Culture and Religious Change

Culture and Religious Change: A study of the Mortuary Rituals of the Kom People of the North West Region.

By Maroria Dominic Nyachoti.

Outline • • • • • • • • • • •

1. Introduction Hypotheses Research Questions Objectives 2. Methodology Data Collection Data Analysis and Validity Considerations Challenges 3. Definition of Central Concepts and Review of Literature Mortuary /Burial Rites Religion – Theories of the Origin of Religion: Evolutionary, Psychological and sociological

• Mythology • Rituals and Ceremonies • Culture Change – Diffusion – Acculturation • • • • •

The Zulu of South Africa The Luo of Kenya Burials in the Cameroon Grassfields Burial Rites among the Kom People The Contribution of this Study

• 4. The Cultural Context of the Kom People – Origins, Migrations and Settlement Patterns – Family Structure – Social Stratification – Economic Life – Education – Political Power – Worldview

• 5. Burial Rituals among the Kom People – History – Burial Rites – Mortuary Rites and Social Change • • • • •

Mortuary Rites and the environment Mortuary Rites and Education Mortuary Rituals and Religious Beliefs Mortuary Rites and Social Stratification Mortuary Rites and the Family

• 6. Similarities and Differences between the Rituals • 7. An Integrating Burial Rite – Cleansing Rites – Sacrificial and Offering Rites – Rites at the Grave – Post-Burial Accompaniment

• Conclusion • Photographs

Introduction • This thesis deals with culture and religious change under the Anthropology of Religion, a sub-field of cultural anthropology.

• It focuses on the mortuary/burial rites of the Kom ethnic community in the North West Region of Cameroon and the impact the Christian activities of the Roman Catholic Church had on them.

• This topic was chosen out of a lived experience of a section of the Kom people’s response to directives by the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Bamenda, that require burial of Roman Catholic Christians in Church cemeteries [Verdzekov 1998]. The villages of the Ilung area chosen for this thesis have not witnessed a church cemetery burial since the introduction of Roman Catholic Christianity in 1913. Conflicts have arisen whenever choices are made for burial in Church cemeteries or on observance of the burial rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. What is new or different in the mortuary rituals of the Roman Catholic Church that has impacted the Kom people’s burial rituals? What are the underlying belief systems or worldviews?

Map of Cameroon showing Komland[ Nkwi Walter 2013]

Map of Komland and its Villages [Nkwi Walter 2013]

Hypotheses • Since the advent of Christianity among the Kom people, changes have occurred in their burial rites. • The advent of Christianity has impacted the burial rituals of the Kom people.

Research Questions • The major research question asked is whether Christianity has impacted the burial rituals of the Kom people. The question seeks to trace changes brought about in the burial rituals of the Kom people through the advent of the Roman Catholic Christianity. To address this question, a research design was devised to address the following subsidiary questions: • 1. What is the cultural context within which the burial rituals of the Kom people are cast?

• 2. What are the burial rituals of the Kom people?

• 3. What changes or impact did the Roman Catholic Christianity have on the burial rituals of the Kom people?

• 4. What rites could integrate the Roman Catholic burial rituals and those of the Kom people?

Objectives • The study aimed at achieving the following objectives: • 1. To understand the cultural context of the Kom people in order to better comprehend their burial rituals.

• 2. To describe and understand the historical and contemporary burial rituals of the Kom people.

• 3. To describe and understand the burial rituals of the Roman Catholic Church and how they are similar or different in comparison with the burial rituals of the Kom people.

• 4. To propose a burial ritual that integrates elements of similarities and differences between the burial rituals of the Kom people and those of the Roman Catholic Church.

Methodology • The research design considered the questions and objectives of the thesis. In designing the methodology for the research, the following questions were asked: • 1. How do we collect data on the culture of the Kom people? The guiding areas of interest on culture were the geographical location of the Kom people, their origins, migrations , settlement patterns, ownership of land, family system, architecture, social stratification, socialization, economic and political life, and the religious worldview. • 2. How do we collect data on the actual burial rituals of the Kom people? Here, focus was on discovering what is done at the moment of approaching death, at death, at burial and after burial. The historical evolution of the burial rituals of the Kom people was to be traced before and after contact with Christianity. The changes brought in by Christianity and other changes on the mortuary rites of the Kom people linked with the environment, education, religious beliefs, social stratification and the family were to be looked into.

• 3. How do we identify major similarities and differences between the Roman Catholic burial rituals and those of the Kom people? This question demanded information on the actual burial rituals of the Roman Catholic Church and their meaning. Major points of similarities and differences could then be identified from the practices and the underlying meanings for the Kom burial rites and those of the Roman Catholic Church. • 4. From the similarities and differences, could there be an integrating ritual ? The concern here was to see what practices and meanings could be harmonized in the process of give and take, which often occurs in culture change.

Data Collection • The methodology adopted was qualitative through the anthropological techniques of field work.

• The techniques for collecting primary data were: participant observation, unobtrusive observation, structured and unstructured interviews with informants.

• Secondary sources of information came from some historical documents and literature by other researchers who have had an interest on the culture of the Kom people.

• The villages of Ilung area in Komland were chosen as a sample through which the burial practices of the Kom people and their response to the interventions of the Roman Catholic burial rituals especially the precept of burial in church cemeteries could be measured and the underlying reasons uncovered. A census of the population at Ilung was taken to show the total population, the Roman Catholics, the school attendants and the preferences for burial places.

• This research selected the villages of Ilung area which are: Bolem, Luh, Aduk, Mboh, Ilung, Yuwih and Inyoh. Ilung is a rural area of Komland situated towards the northern boundary. The area was chosen because of the lack of burials in the Church cemeteries despite the presence of Roman Catholic Christians and Churches in each of the villages with land for burials. The researcher wanted to find out what accounts for such a response in the Ilung area of Komland as compared to the response of cemetery burials at Njinikom area, which had registered quite a number of burials in the Roman Catholic cemetery. A census of the whole population at Ilung area was conducted by the researcher in January 2016 and the percentage of Roman Catholics shown as follows:

• The total population was 5702: males 2437, females 3265. • The research found out that Roman Catholics in the area of study formed 18% of the population. Among the 70 Roman Catholics interviewed from the different villages of the study area, 43 % preferred burial in family compounds, 33% in church cemeteries and 24% were neutral. A majority preferred church burial for the priests or catechists and strangers. Opinions sought from students on whether changes especially those related with Christianity were preferable in contrast with the traditional burial rites gave 62% for changes and 44% for not changing. With these mixed responses, there was a need to find out why among the Roman Catholics there was no practical response in the villages towards burials in the church cemeteries despite the desire expressed by some and the law of their Church. This attitude necessitated a research on the culture of the Kom people especially their social organization and religious worldview.

Data Analysis and validity considerations • Bernard [1988:317] presents the two meanings of the word “analysisâ€?. Firstly, it refers to descriptive analysis which involves the making of complicated things understandable by reducing them to their component parts. Secondly, analysis also means creating a theory through the ability to make complicated things understandable by showing how their component parts fit together according to some rules. Both descriptive analysis and theory formulation require the researcher to systematically look for patterns in recorded observations and formulate ideas accounting for those patterns [1988:317]. Qualitative analysis, which was undertaken by this research, focused on the search for patterns in data and for ideas that could help explain the existence of those patterns [1988:319]. The researcher identified the underlying patterns in the information gathered from informants and recorded in field notes, and the observation of activities performed by the people.

• The information gathered from the informants was compared to see if there were some agreements or inconsistencies. More clarification was sought for in the literature of experts who have written about the Kom people’s culture and the history of Roman Catholic Christianity in Komland. Informants were also chosen from outside the study area in order to test for locational influences. Alternative explanations were provided by the comparative unit of analysis [Njinikom] that was chosen primarily because of the greater use of the Roman Catholic Church cemetery. Data on the burial rituals of the Kom people was compared with the burial rituals of the Roman Catholic Church in order to discover similarities and differences from which an integrating rite could be proposed.

Challenges • Mortuary rituals are a sensitive aspect of a people’s culture and are often conducted in an atmosphere that may not be conducive for research. The first challenge was on how to get a firsthand experience of the various rituals connected with death on the actual days when those rituals were conducted. Being known in the villages as a Roman Catholic priest, it made it difficult to have a full participant observation experience of the customary rituals as this could raise curiosity and questions concerning the researcher’s motivation. To get around this challenge, the researcher often made use of informants who have had direct experience of the mortuary rituals. The informants’ descriptions were then compared in order to see whether there were agreements or inconsistencies of which the researcher could ask for further clarifications.

• The second challenge was on the choice of informants and the objectivity of their information. This problem was encountered especially on the question of finding out the religious worldview of the Kom people. The changes that have already taken place with the introduction of Christian concepts made it difficult to find what may be called the ‘original’ Kom people’s religious worldview. Many informants were inclined towards a Christian interpretation even if they were not Christians. This challenge made the researcher employ other methods such as language analysis and information gathering from other researchers who have dealt with the same question.

Definition of the Central Concepts/Review of Literature • Mortuary/Burial Rites • According to Chambers English dictionary [1988], the word ‘mortuary’ is connected to death or burial. It is derived from the Latin verb molire [to die]. Its use in this research is to be understood as a synonym of death. A rite is a ceremonial form or observance especially in the religious context.

The use of the word ‘ritual’ is to be taken as the manner of performing a rite.

• Mortuary rites or rituals can be used interchangeably to refer to the ceremonies or observances that are done when a person dies in a particular community. Miller defines rituals as patterned forms of behaviour that are focused on the supernatural [2007:345]. When the focus is on another aspect other than the supernatural, the ritual is not religious but secular. The word ‘ceremony’ is used to refer to the outward form of a rite, which can be religious or not. Mortuary rituals, burial rites or ceremonies are meant to convey the idea of the customary observances that are formal and externally expressed among the Kom people. The anthropological understanding of rituals and ceremonies will be given in the context of literature review.

• Religion • The word ‘religion’ can be understood differently in different contexts. Omoregbe [1993:2-3] gives an etymological analysis of the word religion. It has three Latin words at its root, namely, Ligare, relegere and religio which refer to bind, unite or link, and relationship respectively. Etymologically therefore, religion is essentially a relationship, a link established between the human person and the supernatural. Miller [2007:340] defines religion as beliefs and actions related to supernatural beings and forces. This definition extends the concept of religion to embrace more nonhuman forces such as gods, spirits and other beings. The preferred definition in this research is the one provided by Curry and others [2005:374]. In this definition, religion is taken as a system of beliefs, rituals and ceremonies that focus on sacred matters, promotes community among its followers, and provides for a personal spiritual experience for its members. Burial rituals as seen among the Kom people are considered from the religious perspective.

• World religions refer to religions with many followers that crossed country borders and had a concern with salvation [Miller 2007:351]. Christianity is one of the major religions that have crossed borders often under the umbrella of colonialism. The Christian religion is distinctively based on the belief that a supreme God sent His Son Jesus to earth as a sacrifice for the welfare of humanity and its moral guidance. Within the religion of Christianity, the major branches are Roman Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox, which also have other denominations [2007:357]. This research is concerned primarily with the activities of the Roman Catholic Church in Komland and how its activities affected the mortuary rituals of the Kom people. Further clarifications on rituals and religious theories are given in the literature review.

Theories of the Origin of Religion • Anthropological research has confirmed the presence of religious beliefs and practices in all known contemporary societies and hence attests to the universality of religion [Ember & others 2007:462]. Archaeological discoveries of graves with remains of food, tools and other objects probably thought to have been needed in the afterlife, give suggestive evidence that prehistoric ancestors had a religion. This is of interest to anthropology’s concern of understanding the origins of religion, why it is found in all societies and its variation from one society to the other.

The evolutionary, psychological and sociological theories of religion will be looked at in accounting for the origin of religion or why people need a religion.

Evolutionary Theories • It is interesting to note that some of the earliest evidence of religious thought is based on the ritual treatment of the dead. This is an incentive to the importance death rituals have in a community as an expression of a cultural religious worldview. Tracing ritual burials is also important in representing a significant change in human behaviour which helps cultural anthropologists discover important moments in the evolution of a human culture. Homo neanderthalensis, a prehistoric human species which lived in Europe some 200,000- 28,000 BCE years ago is reckoned to give some of the very first evidence of earliest humans to burying the dead [Ian 2008].

This is due to the abundance of fossils taken from excavations in the cave of Neander, West Germany. The presence of pollen in the burial pits, goods and postures of skeletons give the probability of a deliberate act of burial, which could have been influenced by various reasons one of which is religious. Rossano [2007] further attests to the use of symbolism in fossil records as indicative of a mind capable of religious thought where the material representation of the supernatural in art demonstrates the capacity for abstract thought and imagination essential for religious ideas.

Discoveries in Africa of fossils dating 100,000 years ago in the middle stone-age sites for example show a marked use of red ochre, in which the red colour could symbolize life, blood, sex and death [Rossano 2007].

• Organized religion is ascribed to the Neolithic revolution of 11,000 years ago in the Near East. The invention of agriculture during this period transformed societies from a hunter-gathering, nonsedentary lifestyle to a sedentary life with the resultant effects such as population growth, food surplus and technological advancement. There was a kind of evolutionary shift from small foraging bands to larger states and empires, which triggered more specialized forms of religion that reflected new social and political environments. In this developed socio-political environment, organised religion developed to provide social and economic stability through the justification of the existing central authority and its duty to provide social and security services together with the right to exact taxes. Divine authority rulers or theocracies with chiefs, kings and emperors exercised double roles as political and religious leaders. Anthropological studies around the world have found that state societies and chiefdoms justified political power through divine authority [Shermer 2004].

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Cultural evolution intensified with the invention of writing 5000 years ago. Written symbols became words facilitating effective communication of ideas accelerated by the invention of printing over 1000 years ago. One of the first religious text, which marked the beginning of religious history, was the pyramid text of around 2400-2300 BCE in ancient Egypt [Budge 1997:9]. The advantages of writing included the storage of information in sacred texts that helped in the development of coherent and comprehensive doctrinal systems not limited by time and space, and the objectification of ideas that helped in the spread of organised religion. Pre-literate societies lacked this essential objective element brought in by writing, which facilitates the spread of religious ideas over different societies that were previously confined to regional oral traditions.

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Since culture entails symbolic communication of abstract ideas, religious thought exhibited in prehistoric burials point to a concurrent emergence of culture and religion. This discovery will indicate that burial rites as a cultural manifestation of especially religious thought have been present for Homo Sapiens. It also helps to identify the various socio-political changes that helped organise religion and account for its eventual spread, especially in the expansion of major world religions like Christianity. Looking at the socio-political organization of tribal communities and their religious worldview can help reveal how evolutionary agents of change like agriculture and writing have an impact on the religious transformation of society.

Psychological Theories • Psychological theories point at the dynamics of the mind in its apprehension of reality and the emotional attributes it arouses. Edward Tylor, in this regard, considered religion as originating from people’s speculation about dreams, trances and death [Ember & others 2007:462]. Dreams present images of other figures and persons indicating another form of existence, such as the soul. The souls of people during dreams leave the body and appear to other people. In death, the souls leave bodies permanently but continue to appear in the dreams of the living. This gives the impression that the souls of the dead are still around and alive. This intellectual origin of religion is complemented by the emotional account of Freud [1950:142].

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Religion for Freud arose from the guilty feelings of killing a powerful father by the sons who then proceeded to transfer allegiance to totems they created to represent the father and assuage their anxiety and fear. Freud therefore contends that religion is an illusion created by man whose infantile anxiety and fear of the father push him to seek consolation in a powerful projected father. Fear of death and other unexplained phenomena lead to the invention of gods and beliefs, which console man and his coping with anxiety. Malinowski [1944:198] argued that due to anxiety and the uncertainty of events beyond the control of primitive man, religious aspects like magic arise in order to manipulate and control the uncontrollable, and if these aspects work or function to relieve anxiety, their continual usage in society will persist. Religion as an element of culture arises to fulfill humanity’s basic need of safety and certainty. Death, for instance, is a frightening event, which pushes humanity to seek immortality. The creation of religion affirms the conviction that life is not ended, and it offers eternal possibilities through its ceremonies to commemorate and commune with the dead and hence calm the anxiety and uncertainty of death [Ember & others 2007:463].

The psychological elements accounting for religion’s origin have a role to play in understanding the emotional dimensions and employment of rituals in burial practices. Fear of death and the destiny of the dead, evil, illnesses and misfortunes haunt people, but religious rituals and perspectives emotionally comfort humanity.

Sociological Theories • Sociological theories regard religion as the creation of society through its controlling mechanisms for survival and unity.

Durkheim’s analysis of totems among the aboriginal Australians led him to conclude that religion is a social construct [Ember & others 2007:463]. Totems in themselves have no sacred power but are representations of people and their clans. If one totem can be held sacred by one clan and not the other, then the totem has no inherent sacredness but is made sacred by the people attributing their identity to it. Religion arises through the reification of social creations which then become objects of devotion and control. The force of society exerted in the sanctioning of right and wrong conduct, in terms of customs and laws, is appropriated by man as a mysterious force, which then becomes an object of worship. In order to affirm and identify his place in the community, man ends up worshipping society without being aware of it.

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Karl Marx had a special concern on how people relate with their labour in a capitalist society [Calhoun 2002:22]. The owners of the means of production control not only the production of food and manufacturing, but also the ideology which leads to the subordinates holding ideas contrary to their own interests [Hernadi 1989:137]. From this, class antagonism and the control of the means of production and ideology, religion is created by the powerful to act as an opiate for the poor and oppressed in order to prevent an uprising against the rich [Marx 1844]. Religious ideas are illusions of happiness created to calm the suffering and exploited by the politically and economically wealthy and powerful. The eradication of religion will be part of the emancipation of the exploited, who will then realize their condition and fight for a classless society.

The sociological theories highlight the issues of power and control in society and how these issues can be manifested in religious systems. A critical look at the contemporary society and the burial customs of the Kom people can manifest socio-political mechanisms of control and power distribution, which encompass changing realities brought in by colonialism, Christianity and the immersion of the Kom people in the modern state of Cameroon.

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Mythology.

Myths are stories about supernatural forces or beings. In explaining the anthropological theory of structuralism, Ember and others distinguish the structuralism of Radcliffe Brown from that of Lévi-Strauss [2007:237]. While Radcliffe Brown concentrated on how elements of a society function as a system, Lévi-Strauss concentrated more on the origins of the systems themselves. Lévi-Strauss sees culture as expressed in art, rituals, myths and other patterns of daily life, which represent the unconscious underlying structure of the human mind. In his structural anthropology [1958:208] he recognized similarities in myths all over the world as a proof that they are not arbitrary creations but a reflection of the universal underlying pattern of the human mind. The mind tends to think in binary oppositions and unifications as in the Hegelian thesis, antithesis and synthesis.

Meaning is rendered possible through such oppositional categories. Myths in particular are organised into elements that oppose and contradict each other and other elements that mediate or resolve those oppositions. Life and death for instance can be the major opposition in a myth where life may be represented by agricultural forms and death by hunting forms. Mediating forces can be animals or other trickster agents who represent the opposition between the two ways of understanding reality. In his analysis of the Asidiwal myth, Lévi-Strauss identified the geographic, techno-economic, sociological and cosmological levels of cultural representations [1976:149-152]. Deciphering the underlying oppositions in the myths will reveal a common pattern or structure of the human mind that accounts for the universality of thought patterns.

• The structural analysis of myths by Lévi-Strauss is important in trying to understand the worldview of a people that is embedded in mythology. Far from considering myths as illusory and a reflection of primitive thought in the derogatory sense, Lévi-Strauss helps one to look at myths as a type of speech through which meaning can be discovered. This is of great value especially in trying to fathom the religious worldview of ethnic groups that have myths of origin.

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Rituals and Ceremonies A ritual can be defined as a patterned form of behaviour that is focused on the supernatural world [Miller 2007:345]. Radcliffe-Brown describes ceremonies as consisting of collective actions required by custom which are performed on the occasion of changes in the course of social life and express collective sentiments relating to such social change [Radcliffe-Brown 1922:328]. Rituals and ceremonies entail a pattern and response to particular situations in a community. Religious rituals in different societies studied by anthropologists like the Nuer of South Sudan centre on crisis moments of death, illness, spiritual influences and other similar situations [Evans-Pritchard 1956].

Catherine Bell identifies the characteristics of formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacred symbolism and performance as forming part and parcel of a ritual [Bell 1997:138-169]. The rigidity of set patterns makes rituals a formal and not haphazard activity. In rituals, appeal is made to tradition as a guarantor of why and how the ritual activities are carried out. Rituals are governed by rules of what can and cannot be done. Sacred symbolism, through the consecration of certain objects or animals, forms part of the ritual activity, distinguishing the sacred from the profane. A ritual is performed like a drama through which unity and significance of the whole ritual is enfolded and meaningful appropriation by the participants accomplished.

• In exploring Arnold Van Gennep’s categorization of rituals into three phases and seeking to develop the understanding of liminality, Victor Turner contributed to the understanding of the suspensive or in-between stage that rituals create for its participants [Moore 2012:224-234]. The three stages of Gennep were: the pre-liminal phase [separation], a liminal phase [transition] and a post-liminal phase [reintegration]. Turner suggested that liminal periods are not just in and out of time but are also in and out of social structure and help reveal two models of human relationships. • The first relationship is of a structured, differentiated and hierarchical society with political, economic and social positions while the second is that of unstructured or minimally structured and undifferentiated communitas or community of equal individuals who submit together to the general authority of ritual elders [Turner 1969:96]. The liminality or threshold stage is an ambiguous period that includes aspects of seclusion, humility, tests, sexual ambiguity and communitas, or a sense of community by those in the similar process. Rituals of death in religious thought often exhibit the stages of separation, transition and reintegration which form part and parcel of the various rites of passage within a particular society.

• Anthropological literature and the theoretical analysis of religion’s origin and the components of religion has led to the earmarking of mythology and ritual as some of the major forms of transmitting and expressing religious worldviews, especially in ethnic communities that lack sacred texts. In the study of contemporary cultures, the phenomenon of change needs to be looked into in order to facilitate a better understanding of how and why cultural changes come about, including the impact they have in a society’s general organization and structure. The concept of cultural change is essential in the study of the Kom people and the effect of Christianity in their mortuary customs.

Culture Change •

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Anthropology can be broadly defined as the study of humanity, including our prehistoric origins, our biology, language and contemporary human diversity [Miller 2007:4]. This broad definition gives room for divisions within anthropology that seek, among other aspects of humanity, either to concentrate on the study of humans during the prehistoric times or on the recent history and the diversities existing among cultures. Among the common divisions, cultural anthropology emerges as the study of living peoples and their cultures, including their variations and change [2007:4]. Among other definitions of culture, this research takes culture to be a set of learned behaviours and ideas [beliefs, attitudes, values, ideals] that are characteristic of a particular society or social group [Ember & others 2007:216]. Society is taken as a group of people who occupy a particular territory and speak a common language not generally understood by neighbouring peoples [2007:216].

The study of the Kom people in this research presupposes that they are a society with a culture that cultural anthropology studies especially to find out the dynamics of change through the Roman Catholic Church’s activities. References to the Kom people often describe them as an ethnic group. Ethnicity in this sense is used to imply a people who have common cultural characteristics such as language, place of origin, food and values [Curry & others 2005:195]. From this perspective, an ethnic group is a people who share the cultural features described above and who form an identity through the internalization of the ethnic roles as part of their self concepts [2005:195].

• The assumption taken in anthropology is that there is no particular cultural pattern that is impervious to change [Ember & others 2007:493].

Anthropologists want to understand how and why cultural change occurs.

The three fundamental questions are: what is the source of the new trait?

Why are people motivated to adopt it? Is the new trait adaptive?

[2007:493]. • Mortuary rituals among the Kom people present the cultural framework under which the religious ideas and behaviour of the Kom people can be deciphered. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church intervened with Christianity, which became a new trait introduced to the Kom people.

Teachings about God, Jesus Christ, death and the act of burying the dead in cemeteries introduced new ideas and practices presenting a situation in which to study the dynamics of culture change. This research adopts the concepts of diffusion and acculturation as best suited in understanding change as a transition from one mode of life or behaviour to another.

These concepts are clarified in the literature review section of this study.

Diffusion • The anthropological theory of diffusion seeks to understand the nature of culture in terms of the origin of the cultural traits and their spread from one culture to the other. There are versions of this theory that recognize the origin of cultural traits from one cultural centre [heliocentric diffusion], or from a limited number of cultural centres [cultural circles], or from any other society in a contingent and arbitrary manner. • The heliocentric view represented by the British school of G. Elliott Smith and others, recognized Egypt as the centre of civilization, due to the development of agriculture from which cultural traits like religion, burial systems and the like diffused to other areas through contact with the Egyptians. This school considered people as inherently uninventive and preferring to borrow rather than invent their own ideas [Ember & others 2007:233]. The German-Austrian school also accepted the notion that people borrow traits from other cultures because they are inherently uninventive, but differed with the British school by stating that culture complexes or cycles can be sources of new traits. Wissler and Kroeber of the American school recognized the development of culture traits in a particular geographical centre from which they diffuse outward. The most widely distributed traits within a geographical area are the oldest in that area if culture diffuses outward [2007: 234].

• Diffusion as a phenomenon of cultural change is a process by which cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group [2007:495]. It takes the patterns of direct contact, indirect contact and stimulus diffusion. A cultural trait can be spread directly by contact between the original and recipient culture or through the indirect agency of third parties like traders and missionaries or by using the knowledge of another society’s trait in inventing a local equivalent [2007:496]. One important aspect however is that diffusion is selective in the sense that not all cultural traits are accepted by the recipient community. This can be due to either the traits’ repugnancy to local tastes or the lack of psychological, social or cultural fulfilment in the ideas or technology of the external culture [2007:497]. The external manifestation of a trait rather than the meaning attributed to it by the originating society can affect the response of the receiving culture. It is possible for example that the meaning of a burial in the Church cemetery can be interpreted as a rejection of a family member who is taken as buried among strangers and not in the company of family members.

Acculturation • From a psychological point of view, acculturation can explain the process of cultural change and the psychological change that results when two cultures meet [Sam &Berry 2010:472]. From the group level, acculturation leads to changes in cultural customs and social institutions like food, clothing, language, marriage patterns and the like. On the individual level, the changes are on daily behaviour and other measures of physical and psychological well being. • The term acculturation will need to be distinguished from enculturation and diffusion. Enculturation is specifically used in reference to the acquisition of ideas and practices from a previous culture, as in the example of children learning their culture through intergenerational processes of transmission. Acculturation in this regard will be distinguished as the process of learning and incorporating a second external culture. If diffusion is taken as the process of cultural transmission from one society to the other, acculturation will tend to emphasize the power relationship in the sense of a situation where one of the societies in contact through diffusion is much more powerful than the other [Ember & others 2007:497]. This has often been the case in the situations of colonialism and the expansion of the Christian religion.

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John Berry [1997:10] gives a four-fold model of acculturation that questions whether it is valuable to maintain one’s cultural identity and characteristics or to maintain relationships with the larger community. From these questions, the four acculturation strategies of assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization arise.

• The characteristic of assimilation occurs when a culture adopts the norms, roles and customs of the dominant group over its own.

Separation occurs in the situation of total rejection. Integration corresponds with the adoption of cultural norms of the dominant group while maintaining the culture of origin in a relationship which can be termed as biculturalism. This system tends to apply in the expansion of Christianity among the Kom people. The last category is marginalization, which occurs when people reject both their original culture and the dominant culture.

• It has been suggested through research that people’s acculturation strategy can differ between their private and public life spheres [Arends & others 2004:19-35]. It is possible to reject the values and norms of the dominant culture in private [separation] while adopting the dominant culture in the public parts of one’s life [integration or assimilation]. This phenomenon of public and private life personalities is quite relevant in the religious domain as there seems to be discrepancies especially in Kom Christianity between public and private practices.

• In attempting to account for what predicts acculturation strategies, Sam and Berry [2010:472] propose that homogenous and harmonious cultures stress assimilation, segregating cultures stress separation, multicultural cultures stress an integrative approach while culturally exclusive societies stress a marginalization strategy in their encounter with other cultures.

The critique of these acculturation strategies is that individuals or cultures do not fall into clear-cut dimensions of change. The trend in the modern Cameroon state among the ethnic communities such as the Kom is a multicultural approach.

• Even though acculturation can be ascribed to the external forceful pressure through conquest and colonialism, it is to be noted that there are other forms of exerting pressure designed to accomplish acculturation [Ember & others 2007:498]. This is seen in humanitarian agencies and the efforts of persuasion employed through such institutions like education, health and the economic life. This makes it possible to talk of the acculturating activities of the missionaries in their evangelizing missions, which concentrated on conversion to Christianity but at the same time brought in persuasive means of education, health and economics that favoured the Western cultural practices.

• The recent accelerated speed of globalization has led to theoretical trends in anthropology that seek to explain the contemporary processes of cultural globalization and the transnational cultural flow without undermining the study of local cultures [Gupta & Ferguson 1997:5-7]. This line of research seeks to understand and explain how dominant cultural forms are imposed, invented, reworked and transformed. Through the study of spatial units larger than local, an inter-relation of culture, power and place can be explained. In the postmodernist perspective as propagated by Michel Foucault [1926-1984], those who hold political power are able to shape the way accepted truths are defined [Ember & others 2007:242]. If truth in the modern age is defined by science, this science itself is controlled by the western political and intellectual elites who control and dominate the world. Elements of domination through the acquisition of more sophisticated scientific knowledge and alternative means of doing things tend to play a role in culture change. In this context, it is easier to associate religion propagated by the West as more updated and to be followed in the name of civilization than the traditional religions.

The Zulu of South Africa •

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Ngubane Sihawukele [2012] studied the contemporary burial practices among the Zulu of South Africa in relation with the manner in which modernity, Christianity and other religious traditions have affected the Zulu rites. The Zulu, in the presence of modern options of inhumation and cremation as a way of disposing their dead, prefer inhumation or ground burial as a sign of respect for the dead. Ngubane found out that the adoption of Western values in the name of modernity, civilization, progress and development tended to alienate the educated and elite from their traditional norms and values.

The influence of the Western culture continued to play a significant role in influencing burial systems in South Africa with the adoption of modern ways of burial especially in cities and towns. Traditional Zulu burial practices like spitting on the grave, burying of personal belongings of the dead, slaughtering animals to cover the dead body and throwing sand over it are rejected as outmoded or primitive. The transition in burial rites tends to move towards the adoption of Western funeral practices.

Other factors influencing the changes in burial practices among the Zulu are related with town and rural burials. The lack of land for burial in cities which have a high population together with the legal and bureaucratic requirements and religious affiliations in modern religions and the cost of funerals have had an impact in the burial systems of the Zulu.

Such changes, which may not be tolerated in rural areas, are interpreted by the Zulu’s traditional system as a lack of respect for the dead who need to return to their home with respect, dignity and proper burial. Respectable people were traditionally buried in their homes and not in cemeteries, a practice that came through the intervention of the Western countries.

• Looking at the dynamics of the Zulu burial system in the contemporary period, one can notice shifts of change affected by elements of acculturation through the encounter of an external society. The changes are not just material in the sense of places of burial and the economic costs but also reflect the deep religious worldviews of the Zulu in relation to their dead members. Such similar perspectives can be discerned in the study of the contemporary Kom people and the way their burial rituals have been transformed by the activities of the Christian missionaries and other agents.

The Luo of Kenya, South Nyanza •

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Studies of the Luo people’s death rituals by Wakana [1997] contend that there are differences in how the rituals are performed depending on the personal attributes of the dead, episodes of the ancestors, religious affiliations and other socio-cultural changes brought by Modernity, Christianity and the phenomenon of independent African Churches. In a typical contemporary funeral, depending on the affiliations one established, Church people will participate together with associations and members of one’s place of work. Funeral responsibilities are shared across such affiliations such that the family is not overburdened in making funeral arrangements.

The number of those who attend a funeral is related to the socio-economic connections one had in the modern environment and not just by the mere fact of being a member of the ethnic community. A deceased member who was not affiliated to any modern social group could be buried with a small number in attendance and the burden of funeral costs entirely borne by the immediate family. The many traditional rites that had to be undertaken at death are being shunned by some through the influence of Christianity and modernity, even though others continue to observe them.

Social affiliations in contemporary organizations do influence the manner in which burial systems are displayed. The traditional networks of family and village or rural lifestyles are being broadened or opened to other links and ties which affect the way burials are done.

Burials in the Cameroon Grassfields •

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Michael Jindra [1997] studied the mortuary practices of the contemporary ethnic communities of the present North West Region of Cameroon under which the Kom people of this research fall. The focus of Michael Jindra’s study was on the impact of the 20th century historical changes on the mortuary rites of a number of the ethnic groups of the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon. He discovered various motives for the event of death celebrations, which included status and prestige, family unity, cultural identity, search for blessings and evasion of misfortune from the ancestors. The changes that he noticed were in the area of delayed death celebrations for the commoners and not only for the chiefs, the weakening of traditional hierarchies due to Christianity, secularization of traditional rule, increased economic wealth and a decrease in the fear of death as pollution. He focused his research on the mortuary rites of ordinary people in trying to assess the impact of secularization and the incorporation of Christianity into the lives of the Grassfield residents.

The research conducted by Michael Jindra is a regional controlled comparison [Ember & others 2007:257]. His regional study of mortuary rites in an area that includes the Kom people of whom this research is focused will be greatly enriched with an in-depth ethnographic study of the Kom people’s mortuary rites and the acculturation process, which test the assertions of the general discoveries made in such a regional comparative study.

Burial Rites among the Kom People •

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There are a number of literature materials that concentrate on various aspects of the cultural life of the Kom people and their burial rites in particular. Paul Nkwi [1976] addresses some issues related to the burial of kings in his analysis of the Kom people’s traditional government and social change. This literature is essential in understanding the social fabric and the power machineries that operate in the Kom people’s society and how their changes through colonialism, Christianity and the modern state may help to understand the changes related to the burial system.

Other studies of the Kom people relate to the particular death rituals looked at from disciplines like philosophy and theology. Joseph Mbi [1981] gives a philosophical analysis of the Kom people’s concept of the world, which helps to understand the various interests of anthropology of religion especially in relation to supernatural beings, the world and the realm of the dead. Mbom Lambert [1996] focuses on the practice of cry-die or death celebration among the Kom people also from the philosophical point of view. Joseph Mbzinu [1992], from the theological perspective, tries to look at the centrality of the Kom people’s family burial ground in contrast with the Judeo-Christian traditions. He highlights the conflict between burial preferences induced by the introduction of Christianity into Komland. Charles Nkuo [1990] considers death among the Kom people from a moral-theological perspective in relation to the tendency not to accept the reality of death.

The Contribution of this Study • The contribution of this research is in the area of a religious anthropological understanding of the contemporary Kom people’s mortuary rituals and the extent to which the missionary activities of the Roman Catholic Church have affected them. The study uses anthropological methods of ethnography to understand the structure of Kom society from the perspective of its history, ecology, socialization, religious worldview, stratification and family kinship. It describes the burial rituals of the Kom people and the interaction with the burial rituals of the Roman Catholic Christianity in an attempt to propose an integrated burial rite.

• It is hoped that the special ethnographic attention paid to the cultural dynamics of the Kom people in the face of Christianity and modernity’s influence on their mortuary rites will contribute in enriching the other selective parts of literature available and open up possibilities for further research. In trying to decipher the mechanisms of cultural change, other factors, which may have been overlooked by previous studies, can be brought into focus through the help of an anthropological methodology.

This can contribute greatly to an understanding of each culture’s uniqueness and particular ways of adjusting to change.

The Cultural Context of the Kom People

Origins, Migrations and Settlement Patterns • In analysing the linguistic groups of Cameroon, Bantu speaking peoples inhabit the central and southern parts of Cameroon. The term ‘Bantu’ has been used since 1862 to designate the languages spoken around the equatorial region of Cameroon and the Niger-Congo region. It is estimated that the pro-Bantu homeland was around the south-western modern boundary of Nigeria and Cameroon around 3000BCE [Tazor & Ndip 2009:12]. Linguists group the Bantu languages as a branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Bantus are further classified into semi-Bantu and Bantu proper with semi-Bantus mostly occupying the western grassfields and the Bantu proper occupying the coastal and forest regions. The Tikar, Bamum and Bamileke are the best known semi-Bantu language groups [2009:12].

• Under the umbrella term ‘Tikar’, we find the Kom people together with their Nkambe, Nso, Mankon and Bafut area neighbours. Accounts differ as to the exact original homeland of the Tikar but suffice it to consider them as a semi-Bantu linguistic group coming originally from Tibati, Banyo, Ndobo, Kimi, Ngaoundere, Bornu or further still from Northern Nigeria. A general feature of these groups was its respect for traditional authority, living in well-organised communities, having a chief or foyn with absolute authority assisted by several associations or societies [2009:13].

• The immediate traceable history of migration of the Kom people from oral literature is to the Ndobo plain up to Babessi where an alliance with the chief of Babessi was made for a cordial settlement of the Kom people.

According to legend, the population growth of the Kom people and the jealousy this aroused among the Babessi people led to a trick conducted by the Babessi leader which led to the death of many Kom people whose leader promised revenge. On the spot where the Kom leader died, a lake is said to have developed in which many of the Babessi people perished.

From Babessi, Nandong the sister of the deceased leader led the remaining group of Kom people following a python trail believed to be the spirit of the dead leader’s guidance. The people moved to Nkar, Djottin, Din, Ajung and under Jinabo I, reached Laikom where the python trail disappeared [Nkwi 1976:20-21]. The arrival at Laikom is estimated to be around 1740. Major expansions and consolidation of the Kom kingdom were achieved under foyn Yuh whose military conquests were stopped by the German Kom occupation through a punitive expedition of 1904-1905 [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:14].

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• The Kom Settlement Patterns and Autochthony • Geschiere and Ceuppens [2005:385-407] have questioned the stability and validity of the claims made often in political discourse on the issue of indigenous and ancestral lands. Autochthony is etymologically defined as ‘self’ and ‘soil’ from its Greek roots and refers to the claim by people of being the first and rightful possessors of a particular territory of land. The concept of being an ‘indigene’ also refers to being born inside an area in which one can claim to be a rightful possessor by birth. Autochthony claims are often employed in modern states like Cameroon in reference to the ancestral place as the rightful place of burial despite the Cameroon constitution’s provision of the right for every Cameroonian to settle in any place [2005:391].

• The paradox of autochthony is that it needs movement in order to define itself. This very fact of movement renders such claims of stability, ancestral land, sons of the soil and the like to be dynamic, and has often led to violence in attempts to exclude or protect one’s land from ‘strangers’.

Komland, and the claim made of the ancestral land especially at Laikom where the palace of the Kom people’s traditional ruler is located, may portray the trend of autochthony especially if one considers the migratory and settlement patterns of the Kom people.

• It can be seen from the above migratory history and settlement patterns that the claim to autochthony is shaky as one witnesses the fact of raids and displacement of other settlers in order to acquire territory that later becomes the ancestral land. The very origin of the Kom people is not their present area of settlement. In the course of migration, they came to settle in the present area and were integrated into the colonial system, which helped to stop further expansionist policies and set the pace for the modern state system.

• Within the present Cameroon state, and as it can be seen among the Kom people especially when making decisions on burial places, one can contend with Geschiere and Nyamnjoh that the ultimate test of belonging in the context of autochthony is the place of burial [Geschierre & Ceuppens 2005:391]. This can be seen in the enormous efforts made to transport the dead from ‘alien’ places of work to their ‘ancestral’ lands for burial, despite the concept of Cameroon as a motherland in which any place can become one’s own.

• Mythology is also taken to justify a claim to an ancestral land as in the Kom people’s story of the python trail which was taken to be the spirit of their ancestor Muni leading them up to Laikom their present capital. The very joking question often posed to this story is on what could happen if the python trail appears again in the present circumstances. Autochthony claims help one to question the very notion of an ancestral land under the impact of a traceable migratory history mixed up with minor wars of conquest and displacement of other inhabitants. This shaky acquisition of land is often under the power of an ideology, as may be seen in the mythological ancestral justification for the acquisition of land and settlement in a particular territory.

Family Structure • At this juncture, it is essential to define the concepts of family, lineage, subclan and clan as espoused by the Kom kinship system at large [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:44-47]. The descent system among the majority sectors of the Kom is consanguineal [blood] and matrilineal.

Within the kinship system, the most basic unit is the ndo [house] defined as the mother and her children to the exclusion of the father or husband.

• The homestead that incorporates the father or husband and the children with their mother or mothers is the abe, from which Bobe or father of the compound acts as the head. The two concepts of the immediate family as ndo and abe are important in understanding the different nuances the Kom people give to the notion of the immediate family. From the immediate or Kom ‘nuclear’ family, the extended family is the lineage which is called ayung a ndo. The ayung a ndo is an extended family of uterine males and females that can trace their known ancestress from 4-6 generations. This lineage system is the only exogamous unit and plays a role in succession and other family issues like funerals and marriages. Each male member of the matrilineage has potential for inheriting property through being a blood brother or a son of the man’s sister. A group of dispersed extended families or lineages is the ikoe ndo [arm or branch of the house, sub-clan], which is bound by a common name and ancestress whose exact connections to the present cannot be traced. It is characterised by a loose degree of solidarity in community events like funerals and is taken to be the internal segment of the clan, isas i ndo [bottom of the house]. The clan’s link in the isas i ndo is to the apical ancestress with no ramifications in terms of marriage, incest taboo, obligations and rights.

• The family concept and the structure of descent are vital in the network of interrelationships that are espoused in mortuary rites among the Kom people.

Changes in the social and political structure fuelled by colonialism and Christian activities seem not to have affected much the family system among the Kom people.

Social Stratification •

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Among the social institutions in Kom through which one can acquire a particular status are the chong, akum, njong , njang, ifaf, fimbuen and anlu [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:32-39]. The chong society, whose origin is out of Kom, is charged primarily with the maintenance of peace and the performance of ceremonies mostly related to the mortuary rites of their members. Within the category of chong, there is the chong of the palace referred to as chong of the forest [chong aku] and the weak chong [chong ibol] which is commissioned and empowered by the palace chong and entitles the founder to the name of bochong after paying a moderate fee.

In the absence of the two chong categories especially in mortuary ceremonies, the third category of chong ifuen [chong of the legs] usually takes over and is a title given to Kom men who supervise mortuary rites in villages which lack the two official chong.

The institution referred to as akum represents the palace kwifoyn at the village level in supervising the administration of the village. Its members may belong to different groups with special types of mystical powers. They participate in funerals as masked dancers. The palace also has its royal akum such as the one called nko’, often seen being restrained by two ropes, and together with other royal akum societies, performs in the mortuary rites of its members, palace retainers and other elderly men.

• The njang association has both male and female members whose role is mostly singing specific songs in such occasions as child-birth, marriages and death. Fumbang is a royal dance composed of only women and is closely associated with njang. Njong was a military club composed of warriors in the time of Kom wars of expansion, which has been transformed into other functions. Among the specifically women associations, ifaf performs in the mortuary rites of their members.

Similarly, the fimbuen performs in mortuary rites, and they also act as the council or women’s mouthpiece in relation to kwifoyn. The famous anlu society was established to champion the rights of women.

• Social stratification continues to play a role among the Kom people of today especially in the way mortuary rites are conducted for different categories of people. The social institutions briefly described above continue to function, especially the village akum and the chong ifuen which form part and parcel of the ordinary commoner’s mortuary rituals.

Economic Life • Much has not changed in terms of the economic life of the Kom people from the description of Nkwi [1976:16]. The population still practices a mixed economy of farming, small scale livestock keeping and petty trade. Guinea corn [type of sorghum] that used to be grown after special fertility rites is almost nonexistent in the area of study. Maize forms the main staple foodstuff. The eroding of soil fertility due to frequent planting of maize has registered remarkable reductions in the harvests of this crop. Each family in the village tries to keep some fowls and goats, which are used for special occasions like burial celebrations and on rare occasions for sale in order to raise money for school and hospital fees.

• The question of poverty does seem to be looked at differently within the area of study. Apart from teachers who are employed by the government of Cameroon and teach in rural schools, almost all the population of those out of school and capable of working are self-employed in the different small-scale activities. It is difficult therefore to evaluate the extent to which the people feel deprived or marginalized economically. As Marshall Sahlins observed, the distinctive quality of a human being is the capacity through culture to make meaning of his/her material circumstance and not be determined by it [Sahlins 1976a:viii]. • The above economic characteristics are brought into play especially during the mortuary rites among the Kom people and help to identify those who have the economic power and influence to celebrate the required rituals for burial with a certain degree of social intensity.

Education • If one considers the percentage of those going to school, 43.2% of the total population is in school while the 56.6% is out of school for different reasons. Generally, many of the adult population represents school dropouts and those who never went to school leading to the assertion by the principal of one of the secondary schools that ignorance is breeding a vicious cycle of school dropouts leading to more ignorance in the area. He related that the rate of school dropouts is not specifically due to lack of school fees but ignorance from parents not convinced of the value of formal education, and the students who are enticed by the need of quick money through bike riding, cocoa farms in the South West of Cameroon and early marriages. Levels of adult literacy are low. This creates a problem in having adults who can participate fully in the power dynamics of the contemporary state. • The process of formal education in the rural areas together with the availability of primary, secondary and technical schools with quite a number of children is contributing towards a transformation of the traditional cultural life among the young which affects their view of mortuary rites.

Political Power • Within the exercise of power in the public and private fora, the Kom society is a patriarchy in which males dominate major decisionmaking events [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:30]. • Matrilineal descent which is the principle of succession among most of the Kom clans does not imply matriarchy or female power, since males, often according to seniority and the role they play in their lineages, continue to make major decisions, especially the matrilineal brothers of a woman [2014:31]. • In the villages of study, it is common to witness the authority of the men who are compound heads and lineage heads when it comes to important social ceremonies such as marriage, and especially decisions concerning the mortuary rites of their deceased kin.

Women often tend to perform supportive roles but do not stand up as decision makers in major social events.

Worldview • Hierarchy of beings.

• Fuyini-God as Mbom, creating.

World

]

Nature gods[Muyini

– MAN » -Ancestral divinities » -Ordinary ancestors

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The foyn and some royals (queen mother) » -Ordinary man (commoners) – Other creatures » -Animals » -Plants » -Inorganic things

• Fuyini-God as the carer, sustaining.

• Among the Kom people, the word fuyini is used for the high god whose power is recognized as mbom [moulder, creator] and carer, as may be expressed in the naming of children [funto’na, god cares]. References by informants to the expressions like fuyinifu nighu [god is there], affirms the belief of the reality of a god who is considered as the high or supreme god [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:40]. The reality of muyini or lesser gods referred to as nature gods, which can be gods of the clans found in rivers or elsewhere, are often associated with the practical help they can offer in deliverance from misfortunes under the general supreme care of fuyini. There is a kind of hierarchy in the world of the Kom people which stratifies the person in terms of his/her social rank even after death, as seen in the table below which has been modified from its original source but with the same idea expressed [Mbi 1981:53].

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The general concept of a person is wul. This terminology from investigations taken refers to the living person as such and from it, the different kinds of persons can be discerned depending on status, role, age, sex and the like. Some examples encountered are, wul ngang [elder or leader of a society group], wul itwo [healthy, strong person], wul ilwema [adult] and wul atum [foreigner] among other usages. The word ayvus can be taken to refer to a soul, spirit, steam and air. Its use in the context of a person as ayvus a wul does not seem to give a suggestion of a duality in the human person but indicates the inner life of a person from which the possibility of the belief of some existence beyond death is made possible.

The belief in the existence of spirits of the dead and their relative importance is ranked according to the social and political stratification. The nature gods [muyini], believed to be the cause of misfortunes [2014:40], interact in the world of the person and may be appeased through sacrifices or other means in the case of misfortunes. Mortuary rites conducted among the Kom people tend to take issues of status, gender and age, which also indicate differences within the concept of wul [person]. In death, the person as wul dies and can be referred to as a wul ikfvuni. Other words which refer specifically to the corpse such as igvuyn i wul, akfvu a wul tend to indicate that there is some part of the person, that is, ayvus a wul which tend to give credence to the belief observed in the recognition of ancestral spirits.

• The research found out that the Kom people are a stratified society based on factors such as status, age, gender, family lineage, power and economic wellbeing. These factors played an important role in the customary burial rituals with the family lineage and the patriarchal power playing a decisive role. The religious worldview which concentrated more on the continuation of family ties with the dead through the family ancestors reinforced the power of family lineage heads in their decisions concerning burial rites and the place of burial.

Burial Rituals among the Kom People. • This chapter considers the present practice of mortuary rituals among the Kom people under the context of change from the time of the Kom people’s encounter with Roman Catholic Christianity.

The historical context of the activities of the Roman Mission at Njinikom and the practice of burials in the Church serve as a pretext for the evaluation of changes in the mortuary customs among the Kom people. These changes are identified under the aspects of the place of burial, the family, concept of the supernatural and the resulting conflicts that arose. The chapter proceeds to give an ethnographic description of the mortuary practices from the time of approaching death to the ceremonies of celebrating death after interment. This leads to the analysis of mortuary rituals in relation to the environment, education, religious worldview, social stratification and power in the family structure as the major areas which are highlighted from the ethnography.

History •

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Prior to the German conquest of the hinterland, there were no Western type schools or hospitals in Komland, implying that from the Western view point, the whole people of Kom could neither read nor write, and their health system was often considered superstitious. There were no plantations of cash crops, roads or railways, and local practices focused on subsistence agriculture with barter trade. Germans introduced schools, hospitals, new agricultural methods, new architecture and a new religion, Christianity.

By the German domination of the Kom people, a way was made for Catholicism from Kumbo to spread into Komland along with features of European culture. In July 1913, as Anthony Ndi observes [2005:47], Christianity arrived at Komland and was accepted by the supreme ruler of Kom, Ngam (1912-1926), who welcomed the Roman Catholic Church and gave them land at Fujua. As soon as the Kom people’s ruler had approved of the missionaries, evangelization started by means of catechesis and Western education, which stressed literacy through reading and writing. The arrival of missionaries of the Church of Rome in Bamenda, found already a German administrator, Captain Adametz, who encouraged the spread of Christianity in Nsoland.

Missionaries were, by their acts, meant to pacify natives in a way favourable for the colonial authority in Bamenda [Ndi & others 2014:10]. It is from Nsoland that Kom outreach was pioneered by the missionaries of the Roman Catholic Mission. Komland, after the experience with the German military personnel, was more receptive of the missionaries who appeared to the people to be friendly in contrast to military personnel.

• The first team of missionaries in Komland arrived on the 17th of July 1913 with Robert Mannersdorfer as their leader [2014:12]. The foyn at the time, Ngam, offered land at Fujua close to his palace and collaborated with the missionaries. The work of translating the catechism into the language of the Kom people was already one way of introducing the new religion. After the departure of the missionaries in 1915 due to the defeat of the Germans by the British, there was already a small community of about 500 catechumens who had been recruited in the German colonial army, which fought the Allied forces of the British and the French. When the Germans were defeated, these catechumens were interned together with the German soldiers at Fernando Po, now the island component of the Equatorial Guinea. At Fernando Po, further catechetical instruction was undertaken and baptism conferred by Baumeister who had served as a Roman Catholic Mission priest among the Kom people before he was deported. This priest instructed the neophytes to spread the faith upon their return [2014:13].

• From 1915-1920, the Roman Catholic Mission in Komland was in the hands of these neophytes who had been uprooted and seemed ideologically transformed through the Fernando Po experience.

Fernando Po was creating agents of change who were natives of Komland. The return of these ex-servicemen with new ideas spurred hostility in terms of resistance to change from the Kom people. They returned at a time when the British had taken over the colonial administration with their preferred system of indirect rule. Later on, about 2000 converts lived in Njinikom, an area in the Roman Catholic Mission quarters that entered into conflict with the traditional authority over native customs, like the issue of the foyn’s runaway wives who took refuge in the Roman Catholic Mission Church premises.

• The transformed ex-servicemen and the Roman Catholic Christians living at Njinikom felt no obligation to respect the native and ‘inferior’ customs. Their conflict with the palace, and the need to live a separated life from the rest of the Kom people, intensified the creation of their new identity as Christians. In the conflict with the palace, the major complaint from the foyn was that the missionaries taught a revolutionary doctrine of equality of all before God, and hence made their converts to look on their society with contempt [2014:52]. The doctrines of equality and Christian education gave the converts a feeling of superiority over their nonconverted natives, and they were more willing to render loyalty to the Church with which they had more in common than to the traditional rulers. The Church at the time also preached a doctrine in which there was no room for traditional customs and life in the Roman Catholic Christian village of Njinikom.

• The presence of the Roman Catholic Mission among the Kom people and especially at Njinikom altered the burial rites of the Kom people especially with the case of where to bury the dead and the ceremonies to be conducted for a Christian of the Roman Catholic Mission. These changes will be examined under the categories of the place of burial, the family and communion, the vision of God, the spiritual world, and the conflicts that arose.

• From Njinikom, the Roman Catholic Mission started penetrating slowly to the interior of Abasakom, which was marked by a strong allegiance to the traditions of the Kom people and a scarcity of Western education facilities.

This slow pace of penetration into the interior left the custom of burying the dead in family compounds intact owing to other difficulties of distance, lack of cemeteries and the attachment to the traditions of the Kom people. With the new ideas of respecting the traditions of people in the process of evangelization springing from the Roman Catholic Mission’s second Vatican Council of 1962 to 1965 [Dych 2004: 684-686], a process of dialogue with the Kom people’s traditions could be stressed. The Church the first Archbishop of Bamenda met in the 1980’s was a Church already meant to be in dialogue with the traditions of the people. Conflicts arose when such a dialogue failed in matters of burying Roman Catholic Mission Christians with purely Christian burial rites in cemeteries. This led to the issuance of a law by the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Mission in Bamenda requiring his Christians to be buried in the Church’s cemeteries [Verdzekov 1998].

• At every crossroads and at the stream, some traditional rites were carried out to restrict the dead person’s spirit from coming back.

After disposing of the corpse at the stream, cleansing rites were performed. One of the chasms used for the disposal of the dead is located in the area of this study. A member of kwifoyn in Laikom narrated that the cave or chasm at Luh village was discovered by the family of Naviyn. Naviyn saw the chasm, paid somebody to go in with a rope tied around his waist to pull him back. When the person came out, he reported seeing a nice country there, which inspired Naviyn’s family and the rest to start burying the dead there. Elsewhere, the streams of Mighum for Ngviyn-Kijem and Njinikom area and Jvaafef for Abasakom area were used for disposing the dead. However, when the volume of water reduced during the dry season such that the flow of water could not carry the corpse away, burial in shallow graves by the banks of rivers, could be done and also the use of chasms as at Chuabu, Luh village, were alternatives.

• Compound burial from the onset was only for foyns and nafoyns due to the priestly or sacred role of the foyn and nafoyn. As Mbzinu [1992:7] attests, the foyns worked for the three hands of Kom namely, wayn, afoayina and nyam-ngviyn transliterated as child, food and meat from hunting fields respectively. The three hands of the Kom people signified fertility, prosperity and general wellbeing which were eminently symbolized in the political and religious role of the foyn and others closely linked with him. This symbolic role of the foyn and the importance attributed to the royal ancestors explained the rationale for burial in the compound. Prayers and libations offered at the grave of the deceased foyn were believed to guarantee prosperity for the land and hence proximity to the grave had to be sought. Other princes and heir-apparents heading royal compounds preferred burial in their compounds, which led to other village elders seeking compound burials so that their children could maintain links through the pouring of libations and other communion rites. It is now customary to bury the dead within the compounds of the concerned families, and this is taken as tradition especially when confronted with the alternative Roman Catholic practice of burying the dead in Church cemeteries.

Burial Rites • In Komland, the burial ground is a place used for the deposition of human remains. The family burial grounds are places set aside for regular interment of the dead [1992:5]. When a bobe [elder or founder of a family compound] is buried in it, others who die of the same lineage in the locality are brought to the family since rituals for the welfare of the family are to be carried out in that compound. Rituals performed at the family compound thus act as a source of unity and welfare for family members.

On the day of the interment, which is usually decided upon by a husband for a deceased wife or a father for his children [in consultation with sons and other major relations], gunshots in the villages are commonly fired to inform the public of the burial day. In the compound, the body is exposed for public viewing inside a coffin lying on blankets wrapped with burial clothes. Some special members in Kom, like those belonging to kwifoyn or akum societies, may be displayed for a longer period and be buried without coffins. In the past, among the Kom people, there were no coffins and the style of burial was by using banana leaves or blankets wrapped around the corpse before burying. This kind of wrapping the corpse for burial likely triggered the style of building graves in Komland.

• The shape of the grave was often rectangular with the average length and width to accommodate an adult. The distinctive pattern of the Kom grave was the wayn ise [child of the grave], where, after digging the usual depth of the grave depending on the soil area, a special area was dug to accommodate the body. The body was put inside the wayn ise. If the dead person was a bobe, he was buried at the entrance to the house while the wives of the compound could each be buried in front of their respective houses. One can see here the categories of gender and status being applied in the Kom people’s burial system. The wayn ise at the side was then covered with other sticks like the bamboos before the grave was filled up with soil. An informant suggested that the reason for the wayn ise and burial in front of the house was to ensure a dignified burial of the body and a continuous remembrance of especially the bobe, who as the founder of the compound, could act as an ancestor of the compound, and to whom libations and sacrifices could be made. Nowadays, the wayn ise is still seen in some burials but the majority of burials, are never dug at the side, they are extended for less than a metre in such a way as to accommodate the coffin and enabling the covering of the small grave with sticks and blankets before filling the entire grave with soil.

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When asked about the significance of the kind of grass often thrown into the four sides of the grave, an informant spoke of the custom ifemi ise ni iwi [locking the grave with grass]. Grass was put around the corners of the grave and the body. This probably was an adaptation from the earlier practice of blocking the return of the malevolent spirits of the dead who were buried in streams and chasms. One informant mentioned that when a person died, grass called afvi a bola [soft medicine] was used. After preparing the medicine for protection, anyone in contact with the dead could get the medicine from the calabash of the ngang [elder member of a society] who poured it to any person’s hands three times. Then, entering the house of the dead person, with leaves of different types of medicine, he would make a fire from whose smoke the house was cleansed of any bad effects from death. The bitter medicine [afvi a to] was burnt in the fire with other leaves using bamboo sticks. Only the members of the nkfim [the fumigating substance] cut and held silently the leaves whose smoke filled the whole house. When the smoke rose, each person could go and apply the smoke to him or herself for cleansing. Previously, it was the custom to take food away from the house of the dead and throw it away. With the use of medicinal smoke to cleanse and protect the house, foodstuff could be left inside. An informant spoke of the ngang kijem as the medicine man who used to come from the side of Kijem and perform those cleansing and protective rites. The ngang also used to put medicine in the burial graves and on the dead body. The protection was meant to block evil spirits from taking the spirit of the dead and causing harm.

• There are cases such as those who die by suicide or drowning who may not be buried in family compounds. As an informant observed, suicide is considered an abhorrent crime among the Kom people as it goes against the values of life, fertility and prosperity of which rituals especially the ones performed by kwifoyn are meant to preserve. Suicide cases were normally buried with different rites, which involved the use of medicine men and a style of burial where one could be thrown directly into the grave and be covered with soil. For those who drown and their bodies cannot be located, the family members could go to the river or take some fowls and a few corn grains and stand along the road leading to the compound. Here, they would pronounce the person’s name while removing the feathers of the fowl and throwing some maize and bean seeds as they invited the spirit of the dead to go back to the family compound by use of an invocation. After that, the fowls could be roasted and eaten. Some soil from the ground was also taken back as an indication of the dead person’s being taken back into the family compound.

• There are different traditional associations that perform during the death celebrations depending on the status, economic resources, gender, age and family of the deceased. Ordinary akum associations in the villages are usually seen performing with their masks during the death celebrations of the commoners. In the absence of other associations of a higher rank such as those from the palace, these village akum associations can be invited by families to perform in death celebrations and are compensated for their performance. The death celebrations of their initiated members however are attended obligatorily.

The Mortuary Rites and Social Change • Contemporary mortuary rituals have undergone changes [Wakana 1997; Jindra 1997; Ngubane 2012]. This research has sought to understand the Kom people and their mortuary rites as reflecting the impact of the activities of the Roman Catholic Mission in Komland. The activities of the Roman Catholic Mission seem to have triggered a change that raises questions for anthropology on the role of the environment, education, family, religious beliefs and social stratification in the process of acculturation and culture change.

Mortuary Rites and the Environment • In his study of death and burial practices in the contemporary Zulu culture of South Africa, Ngubane identified the physical environmental shifts from rural to urban settlement as affecting the traditional burial customs especially the preference for interment as the respectful way of disposing of the dead [2012]. Factors related to urban burials include scarcity of land due to population pressure and state requirements, which may tend to stress burials in shared cemeteries or the possibility of considering cremation. It would appear that the availability of land in the rural areas and the absence of strict contemporary state regulations help to encourage customary burial rites.

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The custom of the Roman Catholic Church of burying the dead in Christian cemeteries has registered variations that may be related to the environment. In the course of the settlement at Njinikom, the early Roman Catholic Christians made use of the cemetery as a common burial ground. This cemetery can be observed at the Njinikom Roman Catholic Mission quarters, and it has quite a number of Christians buried there. As one gradually moves out of Njinikom towards the area of this study, few burials if any may be seen in the Roman Catholic Church cemeteries. Burials are usually done in family compounds after the Christian rituals in the Church’s buildings have been done for those who are Roman Catholics.

The preference in rural villages is burial in family compounds. It is probable that the availability of land with a young growing population argue among other factors for the customary burial rites among the Kom people, which are mostly done in the family compounds. The Roman Catholic cemeteries seen in urban areas like Bayelle have a greater number of the dead buried there. According to the reports from some of the Roman Catholic priests in charge of the urban Churches, the scarcity of land for burial in the cemeteries has led to the introduction of moderate fees to be paid by the Christians before a burial can take place in the cemetery.

The trend of exacting some fees for the cemetery burials is also practiced at Njinikom Roman Catholic cemetery. Due to the growing scarcity of land in the cemetery, burials are being tolerated in family compounds among the Roman Catholic Christians.

• Land among the Kom people provides the basis from which their society operates and organizes itself. Apart from subsistence farming, land is used for the building of homesteads that lead to the recognition of one’s status as a bobe. Land also provides the environment into which the dead will be planted. The family compound or homestead interacts with land as the source of subsistence and status and the abode of the ancestral spirits of the family. To own a piece of land and build on it according to custom marks the stage of maturity and adulthood, which will be recognized by the kind of mortuary celebrations performed at death.

• It is probable therefore to conclude with the cultural ecologists that the physical environment can and does influence the social practices of the people [Ember & others 2007:238-239]. Mortuary rites among the Kom people of this study show evidence of such a claim especially in the response to the Roman Catholic’s law of cemetery burial [Verdzekov 1998].

Mortuary Rites and Education • Education is one of the chief ways through which a culture is learned [Miller 2007:18]. The process of socialization uses education as one of the major ways of introducing the young into the customs and traditions of a culture. Before the advent of writing and formal education, much of the transmission of cultural knowledge depended on oral communication from parents, elders and significant family members from whom the young learnt. The Kom people’s enculturation process involved associations such as akum through which the young boys were initiated into the traditions [Nkwi 1976:114-115].

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With the introduction of colonialism, German and British efforts entrusted much of the formal education associated with reading and writing to Missionaries [1976:164-165]. The Roman Catholic Missionaries from Europe established schools in Komland through which Western education and Christian doctrine were imparted. Western education transmitted concepts and ways of behaviour from another culture, which influenced the behaviour and ideas of the Kom people. The contemporary Cameroon state has opened more schools in rural areas that surpass mission schools in number. In the area of study, of the 18 schools available, only 4 belong to the Missions. There are quite a remarkable number of young children attending school such that school has more or less become the daily norm.

The information gathered in schools is geared towards the contemporary forms of scientific knowledge that can be found in many societies especially the Western ones. There is a tendency among the young in the villages to consider some of the traditions related with mortuary rites to be outmoded and unfashionable. This attitude, which was noted during an interview of a group of young students in the secondary school in this research, raised the question of relating the level of formal education and the practice of traditional customs. However, on the performance of the mortuary customs, the role of the youth is not highly marked.

Formal education does seem to influence the attitudes of the young, but it does not appear to affect the traditional customary rites which are not technically the domain of the youth.

Mortuary Rites and Religious Beliefs •

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As it has been shown in this research, the Kom people had a religious worldview before their encounter with Christianity. The religious feeling towards the supernatural was already there from the accounts of the mythological origins and the role played by the spirit of their dead ancestor in guiding the people to Laikom.

Ancestors, especially the royal ancestors, formed the focus of religious acts that involved sacrifices, libations and prayers that sought the fertility, prosperity and wellbeing of the people. Magic as understood anthropologically [Ember & others 2007:469] as an attempt to manipulate the supernatural, was already seen in the event of kwifoyn’s day of ascending up to the skies to get information on what was expected for the welfare of the people. The recognition of fuyini as the high god and the nature gods [muyini] and other clan gods serve to illustrate a belief in the supernatural world and the role of the Kom person in interacting with that world from a religious perspective. Mortuary rites such as the ones of cho’ti ngvu and offering of bzi ikfvu, registered a religious feeling towards some kind of survival after death of the nkfvusi nse.

• The activities of the Roman Catholic Church as outlined in the history of encounter with Komland, perpetuated Roman Christianity mostly through doctrine. Through the use of schools and doctrine classes, a systematic manner of imparting and controlling the spread of the new knowledge was ascertained. New concepts were introduced such as the Trinity, Purgatory, Hell, Heaven, Saints, Jesus Christ, Angels, priests, sacraments, the Virgin Mary, Ten Commandments, Church Laws on marriage and many others.

Remarkable changes were seen at Njinikom and have spread gradually throughout Komland. However, not everyone embraced Roman Catholicism nor did all those who embraced it conform fully to its requirements especially the burial of Christians in the Church cemeteries. In light of this trend, why were some aspects accepted, while others rejected or modified? [2007:496].

• As noted by Sam and Berry [2010:472], changes in the acculturation process affect societies not only on the group level but also on the individual level.

The four model approach in acculturation of assimilation, separation, integration and marginalization presented by Berry [1997:10] seem to suggest an explanation. The encounter with Roman Catholic Christianity as expressed in the choice of mortuary rites among the Kom people tends to confirm the selective nature of diffusion [Ember & others 2007:496]. People can select what fits into their cultural context and reject or modify what does not.

• For instance, all the Roman Catholics in the area of study bury their dead in family compounds contrary to their Church’s directives. An interview with some Roman Catholic Christians on why the preference is for family compound burials and not at the Church’s burial grounds revealed that the majority considered Church cemetery burials to be appropriate for those closely linked to the Church such as catechists and priests. The others whom they considered to be ordinary Christians were to be buried in their family compounds close to their families. It seems that the level of identification with the Church affects the choice of the burial place. In the area of study for instance, only one catechist had been buried in the Church cemetery.

• Berry [1997:10] spoke of biculturalism or the model of integration in his four model approach as being the characteristic pattern of multicultural societies. This is a phenomenon that allows two cultures to live side by side. Arends and others [2004:19-35] observe that in the process of acculturation, the dominant culture is mostly lived in the public domain while the native culture is observed in the private domain. This trend has been observed in the study area of this research especially in the practice of mortuary rites. The tendency is for most Kom Roman Catholics to observe the Christian formalities in the Church before observing the customary rituals in their compounds. The reason for such a dichotomy may reflect a more tolerating culture or other factors that would need further research. • It is probable to conclude that the activities of the Roman Catholic Church did influence the religious perspective of the Kom people. This influence however, especially as revealed in the mortuary practices of the Kom Roman Catholics was selective, and more inclined towards biculturalism or the coexistence of the foreign and indigenous culture.

Mortuary Rites and Social Stratification • Social stratification as the categorizing or ranking of people according to the unequal access to power, resources and prestige or status [Ember & others 2007:23], has been identified among the Kom people [Nkwi 1976:34-39].

Observations in some compound mortuary celebrations have revealed a remarkable difference in the manner the celebrations are conducted for those who have more economic resources, the elderly and owners of compounds, women, those belonging to associations like chong and akum, kwifoyn members and family members linked with the foyn and other distinguished lineages. Gender, age, status and class definitely affect mortuary rites among the Kom people.

• Economically, those who have enough wealth are able to organize the death celebrations according to their abilities. In the villages under this study, mortuary rituals that registered a greater number of participants and much display of wealth were those for elderly men, most of whom had more than one wife and children working somewhere in more contemporary professions like teaching and business management.

Money could be spent in the purchase of special coffins, the hiring of funeral attendants, purchasing of food items, sowing of uniforms for the families, hiring of video tape recorders, transportation of visitors and the body, provision of sound system equipment, compensation for the masquerades, construction of modern type graves and other similar commitments. • Lesser expenditures and modest use of items for the death celebrations is seen among those who have fewer resources and small families with almost none of the children employed elsewhere. Lack of enough resources for the mortuary rituals affects also the capacity to fulfill obligations required in the celebration of death among the Kom people.

The subsistence economy especially in the villages of studied produces enough food for the families but inadequate cash for other expenses which may accompany the modern style funerals.

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The controversy spurred by the burial of Naya the queen mother of the Kom people who had become a Roman Catholic prior to her death and buried in the Church cemetery showed the idea of social status being applied or shown in mortuary rituals. The foyn and other royals have their special royal shrines or graves for burial and are not meant to be buried with the commoners. Other burials also consider the age of the deceased, the gender and family. The idea of a common cemetery for all together with the doctrine of equality taught by the Roman Catholic Church was meant to effect a significant change regarding the stratification of the Kom people in line with the Christian worldview as taught by the agents of Roman Catholicism. As it has already been shown, the worldview of the Kom people is stratified even beyond death. The structure or hierarchy of supernatural beings tends to mirror the social and political life of a society [Ember & others 2007:466]. Such a stratification that recognizes a similar hierarchy in the supernatural world was confronted with the perspective of Roman Catholicism.

In the area of study, the unequal access to economic resources, status or prestige, gender and age continued to influence the kind of mortuary attention given to the dead. This attitude may also point to the selective nature of diffusion and acculturation as the members of a culture select some aspects and reject or modify others to suit their cultural systems. Why some aspects are chosen and others rejected or modified would depend on further research of the relevant traits within a particular culture.

Mortuary Rites and the Family •

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Within the family system, power relations are highly marked and concretized on the compound and lineage male heads. The daily interplay of power, authority and influence is incarnated and executed within the family structure among the Kom people. Lineage and compound heads who acquire their leadership by seniority, succession or building of compounds exercise power in the sense of achieving what they desire even by force [Miller 2007:260-261].

The power of the family heads however is often influenced by other factors, which may include religious affiliations, economic status of other lineage members, education and other similar considerations. It is generally taken for granted that the family heads have the authority or moral justification for acting and making decisions within the Kom people’s kinship system [Kom Cultural Foundation 2014:44]. As Mbzinu recognizes, the abe [homestead] headed by a bobe operates as the fundamental unit for political, social, economic, moral and religious cultural integration [1992:3]. Mortuary rites depend on decisions made from this fundamental unit in conjunction with the lineage leadership. Women, who are usually determinants of lineage affiliations through their fertility, do not possess authority for decision-making even though they may exert some degree of influence towards achieving some changes. Children in the family have a filial duty to obey and respect their parents and do not possess the authority for decisionmaking.

• The central residential unit for mortuary rites among the Kom people is the homestead. Some of the reasons given for the centrality of the compound in relation to the mortuary rites have an echo in the studies of Mbzinu [1992:8-10]. As a religious unit, the burial ceremony with the visible grave in the compound acts as a point of solidarity with the deceased relative where prayers and libations could be offered. The rites of cho’ti ngvu and pouring of libations have meaning within the family cultural context. It is the manner in which the family tries to be in solidarity with the dead. • There are other connected reasons for household burials such as ensuring that the compound of the deceased is not neglected, assurance of remembrance, increase of fertility and blessings of prosperity, uniting the family with the sense of identity and other such related symbolisms. One can recognize here the psychological and sociological dimensions of religion that play a role especially during the crisis periods such as death and burial.

• A visit to a number of compounds in the area of this study showed a number of families with mothers and children present and the fathers working outside especially in the South West Region of Cameroon. Mothers and children tend to form the majority of those seen in churches and other village social events. In trying to discover how major decisions are made when it comes to mortuary rites, the women and other men available affirmed that the male family heads have to decide. This was an assertion taken as the cultural norm. • It is common to see in the event of death, families waiting for the decision to come from the responsible male head even if he is living far away from the village. The decision of the family head is often in line with the fulfillment of customary regulations but becomes selective for Christian religious rituals, even if the deceased member belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. Once the responsible family head has decided, his authority is recognized so long as it corresponds more or less to the traditional customs.

• Conflicts and confrontations do arise when other members of the family who try to assert their influence and power do not appreciate the decisions. The resolutions of the conflicts tend to favour the family head with the moral authority to decide, on the condition that his decision is based on the customs of the Kom people. Family heads who have become Roman Catholics and show a greater affinity with the Church can make decisions in favour of mortuary rites to be conducted according to the requirements of Roman Catholicism, but the influence of other family members and the pressure exerted for various reasons can discourage a decision that is not seen as fulfilling the customs of the Kom people.

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A practical example was when one Kom Roman Catholic Christian man died and was supposed to be buried in the Church cemetery at Konene, a Bum village where the Christian in question had build his compound. The man’s eldest brother’s compound was at Yuwih, one of the Kom villages in the study area. Since the man had not build a compound in Komland, the eldest brother and some of the nephews decided that he had to be buried at Yuwih in his eldest brother’s compound. The wife and the children of the man wanted to bury him in the Konene Church cemetery. A conflict ensured which involved the police. Despite the threat of force by the police in order to ensure burial at Konene, the eldest brother and his nephews mobilized a group of young people to seize the corpse and bury it at Yuwih. A grave was dug at Yuwih in the eldest brother’s compound on the day the corpse was to be transported to Konene.

The villagers waited at the roadside until they saw the cortege guarded with gendarmes heading to Konene at around 8.p.m. The corpse was snatched out of the vehicle and burial conducted at night in the compound of the eldest brother at Yuwih. The wife, children and their supporters continued to Konene without the corpse, and with the apparent failure of the gendarmes to guarantee a safe passage to Konene with the corpse. The researcher witnessed this conflict which took place in August 2011. Conflicts continue to arise when the question of burial in the Church cemetery is raised.

• Women and children among the Kom people may be converted to the Roman Catholic Church but they lack the authority and often the power to make major decisions.

Formal education and Christian ideas may involve an individual change, which may not be effective in the political and social structure of the society. This depends very much on the power of decision-making which is embedded in family heads of compounds and lineages.

Understanding this patriarchal system from the fundamental unit is essential in the process of accounting for structural and group level changes. The decisions concerning mortuary rites depend on the male heads of families and reveal the most determinant force in cultural change among the Kom people.

• The impact of the Roman Catholic Christianity was facilitated by education and catechesis which led to changes such as burial in church cemeteries, the minimization of social ranks in burial, introduction of a different rite of burial espousing a different view of God and the supernatural world. This impact of Christianity was however brought into a culture that was responding to change not only towards religious beliefs, but also to factors such as the environment, enculturation, social stratification and family kinship power structures.

Similarities and Differences between the Rituals • Comparatively, the similarities between the Kom people’s burial rites and those of the Roman Catholic Church encompass a religious perspective, belief in the continuation of life after death, respect for the body and preference for interment, social role of solidarity, communion, remembrance and the importance of rituals and their symbolisms. • Remarkable differences are however seen in the understanding of God and the supernatural world, the concept of family and solidarity, the destiny of the dead and their communion with the living.

An integrating Burial Rite • Inculturation is a term that has been formulated within the Roman Catholic Church to express the need for adapting the Christian message to new cultures [The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia 2004]. The motivation for such an approach is to embrace a twofold movement of faith, which draws into the Christian worldview the appropriate values of each culture.

In a pluralistic and multicultural world, the challenge of change demands the recognition of particular cultural systems as dynamic and open entities, which are ready to embrace a give and take attitude for a harmonious co-existence. • Burial rituals among the Kom people reflect a particular worldview which can be deciphered and incorporated into the Roman Catholic Christian worldview. The inculturation of burial rites can contribute towards pluralism, unity and mutual enrichment between the Kom people and the Roman Catholic Church. This chapter offers a possible integral rite that can be adopted by the Roman Catholic Church in its encounter with the present burial customs of the Kom people. The recommendations for a possible inculturated rite will focus on cleansing rites, sacrificial and offering rites, rites at the grave and post-burial accompaniment.

• It is from the similarities and differences that a possible rite of burial is proposed in the process of inculturation which could focus on harmonising the cleansing rites, sacrificial and offering rites, rites at the grave and those of after the interment. These rites could be harmonized using the family compounds of the Kom people as places of burial in such a way that the give and take exercised by both parties could contribute practically towards a mutual understanding beneficial for the peaceful coexistence and integral approach towards the burial rituals

Cleansing Rites • It has been shown that during death among the Kom people, there was a tradition of cleansing the family house and the people from the harmful effects which death may bring to the living people. The symbolic gesture of burning medicinal leaves and using the smoke to cleanse the house and people from any evil associated with death could be incorporated in the Roman Catholic use of incense and holy water. • This ceremony can be done with the presence of the body in the compound, where a sizeable fire is lit and the medicinal leaves or incense burnt in it. The priest would then proceed to bless the fire from which he collects the burning charcoal in a sizeable container mixed with incense to provide enough smoke to incense the compound, corpse and the population as a gesture not only of showing the protective presence of God in death, but also the offering of the compound, the people and the dead to God and to the fellowship of those in the spiritual realm. Holy water can also be sprinkled as a sign of cleansing the family and all present from any evil influences, and praying for a life of reconciliation and purity of intention especially at the onset of the funeral rite. This ritual of cleansing can offer possibilities of reconciliation and healing of wounds of division, which may arise in the context of death.

Sacrificial and Offering Rites •

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In the funeral rite of the Christians of the Roman Catholic Mission, there is emphasis put on the celebration of the Holy Mass seen as the sacrifice of Christ who offered himself once and for all for the reconciliation of sinners. What the Church does is to celebrate the memorial of that sacrifice which Christ accomplished on the cross, offering himself for the salvation of humanity.

The traditional offerings of goats, fowls, corn and other items among the Kom people could be symbolically brought up during the part of the offertory within the Roman Catholic Mass and blessed, and their significance explained as an offering of appreciation for the life of the dead and the readiness to render thanks to all those who participate in the celebration of the funeral rites. Those who belong to associations like chong or akum could publicly bring up these gifts for blessing together with the family members. This can be done as a second offertory not to be used by the priest but left in the family for its use in the entertainment of different groups and associations.

Public recognition in the funeral rites of the traditional associations among the Kom people, especially through their leaders who are members of the Roman Catholic Church, is a more practical option towards demystifying their secrecy and preparing the ground for mutually understanding the symbolisms in a way that does not threaten other vested interests such as the economic benefits, which accrue to the associations.

Rites at the Grave •

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The grave among the Kom people can symbolize a house for the dead who sleep in the ancestral world. Preparations of graves can allow such flexibility that enables a practical and decent construction that either accommodates the front door burial or choice of any other convenient place within the compound. Use of blankets and other symbolic objects like written eulogies, crosses, flowers and peace-plants can be used as signs of farewell and prayers for the deceased. The grave will need to be dug by responsible people who respect the sacredness of such an act and do not get drunk and cause conflicts of misbehaviour around the grave. There should be an openness to allow women, children and different groups to surround the grave in an atmosphere of reverence.

The Roman Catholic ceremony of incensing the grave and sprinkling it with holy water could be already an indication of ifemi ise [blocking the grave], which is interpreted as blessing the grave and rendering the repose of the dead peaceful, and under God’s care and protection. Since there are gestures of burial done like throwing some earth into the grave as a symbol of burying the dead and wishing them farewell, various associations could be given a chance to lay in their symbols of farewell not excluding the use of grass, banana leaves and other materials which do not give an offensive significance to the sensibilities of all concerned. The symbols put at the grave after filling it with soil can encompass the stone and cross which can signify Christ the rock and the conqueror of death. These can also serve the common purpose of identifying the graves. The graves will become sacred places where the domestic Church frequently gathers for prayers in memory of the dead.

Post-Burial Accompaniment •

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The major event among the Kom people that publicly satisfies the psychological feelings of celebrating death and the conclusion of the burial rites is the idzi ikfu, which takes place on the third day after the interment of the dead. This significant day in the burial rituals of the Kom people is often left entirely for the performances and displays of the traditional associations, especially the akum, who dance masked and receive gifts for such performances. The rationale is to accord a dignified farewell to the dead.

What can be envisioned on this day is a preparation of different groups in mutual accord to come in and have time allocated for singing, dancing and speeches, where the Christians also participate as part and parcel of the wider fabric of society with different talents and skills to help integrate the family into the routine duties of social life. Since the members of different associations such as akum or chong are capable of embracing the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church, it would be easier to have them become agents of transforming their groups into associations that purely entertain and help to neutralize the beliefs connected with the use of dangerous medicine and harm to those who look at or encounter their members in action. It is possible for example to have Roman Catholic Christians who dance with masks which are used not to scare but to demonstrate the idea of all belonging to the corporate social group of humanity.

Conclusion • It has been seen through this research that the concept of the family for the Kom man does not exist in the abstract but is incarnated within the family structure in which the family compound is the visible concrete manifestation. The greater the presence and solidarity shown to the family in especially the family compound, the more easy it is for them to conceptualize what a Christian family is. Refusal therefore to bury Christians in their family compounds where they have spent a greater percentage of their lifetime, tends to alienate the Kom person from what is essential in building a base from which wider implications of the family concept and the vision of God, as presented in the Christianity of the Roman Catholic Church could be understood and applied. The above adaptive rites will therefore, if put into practice, help to harmoniously inculturate the values of the Roman Catholic Christianity into the culture of the Kom people and give an interaction that is healthier for the progress of humanity while avoiding sectarian and divisive particularism springing from a conservative and fearful attitude towards change.

• This research has attempted to highlight some aspects of interest in the dynamics of culture and religious change through the burial rituals of the Kom people and their interaction with Roman Catholic Christianity.

The Kom people’s culture is complex. Burial rituals are part of that cultural complexity which this research cannot pretend to have comprehensively elaborated.

There are aspects that would need to be looked into and better expounded in order to ensure a practical and appropriate encounter of different worldviews.

The proposal given in the inculturated Roman Catholic rite of burial could be an appropriate text for implementation and critique spurring further research and application.

Photographs •

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An informant stands next to the grave of the compound head whom he succeeded.

The researcher conducting a burial ceremony of a Catechist in the Church cemetery outside the villages of study.

The Church cemetery of the Njinikom Roman Catholic Church.

Some distinctive ways of constructing graves in the Njinikom Church cemetery.

An informant who heads the Akum association of Bolem village being interviewed by the researcher.

A typical homestead architecture among the Kom people.

An informant stands on top of a stone under which the medicine believed to protect crops against bad muso is burried.

The area at Luh village where bodies were burried in a cave.

Machine for grinding maize into the flour which is used to cook foofoo, the staple food among the Kom people.

The Catholic Mission Church building at Mboh village. It is the first Catholic Mission built in the area of this study Motorcycles are the main means of transport in the area of this study.

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The researcher interviewing a member of the kwifoyn association in Kom.

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• Gourd used for serving palm wine • Gourds for palm wine • Medicinal leaves burnt at the junctions to homesteads after a villager at Aduk was burnt to death.

• The central Roman Catholic Church at Ilung where the researcher resides and works.

• The children are valued among the Kom people. Children are trained to work from an early age.

• The grave of the quarter head of Ilung village who was a bochong and his successor.

• The type of guns used in alerting people on the day of burial • A modern way of constructing the grave with a wayn ise.