African funeral rites: sites for performing, participating and witnessing of trauma

African funerals (rites of passage in Gennep's sense) use elements of social drama (Turner 1974, 1986), restored behaviours (Schechner 1985) and socio-cultural arbitrations to negotiate deeply-rooted psychological, emotional, mental and spiritual turbulences that continue beyond bereavement. Trauma, as used in this article incorporates a wide range of deep-rooted hurts arising from and associated with bereavement; the terms victim, mourner and survivor refer to the bereaved but with none of the legal and philological overtones associated with them in medicine, law of tort, and jurisprudence. The article focuses on men's funerals, referring to women and youngsters only where necessary