Strange things we do in Africa in the name of "It's Our Culture
1. We care more for the dead than we do for the living!
2. We spend more to bury a person than we do to save their life.
3. We will not travel to go see a sick relative but will travel to bury him and/or her
4. People will rarely respect you while alive but will want to "pay their last respects" to your casket.
5. A person may NEVER receive roses in their entire life but they will get lots dumped on their graveyard!
6. We will spend a night at a neighbour's funeral and it will be our first time to see the inside of their house!
7. No one gives a damn to know your village until you die and they will all fill car after car to "escort" your corpse to the same village
8. We will take the dead to the mosque/temple/church knowing fully well they had nothing to do with worship while alive.
9. We might not have granite tops in our kitchens but use the granite in the graveyard!
10. An entire village might not have a single house with cement floors but the only place with cement will be a graveyard!
We say how dear a person was to us after he died. When he is alive we do not tell him.
It is proposed we have "Cultural Reforms". We have a culture of "hypocrisy"... a culture that is "Pro-death" and NOT "Pro-life!"
We need to value life BEFORE death.
Please love me while I am alive, show me your kindness now that I need it, your presence at my funeral will never make up for your absence when I have the greatest need of you. Do it now for me to enjoy.
This is very sad... and to a lesser degree is true within other cultures also.
Would I be close to the mark in guessing that the reason why Africans care for the dead is due to a sense of superstition (trying to gain favor or avert wrath)?
That's true
Welcome @epheezy2, always good to meet new Steemians.