A Gambian Funeral

This past week I had the unfortunate experience of a death in my compound. Mama was the oldest woman in the compound. She was such a sweet woman. She was always eager to have anyone come sit and chat with her. And she often had the children around with her. She never did much besides sit or lie on the front porch of her house and enjoy the company of anyone who was around. But she had apparently been sick for a few days and on Thursday she ate her lunch in the afternoon and went in to rest and never woke up. They say it was high blood pressure or something of that sort.

When we arrived back at our compound that evening there were many men sitting and praying outside and the women were inside crying and wailing. We went inside and just sat with them for a long time. We woke early on Friday morning to the sound of the women pounding. The women had a lot of work to do to prepare for the funeral. It seemed like the entire village plus the village from where Mama had been married at came to the funeral. Again, the men sat outside conversing and praying while the women would go inside to offer their sympathy and then they also congregated outside. Many of the younger women took turns pounding the rice that would later be used. Here the family and compound has to provide food for everyone who came. So many of the people who attended would come bearing gifts of rice or money to help with that. The service was much like a funeral at home where a few of the men talked about Mama and the things she had done. Then afterwards the men went to the grave site while the women had to stay. There will be days in the next week when people come to be with the family.

It’s hard to know all the correct things to do in situations like this after being here only 2 months. I wish I could express my feelings of compassion to them in a way they would understand.