| Mama Charity“This is Africa” were the words from Mama Charity more than once during our call with her on August 5, 2021. She had recently been very ill and we were worried about her when we could not reach her by phone or text. She had been away in Accra, Ghana, the capital City of Ghana and did not have her phone with her. The sickness was a relapse of malaria. She had been treated initially a few months ago. She is well now after additional treatment.Mama Charity is the eldest child in her family and as there are only girls, no brothers in her family, she is considered responsible when things that need attention happen within the family. A few weeks ago, her younger sister died unexpectedly. Her sister had been living in Ghana taking care of their 90-year-old mother and now that she has passed away, a new plan needed to be made and funeral arrangements needed to be set. We knew a bit about how deaths are treated in Togo because Lucille had stayed with a family there years ago, when they had a death in their family. However, I’d like to share with you Mama Charity’s story and how there is a clash between tradition and what Mama Charity thinks makes sense today. Tradition says as the oldest child it is Mama Charity’s responsibility to follow tradition in the death of her sister. This means the funeral arrangements are set for 6 weeks or so in the future from the time of death. During this time, the body stays in the morgue with a daily fee for the morgue to keep the body. Everything costs money, the church, the graveyard, feeding the 500 or so people who attend the services. Prior to the actual funeral, large posters are printed and put up at the home, in the windows of their vehicles, gates and all major intersections or junctions announcing the death and the funeral. The extended family and community, whether they knew the dead person or not, enjoy going to the home to receive food and drink and dance to celebrate life. This is why there might be 500 people for whom to provide food and drink. The family, for an extended period of time before the funeral all wear suits or dresses, created from the same fabric, every day. For Mama Charity’s family, they have chosen to all dress in black with a touch of red accent color perhaps in their headpiece. |
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| Her sister lived in Accra, the capital of Ghana, a highly populated city where there is precious little room for graveyards. Purchasing a gravesite is expensive – about 1000 euros. The body is buried and one can purchase a marker to mark the gravesite. Her sister stays alone in the gravesite for up to 2 years for the 1000 euros that are paid. After that, other bodies may be buried in the same grave. This is not like a family plot, simply, someone else who needs to be buried. A family plot can be purchased for several family members; it is prohibitively expensive. Also a family can purchase a gravesite for the deceased member for additional years but that costs a lot of extra money depending on how many years you purchase. |
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| In the last newsletter, I called Mama Charity an “indomitable spirit”. Despite the last month of travel to Ghana and making all the arrangements for the upcoming funeral which was on August 14, when the church was available, Mama Charity is still planning to open the primary school she has been building for classes to begin September 20. She has delegated others to complete the work on the water tank, that will be plumbed to the toilets she built and others are now opening the school for the local community to come visit and learn about the new school, the cost of school supplies and the teaching that will occur. She and her staff need to cross the closed border from Lomé, Togo to Ghana where the school is located. She pays the Togo and Ghana immigration officials, for permits to allow her and her staff to cross the border.The land Mama Charity recently purchased in Togo for the Agrifarm, cannot be planted yet as the previous owner had planted crops and these must be harvested at the end of this year before Mama Charity can begin her own planting or doing anything at all on the land. Her plans are to plant things like Yams at the beginning of 2022 and wait for the rainy season to start in April to do more. First things first, she needs to bury her sister. |
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| What we noticed in our call was how strongly Mama Charity felt about the traditional way of death celebrations making no sense. Mama Charity runs an orphanage for 99 children. She sees children who are hungry and need food, shelter and education go in need while money is spent on someone who has passed already. In her own family, she is faced with the pressures to do things the traditional way. Seeing how strongly she feels about this, we can see the changing of culture and traditions right before our eyes. Raising these children, we know they will be shown another path and slowly the old traditions will be infused with a new consciousness: invest less in death and more in creating thriving communities. |
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