interpretation of death and how it occurs are viewed from different perspectives in relation to its 
rituals and ceremonies being performed by the people of Africa. The conception of death from the 
pristine era is being eroded daily by the influence of some factors that affect the African 
worldviews with the advancement of science and technology or put in another way the 
globalization of the world. These factors changed the view of Africans' conception of death from 
rigid conception to flexible acceptance of death as yet painful phenomenon. The write-up brought 
out the changes that are taking place daily in the life of the Africans towards the notion of death 
when compared to the previous conception of death in Africa. The scholarly African works on this 
issue from different parts of Africa were carefully studied and their views were synthesized 
through a philosophical approach. The result of this shows that the conception of death has 
changed in Africa for good but with some effects on the lives of people in the society.

Keywords: Death, African worldview, fatalism, funeral rites, reincarnation.

Introduction 

The notion of death in the African worldview has been a kind of fatalistic view both by the way the 
Africans think about it and towards its belief concerning its preparation and the process of burial 
after death. Hence death is dreaded so much among all cultures judging from the world view of 
different cultures and the fearful names that designate the phenomenon of death. Though death 
itself is seen as part of life cycle, because of the role it plays in ushering people among the  
ancestors, which is the dream of any African who departs from this world to join their fore-
fathers. That is why in old age, Africans will always gladly announce that he/she will soon join 
his/her ancestors. Even the view about how one dies in Africa, is of much importance to Africans 
because not all deaths are acceptable to Africans especially when it concerns the death of children 
or certain deaths of ill health and deaths of accident victims like falling from tree or automobile 
accidents and so on. They are naturally regarded as bad deaths. This is why Achebe (1958) noted 
that “when a man was afflicted with swelling, he was not allowed to die in the house. He was 
carried to the evil forest and left there to die” (p. 18).

Whatever is being thought about death in the pristine time by the Africans, is changing fast, this is 
seen in the burial rites being conducted by the Africans in their different traditions, sequel to these 
changes, it shows that the notion of death is fast changing in the African worldview. Even the 
mythology of death in different African traditions clearly shows that events of death or its notions 
can change judging from the stories behind them. So, these changes may be necessitated by the 
fact that some concepts especially the ones relating to metaphysical issues have not been 

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analyzed, compared, or threatened by other higher concepts from other world views relating to 
the same issue. This is the reason why Oguejiofor (1996) notes that societies that encounter no 
intellectual threat to their religious beliefs hardly resort to philosophical or metaphysical 
arguments to prove their assumptions and beliefs. In the same way, a general cursory look shows 
that the concept of death in the African worldview has not been debated, analyzed, compared, or 
threatened by any superior arguments or notions towards its earlier assumptions or beliefs. But 
recently it has been challenged especially now that the majority of worldviews are being 
influenced and challenged by technological advancement or globalization in general. What is 
common among African scholars about the concept of death is continuous affirming of the earlier 
notion of death which is common to most Africans.  

One of the earlier notions of the death in African worldview is that most deaths are caused by one 
thing or the other, either by bad people or by the bad spirits or belief that the person has committed 
or breached natural law or moral law against the land/gods thereby disrupting the cosmic balance 
in nature. Hence the gods strike the person for having offended or disrupted the peaceful balance 
in the land of the dead and the land of the living. So, no death is ordinary in itself, it must have been 
caused by something else and that is why most of Africans go to diviners to know the cause of the 
death in a family or in a village where many people died at the same time. This is sometimes done 
to prevent another death from occurring again in the same family or the same village. However, 
the death of people who died in ripe old age is celebrated because it is believed that they have 
joined their ancestors but those who died younger, of abominable diseases, or struck by thunder as 
the case may be are regarded as a curse which resulted in death. Whatever be the cause of the 
death, God in the case of old people, or an evil agency in the case of the unexpected death of a 
young person, death is conceived of as ultimately part of the harmony of nature (Anyanwu, 1981).   

So, among other things, this write-up seeks to x-ray the change of attitudes towards death by 
Africans, and how the influence of other religious traditions concerning death affected the 
understanding of death today in Africa. Fortunately, this understanding again reshapes the 
African mentality of death in most places, this is seen in most ritual and burial rites being carried 
out before, during, and after the death of an individual. For example, some clerics in the Eastern 
part of Nigeria tried to control the wastage in funeral being experienced in burial ceremonies 
which Ejiofor (2002) regarded as funeral pomp, by reducing the cost of burial ceremonies 
stressing the fact that too much spending on the burial ceremony does not show that the person has 
joined his ancestor or that the burial went well. Sequel to the above, burial law is being enacted in 
some states to reduce and guide the process of funeral rites for the dead. Hence the issue of 
befitting burial is declining among the people in the Eastern part of Nigeria, thereby upholding 
the befitting living among the people. This has led to the celebration of life rather than death 
among the people of Africa. 

The Notion of Death: African Perspective

The African people like other people in other continents of the world, fear or dread the occurrence 
of death at any time, and the causes of death are normally searched for especially when the 
explanation is not visible to members of the family, even when it is visible the intension behind it, 
is sought by the living members of the family. The Western culture hence turns to the process of 
autopsy to find out the real cause of death around human beings especially when the cause of 
death cannot be established easily. A good example of such was the recent pandemic disease 
called Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) which affected the whole world, and where millions of 
people were dead, its cause has to be established and measures are taken to curb it. Africans in the 

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time of their forefathers engaged in divination even when the cause of the death was sensible to 
the eyes or an autopsy had been carried out. The Africans still seek the metaphysical or internal 
cause of death because no death is ordinary or happens by chance, for Africans recognized the 
existence of secret forces (invisible forces) acting or ready to act in the universe like ancestors, 
divinities, or God Himself (Anyanwu, 1984).  Even most myths of death in the African 
worldview show that death is not ordinary or it is a direct consequence of one thing or the other. 
The notion of death may differ among Africans just like the myths of death in Africa differ, but 
death generally remains inevitable and natural (Mbiti, 1969). 

In all cultures of the world, death is believed to be an inevitable end; Kanu (2015) states that it has 
become a mystery to human beings and since it is shrouded in mystery, its knowledge and 
eradication remain a mirage. Hence it is an enigma, though Africans see it as a transition into the 
world of their ancestors. So, in the face of death, we are defenceless and weak, because life 
belongs to God which is the highest gift to human beings. Mbefo (2001) beautifully described the 
defenceless of man before death in his description of the Igbo attitude to death thus: 

Death is seen as the end of all ambition; the Onwudinjo. Every effort must be deployed to 
stave it off or, at least delay its inevitability. This can be done through prayers, Onwubiko 
or through suspension, Onwuteaka. Death has no fear, Onwuatuegwu, not even of a whole 
town, as evident in times of pest, Onwuasomba. It is no respecter of persons or of rank; it is 
the leveler, Onwuasoanya. Experience shows that every Igbo dies, Onwuzuruigbo 
because not even their best medicine men had even halted its advance, Onwukadibia. Not 
even the might of the brave had survived its attack, Onwukadike. To understand it 
surpasses the power of reason, Onwudiegwu, and its fury is simply implacable, 
Onwudiwe. It has always claimed the victory, Onwuemelie. (p. 37).

From the above, the author describes the view of Igbo people about death. This is also described 
from different points of view from different cultures in Africa. This is the reason why Ezenweke 
(2012) is of the view that death takes a glaring place in the socio-religious life of the African 
people. It is the end of a physical and less important part of man which is the physical body. So, 
death is perceived as the beginning of communication between the visible and the invisible 
worlds. The goal of life for Africans is to become an ancestor after death. This is why good deaths 
must be accompanied by proper burials with religious ceremonies. If this is not done, the dead 
person may become a wandering ghost, unable to be with his/her ancestors after his/her death, 
and therefore a danger to those who remain alive. This is the belief of the Africans about death. In 
the same vein, Mbiti (1969) avered that:

 It is clear that people view death paradoxically, it is separation but not annihilation, the 
dead person is suddenly cut off from the human society, and yet the corporate group clings 
to him. This is shown through the elaborate funeral rites, as well as other methods of 
keeping in contact with the departed. (p. 159).  

However, Mbiti observed that the majority of African people do not believe in judgment after 
death and as such do not expect any form of reward in the hereafter unlike the Christian religion 
whose reward is in heaven. Though Idowu (1962) refers to Yoruba as one of the few exceptions to 
this issue of reward after death. The Yoruba according to Idowu believe that “all we do on earth, 
we shall account for kneeling in heaven… and we shall state our case at the feet of God” (p.199). 
But Mbiti (1969) insisted that we have no concrete evidence of the hereafter being pictured in 
terms of punishment or reward. For the majority of the African people the hereafter is only a 
continuation of life more or less as it is in its human form. The above view is in line with 
Onwubiko (1991) that most African people believe that punishment due to the life lived on earth 

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is received in this world, so also is the reward. For him, this is why the religion of many African 
communities is world-affirming. 

The African concept of death and its meaning can also be seen or understood from funeral 
ceremonies done during the burial of any dead person, though not everybody is given a full burial 
or befitting burial. According to Onwubiko (1991) funeral ceremonies in Africa are elaborate and 
highly expensive and are relatively celebrated according to the status of the dead person. The 
basic characteristic of all funeral ceremonies in Africa is that they are believed to determine the 
place the dead person would enjoy in the spirit world and hope of reincarnation. The dead who do 
not receive these ceremonies are believed to be in a state of unrest and they wander about 
disturbing the living beings. Bosah (cited by Onwubiko, 1991) states that the period between a 
person's death and funeral ceremonies is called in most communities of Africa a period of “ita 
Okazi” the eating of raw okazi leaves. Okazi is a festive vegetable used during some festivals, the 
enraged ancestors are believed to be waiting for their relatives beside the leaves of okazi who 
want to enjoy and celebrate without first giving them a befitting burial. Even Nzekwu (1971) 
explained that the dead yet to take their places in the spirit world are sleeping and hiding under the 
okazi shrub, and that their relatives must liberate and send them home. 

However, the notion of death differs greatly among the African people judging from what plays 
on during the burial and rituals performed for the dead whether he is rich or poor while he/she was 
alive. Often some animals are symbolically and ritually killed with the hope that they will 
influence the state of the dead man. Again, the implements of the dead person referring to his 
profession are burial with him/her with the hope that he/she may need them in the spirit land and 
may come back with them in his/her reincarnated life. The case of Unoka in “Things Fall Apart” 
who according to the condition of his death was not given a proper burial or given no funeral at all, 
for Achebe (1958) relates that when they carried him away, he took with him his flute. This 
explains further why kings and priests are buried with slaves so that these will continue to run 
errands for them in the spirit world. Quarcoopome (1987) also stated that: 

For this reason, articles such as clothing, sponges, towels, combs, pomades, and in the 
case of the wealthy or those of royal descent gold trinkets and precious ornaments are put 
into the coffin. In every case small sum of money and treasured possessions are also put 
into the coffin to help the dead on the last stage of the journey to the next world. The 
money is to enable him to cross the river of no return. It is believed that chiefs and lineage 
heads continue to occupy their position of importance after death. As a result, some 
people are killed to accompany and serve them in the afterlife. Some of their wives either 
volunteer to be killed or are forcefully killed to keep the dead chief's company. (p. 127). 

 In fact, the notion of death in Africa is understood more from the rituals about the burial of the 
dead, from the status of a dead person, to the second or final burial. 

Kinds of Death

The notion of death in Africa can also be understood clearly from the way the Africans clarify 
deaths. For some authors, different kinds of deaths speak volumes of how the Africans perceive 
death hence their attitude to it through their rituals and ceremonies. Africans believe most times 
that evil person or evil spirit is always behind most of the deaths that happen in Africa, hence 
divination is always sought to determine the real cause of any death. From the above reasons one 
finds out why many scholars believe that there are three kinds of deaths in Africa, like Metuh 
(1981), Okafor (1996), Kanu (2015), Muonwe (2021), and many others. They all divide death in 

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Africa into three kinds namely: devil's death or violent death, bad/shameful death, and natural or 
good death. But most scholars still divide it more, like some scholars classify the deaths of 
Ogbanje as another kind of death different from the above three kinds of deaths. Some people 
refer to the death of Ogbanje as a violent death because he/she died before his/her time but 
another condition that qualifies as a violent death to be so is that the person may die in a violent 
automobile accident, or killed for stealing or falling from the tree and so on. But Ogbanje children 
do not often die this way, they die more through sickness. However, it seems that one must die 
through any of these kinds of deaths but the natural death is highly preferred by African people 
(Metuh, 1981).

Violent Death or Devil's Death 

This is the death of any young person or aged person when the person suddenly dies violently 
without any just cause. Most scholars classify violent death as woeful because of its nature 
especially when it affects the young as they have not accomplished the full course of their lives. 
Here he/she has not achieved his/her destiny. But what defines this type of death is the fact that 
someone dies suddenly and violently irrespective of his/her age, unlike natural death among other 
conditions is to die peacefully or pass away peacefully that is what is regarded as going home. But 
for violent death, he/she is believed to have been snatched away by the evil spirit and he continues 
to wander about until he comes back in the next life to complete his/her term of life. There is a 
ritual for sending them away so that they will not come back again in that form or purpose. They 
are believed to bring misfortune to the parents and the living. If the evil spirit is the cause of the 
death, Chukwuelobe (1998) states that some remedies are prescribed to prevent such recurrence. 
The remedies like offering of bleak sacrifices in which discarded, old, and useless items are used 
to show the spirit that humans are unhappy. 

Bad/Shameful Death 

In the olden days, bad or shameful deaths according to Kanu (2015) are those who died of leprosy, 
smallpox, cholera, swollen stomach, or killed by an anti-wickedness deity like Amadioha through 
lightning. Such people are not given full funeral rites of the dead because there is no happiness 
accompanying such deaths. Again those who committed suicide are regarded as those who died a 
bad death even when they are old, no one is allowed to cry for the person who committed suicide, 
cooking and drinking of any kind are not done rather the priest is called by the family of the 
deceased to perform cleansing sacrifices so that the evil will not happen again and that the family 
will not be affected in one way or the other. Hence it is seen in Africa as an abomination and sin 
against the earth goddess for the land has been desecrated. 

Achebe (1958) succinctly showed how one who committed suicide is treated at his/her death, in 
the life of Okonkwo the great warrior and wrestler of Umuofia in his days, Achebe recorded the 
conversation between Obierika the friend of Okonkwo, and the District Commissioner as thus:

Then they came to the tree from which Okonkwo's body was dangling and they 
stopped…. “Perhaps your men can help us bring him down and bury him,” said Obierika. 
We have sent for strangers from another village to do it for us, but they may be a long time 
coming “Why can't you take him down yourselves?” he asked. “it is against our custom,” 
said one of the men. It is an abomination for a man to take his own life. It is an offense 
against the earth, and a man who commits suicide will not be buried by his clansmen. That 
is why we ask your people to bring him down because you are strangers…. Oberika turned 

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suddenly to the District Commissioner and said ferociously: that man was one of the 
greatest men in Umuofia. You drove him to kill himself, and now he will be buried like a 
dog. (pp. 207-208). 

Bad death like suicide death is highly abhorred in every culture in Africa and the process of burial 
differs from place to place, this shows that suicide is not an option in Africa. However, in recent 
days most communities have tried to bury the person because of the understanding that suicide 
death may be out of neglect of care by the family or community to the individual concerned.  

Natural or Good Death

Many believed that natural death was a blessing from God. As Metuh (1981) stated that it is the 
subject of constant prayer for Africans in most of their prayers to die a good death in old age. 
Though it is not a condition for admittance into the company of ancestors in the spirit land which 
is the hope of the traditional Africans but in one sense it shows that the person is already blessed 
by the gods for giving him a long life while he was in the world of men. Here proper burial and 
funeral rites are accorded to the deceased person by the family and relatives, and natural death is 
seen as going home and not actually dead because the person fulfilled all his/her intentions and 
destiny while on earth. Again, the rites of passage of death and funeral rites are performed amidst 
eating, drinking, and other merriments. Achebe (1958) has a good example of the celebration of a 
good death in some traditions in Africa. He reported that when Ezeudu died the people of 
Umuofia celebrated his death with lots of food and other merriments. At the funeral, there were 
gun salutes, the beating of drums, and the clanging of machetes. And various types of 
masquerades came to perform to pay their last respect to the dead. 

Death, Burial and Funeral Rites in the Pristine Age of Africans 

It will be a good idea to look into the past to see how burial and funeral rites were done by early 
traditional Africans and compare it with the practices being done today. This will give a good 
conception of death in the African worldview as of today. Of course, one will find out that many 
things have changed a lot for good. Ideally, to understand the conception of death in Africa one 
has to view or study the burial and the funeral rites in African tradition. This exposes to a great 
extent the hidden meanings and traditions attached to death in general. 

According to Basden (1966), women attend to the corpse as soon as one dies depending on the 
tradition of the place concerned, like in the Igbo tribe of Nigeria in West Africa, the corpse is 
washed and stained all over with “ufie” (camwood). In some districts, especially the riverine 
areas where gin is a regular commodity the corpse is sprinkled with the liquor. The body is clothed 
in the finest garment from the deceased wardrobe and placed in a sitting position in the case of a 
man, but this position lasts for a few hours, and friends and relatives available will come to pay 
their last respects to the dead. The women are normally laid flat on the ground but not in all places, 
for some communities also place the woman in sitting position. When the time has elapsed for this 
sitting position, the young men put the corpse in grass mats and carry it to the burial ground or 
his/her grave and bury the corpse. This is for a normal death and its burial. 

But there are exceptions to the above, which are governed by considerations of birth, rank in the 
society, and the cause of the death. For example, in the case of a slave scanty attention and no 
unnecessary expenses are incurred in carrying out his/her burial rites. No one is accused nor 
diviner consulted because he/she will still retain the position of slave in the land of the dead. For 
free-born, the best possible arrangements must be made. The bodies of dead lepers and smallpox 

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are hurriedly thrown away in the big forest even before they are dead in some cases. This means 
that their deaths are not regarded as anything, in fact, they are seen as abominations. And those 
dying as a result of accidents, during childbirth, lunatics, and those being murdered, drowned, or 
burned are considered as having come to their untimely ends by the instrumentality of the devil. 
They are buried without delay. 

Generally, burial follows within twenty-four hours of death, though not in all cases, because for 
men of high rank, arrangements are made corresponding to their rank. The announcement of the 
death of the king takes almost one year or more depending on the tradition of the place in Africa. 
The underlying idea is that the throne is never vacant for the king is always greeted with long live 
king. In the case of a woman or daughter married to another town, she is brought back to her 
original home for burial except if she has grown-up children, they will bury their mother in her 
own house. It is always the desire of the Africans to die in their locality. In the case of death 
occurring at a distant place, the brethren will bring the body home for burial at all costs. Some 
days of mourning are maintained depending on the tradition of the place. Normally the husband 
or the wife would restrict himself/herself for 28 days or more with shaving of heads as a symbol of 
grief and bereavement. During these days, friends, in-laws, and relatives visit the house with 
singing and dancing, drum beating, and consumption of food, gin, and palm wine. These in a bit 
are done to distract the attention of the bereaved one from the thought of his/her loss and as 
tradition requires. 

The second burial is a day fixed for the festival though this is not done in most places in Africa as 
of today. This is always costly, according to Basden (1966) heavy debts are incurred in the desire 
to give the best possible send-off to a dead one. In most traditions, the second burial of a chief, it 
was a custom to put to death one or more slaves to provide attendant spirits to accompany the 
chief into the great beyond. For the chief or king must not enter the spirit world unaccompanied 
by a retinue. He must have his messengers and personal servants and slaves to attend to his needs. 
After the second burial, the departed spirit finds a home in the land of the ancestors. There are 
other minor and major ceremonies being performed before, during, and after the burial of an aged 
person. 

The Factors that Influenced the Changing Conception of Death in Africa  

The changing nature of culture shows its strength and stability when influenced by factors that 
either threaten its existence or modify its continuous existence. With the passage of time, the 
conception of death in the traditional African setting began to change from its original conception 
to a situation whereby death is seen as part of life in the African setting. The revival of African 
culture also affects the conception of death in Africa today. Some other factors killed or removed 
entirely some notions of death as the Africans used to have it or think about it in the pristine ages. 

Many factors have influenced the conception of death as it is been conceived today in Africa other 
than the way it was seen from the earliest times. This modern conception also affected how death 
is celebrated from burial rituals to social celebrations. However, some burial rituals and some 
social celebrations are strengthened while some are jettisoned or while some are modified for the 
convenience of people and for the health of the people. Throwing the dead bodies into the bush 
openly constituted a great health hazard to the community or people in general, so with the 
influence of modernism dead bodies are buried in the grave properly, even the criminals or 
robbers who are killed while in the process of robbery activities are also buried in the grave. The 
tradition of keeping the corpse overnight with the people also has been a thing of the past in most 
of the African communities.

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Among the influences that modified the conception of death in Africa was the emergence or 
coming of Christianity and Islamic religions that came into the culture of African people with 
their missionaries. The Christian missionaries in the first place gathered all the people who were 
regarded as having died of bad deaths or with bad diseases who had been thrown into the bush for 
proper burial and curing for their diseases as the case may be. Some they buried properly and 
those with some bad illness like smallpox, or swollen stomach were treated to become healthy 
again, In this way they taught the Africans that it is not bad to be ill or suffer from such diseases 
which Africans regarded as abomination and that some illness can be treated rather than seeing 
them as punishment from the gods. With this, the death of young people is no longer regarded as a 
great calamity or abomination, and proper burial is given to them as loved members of the family 
rather than burying them hurriedly as if they are nobody. 

The burial ceremonies in most places or communities take about weeks or more according to 
tradition of the place in the early times of the African people, efforts have been made to reduce the 
number of days the burial ceremonies take place in many places. The great pandemic that 
enveloped the whole world recently in the form of Coronavirus (COVID-19) equally fastened the 
burial ceremonies across the world. Even though these days people are going back to the funeral 
pomp that was rejected in the past. People are now going for fitting burials instead of befitting 
living, Ejiofor (1984) stated that the fitting burial involved a lot of ceremonies and spending in the 
case of the well-to-do. Cows and goats are killed and gifts of assorted types are given out to people 
who attended the burial, this of course comes with a lot of eating and drinking for the whole days 
of burial ceremonies. 

Normally the bodies of the dead person are not kept more than twenty-four hours in the olden days 
before it is buried. But these days the dead bodies are preserved through many means in order to 
prepare for the burial of the dead person, this may reach up to three or four months some even one 
year where there is a crisis in the family or the dead body ceased by the government officials for 
one reason or the other. In the case of royal deaths, the bodies of the chiefs or kings were 
mummified, and kept for a long time until appropriate arrangements for the burial were 
completed (Ejiofor, 1984). This makes death in modern times not to be a source of sorrow but an 
opportunity to show off wealth acquired by families or individuals, and conspicuous 
consumption after which the family or the individual concerned goes bankrupt.  

 The burial of kings and chiefs which required human heads or the burying of slaves alive was 
normally a practice in the earlier times because the Africans believed that their kings must be 
accompanied to the spirit world for their errands and other needs. But these days or modern times 
a lot has changed towards such obnoxious notions. No one is treated as a slave nor buried alive in 
the grave of any king. Hunting of human heads or selling of people as a slave is seen as an 
abomination. In place of this, the body of the dead is richly dressed, no matter his/her rank, he/she 
is buried amidst booms of cannons, firing guns in the air, delivering of funeral orations, laying of 
gardens of wreaths with many people around the family. Though this is lavishly done but it is 
better than killing of another human being in the name of burial traditions as practiced in the 
earlier times.  

Bad deaths viewed from the earliest conception of death from African worldview by Africans, is 
no more seen as such, rather all deaths are mostly seen as God's intention to call one through one 
means or the other. However, this belief does not in any way debar the Africans from consulting 
the diviners to seek the cause of some deaths that they could not understand its source. The recent 
COVID-19 pandemic and a magnitude of 7.8 earthquakes in Turkey near the northern border of 
Syria on February 6, 2023, where many lives were lost may be regarded as bad deaths because 

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many lives were wasted in a twinkle of an eye, but the Africans in the olden days will still look for 
spiritual connotations of such deaths because cosmological balance has been breached by the 
living. Even in the death of little children, they are buried and funeral rites done as for the grown-
up people, they are no more thrown away or seen as bad omen or sometimes as ogbanje which was 
obtainable in most parts of Nigeria. One can affirm that the notion of death keeps changing with 
the changing of African world views even as of today. 

Conclusion

One of the negative effects of the changing view of the notion of death among Africans is that 
belief in different notions of death has divided the African families coupled with the fact that the 
modern-day preachers harp on these previous notions of death in Africa to deceive people and 
cause more harm to the families of the African people. While the Africans have tried to balance 
from the changing view or factors that have influenced their notion of death in the previous years, 
the modern-day preachers are trying to drag them back to the pristine conception of death and its 
practices. Another effect of this changing view of the notion of death is that burial ceremonies has 
led to a significant increase in the cost of burial ceremonies. Modern funerals now involve various 
expenses that were not traditionally part of the process such as providing burial attire for a large 
number of relatives and friends, elaborate decorations in the house of the deceased, public 
announcements in the media, accommodating a large number of people invited and those who are 
not invited. Ultimately, this shift in the funeral or burial practices reflects a changing cultural and 
traditional values leading to new and complex expressions of African notion of death in its 
worldview.      

References

Achebe, C. (1958). Things fall apart. London: Heinemann.

Anyanwu, C. (1984). The meaning of ultimate reality in Igbo cultural experience. URAM, 7, 84-1

Anyanwu, K. C. (1981). Totality of origin and destiny: The sacred and the profane. In E. A. 
Ruch& K. C. Anyanwu (Eds.), African philosophy. An introduction to the main 
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ISSN: 2786-9792


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