Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

Burial rite is one of the things the living owe the dead. Every culture and religion has their way or their own mode of operation as it concerns burial. Christianity, Islam, etc. have their own modes so also African Traditional Religion. Most people especially Christians have gone a long way in misunderstanding the way African Traditional Religion does its own burial. Some made allusions that it is expensive, some say that there are some rituals they perform that are not important. On this work, the researcher tried to juxtapose the Christian burial and that of the African Traditional Religion. It was discovered that the aim of burial rites both in Christianity and African Traditional Religion are the same. It was also discovered that African Traditional Religion has its own way of according respect to the dead which they believe that the ritual would accompany the dead to the land of their ancestors. For the African Traditional Religion, there is no problem with what they do. They now advice Christians to focus more on the aim of the burial rites that it would be of immense benefit to them. The paper made use of Socio-Cultural analysis it its approach.

Open Full Text (PDF)