The dead never die: An African traditional religious perspective

Abstract

This paper, therefore, analyses the concept of death, its meaning and significance, philosophy, cultural, and social aspects from an African perspective. The study applied narrative theory in order to make sense to the readers. For this matter, the object of study is the story itself. It focuses on how people or groups make logic of events and actions in their lives. This narrative theory addresses the vagueness, complexity and dynamism of a people, group or individuals. In the African Traditional Religion worldview, the narrative theory is used to tell the story of a particular group or culture.  The author establishes that Africans still value death and life after it in the sphere of ancestry and that there is a close association between the living and the dead; hence the concept of ‘the dead never die’. Further, it was found that the African social and communal being has affected the relationship between the living and the ‘living dead’. Notably, death is treated with a lot of seriousness because Africans ‘never die’; instead, the living connects with the living dead for as long as they remember him. The living dead thus become a source of blessing or curse to the family according to how he lived and how he was buried.