What else would you like to share with our readers?
I would like to urge them on to be encouraged, inspired and empowered. I believe your platform actually helps to provide knowledge and helps every bride no matter where they are. To me, this platform should be a platform where every bride and bride-to-be should be and it’s a very interesting part of our lives. As a woman when you are getting married, you become sensitive, you become very anxious, very troubled, you have mixed emotions and you need a platform where you have assurance that the people you are working with are credible because the research that a bride has to do is all on the platform. So I believe that this is a place they need to come to have everything done. They can also acquire knowledge, ideas – because I believe your page gives every bride perfect ideas for their wedding and I think it’s a good thing you started. I must applaud your team because it’s not an easy journey. it’s capital intensive and very tedious. You have to keep up-to-date and look to get a lot of people who need you. We need you as much as you need us and the brides also need you, and, equally the grooms. Sometimes the groom doesn’t know what to wear but when they go on your platform, there are a number of choices provided for them to choose from so I think you’ve come to the point where you’re a one-stop shop.
We know that burials are big in Ghana, Why?
That’s a very tough question, but ehhhh, it’s because it’s like; in our country it’s like paying the last respects to the deceased. It’s so important; we fill that it is the moment we need to acknowledge the person’s achievement and life, style and everything and proclaim the goodwill of the person so we make it pronounced.
It depends on the clan. There are different clans, tribes and regions. All these different regions have different ways of having their funerals. Some of them – let’s say the Muslim community, that very day, the dead is buried. Take the Ashanti community for example, they have to wear their black outfit. Black in our culture means sorrow, compared to Nigeria, where black outfit is one you can rock any day, even to a wedding. In Ghana, you can’t wear black to any wedding. Black is like a bad omen. You come to somebody’s wedding with a black outfit, I think everybody would be looking at you with an awkward eye. We associate red and black with pain, sorrow or a loss so for me I think it has to do with what culture it is.
The Ashanti’s have their method which is very detailed. It has been passed on from generation to generation. All these funerals involve the coming together of two families. For example, a man has his father’s side and mother’s side come together to mourn his passing. The funeral therefore has a huge turn out as both sides of the family come together to mourn the dead. In our country, if you schooled your classmates will attend, if you’re a church member your church members will attend, if you’re working your colleagues will attend, if you’re a member of a social group, your social group members will attend also. Just to give you a picture of the huge crowd that forms because they all want to pay their last respects hence the turnout. It then seems like a big party because people are hosted and food and drinks are provided to cater, especially for attendees from far places. The actual fact is that funerals involve mourning the dead without provision of food and drinks but considering the people and the distances they have to travel, you end up providing refreshments and food.
We have a particular symbol – we pick a particular asoebi to symbolize the death of the person. Therefore, you notice a common design in the outfits of the guests which indicates that there is a meaning attached to the attire. All our traditional clothes have meanings. They are filled with the adinkra symbols of our Ghanaian culture. ‘damrifa due’ means ‘oh so sorry for your pain’ and that’s one cloth used for our funerals. You’ll notice that you find everybody in the same outfit, sometimes it depicts the family members. The moment you see the people wearing a common outfit at a funeral you know straight away that they are related to the deceased. It’s quite interesting that it has become bigger than it used to be. I think the reason could be that you now have cultures that have mixed with each other although some people still keep their culture sacred and maintain the one week celebration of the death before the main ceremony. The one week celebration is not just a celebration. This is the period that the family announces the death to the public so if you don’t have a proper understanding of what is going on you might mix up the occasion as a celebration whereas it is a proclamation/ announcement to the public of the death of the deceased and making known the burial date. So you find that people see it as two parties whereas it’s not a party but a gathering to communicate information. On the burial day, you have the church or the society playing a special role.
You are unaware of your birth and your death, but aware of your wedding. Shouldn’t a wedding be more elaborate from a celebratory perspective compared to a burial?
Ok, what happens with a wedding is that a wedding is usually funded by the couple (or the couple’s family) and depends on their budget. For a funeral, the budget is not just tied to the two families but also the well being of the person that just passed. Sometimes the person who may have passed would have acquired a lot of wealth, tied with popularity and a lot of people know him/her. Although the person would typically be a quiet person, his/her popularity would draw a lot of people into paying their condolences whereas in actuality the occasion is a painful situation for the family. It’s not really a celebration. What they do is after the burial, they go for a thanksgiving service which is when you experience what is called the third party/occasion.
The first occasion is an announcement and not a party. It’s actually a gathering but because there’s refreshment and music, people easily mistake it for a party. People are in a sorrowful mood but because there are guests, you have to attend to them. Some people are thirsty, some hungry, some travel distances to come for the occasion and you need to host them. For the main funeral as well, people may have traveled from far and wide to come and mourn with you and you can’t just have them come without having refreshments.
The following Sunday or week after the burial ceremony, a thanksgiving holds also to thank everyone who attended the ceremony and typically the guests at the funeral are the same guests at the thanksgiving giving you an opportunity to say thanks to all of them at once.
Thank you so much, we feel like we’ve had you talk so much today which you must not have expected.
You’re welcome. Thank you too, for having me.
VISIT Prime Shades on Iludio
