8. THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN FUNERALS
Among the Bulsa, male and female roles and spaces for action are clearly separated. Men are responsible for most of the work and organization in agriculture and animal husbandry; women only take on religiously tinged activities in these areas, such as planting seeds in prefabricated seed holes. In addition, wives of compound heads can receive pieces of land from their husbands on which they grow millet and other crops with the help of men.
Similarly, the religious sphere of life is almost entirely occupied by men, who serve as the link to the ancestors and other supernatural powers. Indeed, only men are authorized to sacrifice to shrines. When Bulsa say that women can also sacrifice to the shrines, it means they provide the gifts for the sacrifice and men (e.g. fathers or husbands) make these sacrifices for them.
In political life, closely linked in ancient times to military activities, men were and are the leaders in traditional Bulsa society. A few officeholders are elected, such as the chief (naab) and the subchief (kambonnaab). Most political and social leadership positions arise from a man’s genealogical position within their lineage. Women are thus responsible chiefly for household chores, such as food preparation and child-rearing.
Locally, the spheres of men and women are also separated. For religious activities, such as those at ancestral shrines, men’s gatherings and celebrations occur in front of the compound (pielim). A woman carries out her activities mainly inside the compound. She has a separate courtyard with, for example, a bedroom, kitchen, and grinding room; in the past, a man did not even have a separate sleeping room in the compound – he instead slept alternately with his wives. The space behind the compound (naangaang) is also associated with women, as is particularly evidenced by the funeral descriptions.
The strict separation of roles between men and women is profoundly compromised during funeral celebrations. A funeral visitor notices immediately that women determine the activities and their organization. Although not readily apparent, the older men sit in their kusung-dok, forming an organizational centre shielded from the outside world. Only during their frequent singing-dancing processions around the compound do they attract the attention of everyone present. Conversely, the women’s activities at funerary celebrations are not limited to those of the roles traditionally ascribed to them as cooks and servers of food but deeply encroach on the roles traditionally ascribed to men, such as performing sacrifices and drumming.
According to the terminology of the Bulsa, ‘daughters’ (ko-lieba, yeri-lieba) and ‘wives’ (pooba) can be distinguished among the related participants of a funeral celebration. By the former, the Bulsa refer to married or unmarried women who belong to the lineage of the compound but may be married as wives outside their patrilineal lineage. The ‘wives’ are women who have married into the compound or its lineage and may be daughters-in-law of a deceased older man. The ‘daughters’ play more of a passive role in the celebrations. They are painted and identified by conspicuous clothing (e.g. red caps). When preparing food, they (along with other householders and neighbours) supply the ingredients; the ‘wives’ cook and serve it.
According to Bulsa information, a ‘daughter’ who dies unmarried or returns to her parental home after a failed marriage and dies there receives a young man’s funeral celebration. All rites associated with it are performed in front of the compound (the ‘men’s side’). However, during a Juka celebration, her clay pots and calabashes – rather than a (non-existent) quiver – are destroyed in front of the compound.
The daughters-in-law of the deceased play more active roles in performing the rites. They perform the women’s sinsangula rattling and singing next to the death mat; later, they carry the death mats out and back into the house. They also break clay pots and calabashes of a deceased woman at the Juka celebration and plaster the deceased’s grave. The impersonator (che-liewa) of the dead man is also one of his daughters-in-law. She plays a vital role in the parik kaabka sacrifice. In addition, the daughters-in-law may be supported in some rites, such as the singing of the sinsangula songs, by wives from other compounds or other lineages. The most crucial activities of the daughters and daughters-in-law will be described and discussed below.
8.1 Preparation of food and drinks for funeral participants and sacrifices
These activities are by no means carried out as a matter of course in the background of the events. Instead, food and drink preparations occur partly outside the kitchens in the courtyards or behind the compound. Two of the celebrations’ days have even received their names after these activities: the kpaata-dai (or kpaam-tue-dai; ‘shea oil day’ or ‘oily beans day’) on the third day of the Kumsa celebrations and the siira-manika-dai, the first day of the Juka funeral.
Ulrike Blanc (1993: 197f) describes the activities of the kpaata-dai as follows (Translation F.K.):
‘Often, the food preparations last the whole day. Sometimes, they extend into the night until the food is distributed to the relatives the next morning. The female members of the house where the funeral celebration takes place provide beans and millet for the millet porridge (kpaata-saab). …The daughters-in-law of the deceased are responsible for preparing the kpaam-tue, i.e. the same women who perform the imitation (cherika)’.
The primary purpose of the bean dish (tue and suma) is its use as sacrificial food the subsequent day when the offering to the compound wall (parik kaabka) occurs.
Notably, an ancient order is reversed in the prepared food’s distribution. In everyday life, the wife offers prepared food to her husband first, and she and her children consume the leftovers; at sacrifices, it is strictly forbidden (kisuk) to eat some of the food before the sacrifice. On kpaata-dai, however, the women and children eat part of the bean dish first, then the men in the kusung-dok. Thereafter, a woman offers the rest to the compound wall the next day (parik kaabka).
The name siira-manika-dai (the day of preparing millet porridge) for the third day of the Juka funeral celebration is probably used at least as frequently as two others, referencing the two most important events of that day. The first is lok-tuilika-dai (the day of burning the quiver); the second is puuta-dai (the day of the puuk pots) when the vessels of a deceased wife are destroyed.
On the sira-manika-dai, the millet porridge with ingredients is also consumed by house inhabitants and guests before its sacrifice. In addition, a black calabash is among the numerous vessels with food for visitors (see photo) and for the later offering to a bow and quiver.
8.2 Women and death mats
At funeral celebrations, the deceased are officially represented by their death mats. Immediately after the person’s death and burial, all mourners walk, loudly wailing, to the death mat in the room where the person died or was laid out after death. Later, the mat is ritually hung under the ceiling in the kpilima dok (dalong). The first woman of the compound (the Ama) is in charge of all the mats kept there.
At the beginning of the Kumsa funeral celebrations, gravediggers bring the mats to the main courtyard (Amadok), where the Ama must state exactly which mat belongs to which of the deceased. The gravediggers then make bloodless chicken offerings to the mats, but their transport to the central millet storage (bui) is performed by the women. After the mat is positioned at the bui in the cattle yard, wives from other lineages and compounds sit around the mat(s) and, accompanied by sinsangula basket rattles, sing laments in honour of the deceased on the first and second days (and in some regions, also on the fourth day, the gbanta dai) [endnote 120].
For funeral celebrations, a precentor is appointed beforehand by the women. Usually, this role is occupied by the oldest woman, who can then pass on this task to a younger one with good vocal qualities (Inf. Yaw 1997).
On the second day (tika dai) of the Kumsa funeral celebrations, two sinsangula women each carry the death mats of the married women out of the compound to a shade tree. Here, the sinsangula women again gather around the mat, next to which lies a stirring stick (Wiaga) and an empty calabash bowl. When the mats (with the souls of the dead) are to be carried back to the compound, these souls express their wishes forcefully. Some run with their bearers in the direction of their parents’ houses. Others cause their bearers to stumble and fall, delaying the retreat. Yet others, driven by the same purpose, approach visitors from their home section with prancing movements. In our context, the female mat-bearers here become recipients and executors of orders from the deceased.
After all the mats are returned to their place at the millet store, the male gravediggers become responsible for their further treatment. They carry them to an open field, where they burn them.
On the fourth day (gbanta dai) of the Kumsa, the sinsangula women receive at least one sheep, one goat, or both as part of the siinika gifts. They go to the old men’s kusung-dok, accompanied by the female impersonator (see below). According to U. Blanc (2000: 211), they make their demand three (referencing the male principle) or four times (referencing the female principle). The compound head thanks the sinsangula women for helping him remove the dirt (daung) from his house and donates one bottle of akpeteshi, three bundles of millet, one live goat (cheri-goat), and money. This concludes the sinsangula performances for the entire funeral celebration.
In addition, I experienced the women receiving a goat or sheep during the general gift distribution during the siinika ritual (usually on the second day). One of them had to kill this animal immediately without spilling blood, meaning she had to try and strangle it with her hands and stand on its neck. When this failed, a man killed it with a knife. Because it was seen as women’s business, the killing had to be done in the cattle yard.
Women are never allowed to slaughter animals in everyday life but must ask a boy to kill them before meals. The bloodless killing at the funeral is probably a compromise, as such an act of killing by women is otherwise unknown to me.
8.3 Imitation (cherika or che-deka) [endnote 121]
On the first, second, and fourth days of Kumsa funerary celebrations, the deceased is impersonated via the funerary mat as well as by a living woman who wears the dead person’s clothes and performs scenes from their life in small impromptu pieces [endnote 122]. Note, however, that this impersonation is conducted in a less official and slightly humorous way.
The impersonator (che-lie, pl. che-lieba) is generally a woman for male and female deceased alike. For a deceased male, this impersonator is usually one of his daughters-in-law. Acting ability decides the choice among the women (e.g. among the daughters-in-law).
While the dressing of the female impersonator is highly pedantic and accessories to the clothes are not forgotten (e.g. sunglasses, walking sticks, pipes, cigarettes), there is a stark difference between the male dead and the female impersonator in terms of gender. This could arise due to the desire to increase the fun and entertainment and offer something like comic relief to the mourners. However, this gender difference fits with the thesis presented below: The roles and values of everyday life are negated – even reversed – in the celebrations of the dead.
According to Leander Amoak, a dead woman can be represented by a female relative from her lineage [endnote 123] or, as I have directly experienced, by a woman of a younger generation who has married into her husband’s compound [endnote 124].
In death celebrations, the importance of imitation goes beyond mere entertainment. It is indispensable for funerary celebrations and strictly forbidden during secular festivities (tiga, Sing. tigi) [endnote 125] for a deceased person. According to Robert Asekabta (Sandema, 2018), the impersonator may also perform the following other functions at the Kumsa celebration, which may vary by region:
1) Take the mat to the main grain store (bui).
2) Brew the pito by the grain store.
3) Supervise the extraction of shea butter from the shea nuts.
4) Boil the beans.
5) Boil the bitter pito (datuek).
6) Paint all the children and grandchildren of the deceased, including his brothers and cousins, with red clay.
In other words, the che-lie acts as the manager of the funeral in the nangkpieng.
In addition, Leander Amoak informed me (in 1981) that the che-lie has taken over many other ritual tasks. She paints, for example, the close relatives of a deceased with a red laterite colour (see No. 6 above). However, I cannot take this information at face value. At Anyenangdu’s funeral celebration, for example, married-in women from neighbouring compounds brought the death mat to the storehouse . The painting of close relatives with red laterite clay was performed by a woman from a neighbouring compound.
A peculiar event is the meeting of the female impersonator with the elders in the kusung-dok [endnote 126]. She unabashedly sits down with the old men (something a woman would not otherwise dare to do) and plays ignorant about who they are and what is happening (‘Why are you here in this compound?’). In response, she learns, for example, that the compound head, whom she embodies, has died.
8.4 Women sacrifice to the compound wall
As stated earlier, most Bulsa religious activities are managed and enacted by men. Women may have an animal sacrificed by their husband, father, or compound head, but they may not pour a libation over a sacrificial stone or even kill an animal over a shrine on their own. To my knowledge, the only active sacrificial activity tasked to women occurs at the parik kaabka: the millet porridge and bean offering to the compound wall. The course of this sacrifice will be briefly outlined below.
Around noon on the gbanta dai, women begin preparing millet porridge for the deceased men at the front (west) and for the deceased women at the back (east) of the compound.
According to G. Achaw (Sandema), this food preparation for women always occurs near the room where the woman died. Shortly after the porridge’s completion, two women run from the back of the compound four times (referencing the female principle) and from the front three times (referencing the male principle) around the compound (in practice, this run is often greatly shortened). The imitator, one of the women, beats a cylinder drum, an activity reserved only for men in everyday life. She is also supposed to imitate the dead in this activity. The other woman (who often walks only a short distance) holds a stirring stick with millet porridge in her hands.
Soon after, the sacrifices occur on the west wall, at the separation line of the zamonguuni entrance pillar and the outer wall. First, one woman pours millet water against the wall, while another covers her eyes. Then, this second woman kneads hot millet porridge onto the stirring stick, brushes it with hot oil, and puts a piece in another woman’s hands. With a third woman covering her eyes, the latter brushes the porridge against the wall with both hands from bottom to top. She then ‘sacrifices’ the remains of the bean dish prepared on the kpaata-dai. If the funeral celebration is held for deceased men and women, the sacrificial process is performed similarly in front of and behind the compound. The remaining millet porridge is first served to the sons and daughters. Then, numerous cheng bowls are filled with this porridge and the meat of cheri-dungsa animals, all of which will be given to the older men and sons-in-law.
The women’s sacrificial activities at the wall differ in some regards from those of the men’s ordinary sacrifices:
1. The procedure is slightly different. No clear water is poured before the hot food, nor is it poured afterwards. No prayers are said, no speeches are made, and the offering is not placed on a shrine but smeared on a vertical wall, which is not regarded as sacred in ordinary life.
2. On no other occasion are beans offered to a shrine by men.
3. The male sacrificer to other shrines is determined according to seniority. The female sacrificer to the wall does not belong to the lineage of the house but is appointed by other women [endnote 127], and her role is limited to this one activity.
4. It is also unusual that the eyes of a sacrificing person are covered, although it happens in the pobsika ritual after a woman gives birth. Perhaps there is some danger for the woman in this rite after all.
Here and in other activities for celebrating the dead, women indeed exercise extraordinary rights that would otherwise have challenged the old order. Concurrently, however, these rites involve restrictions (e.g. the woman’s eyes must be closed), and failure to observe them can have severe consequences. Comparably, on kpanta dai, everyone may eat from the bean dish before the sacrifice; at ordinary sacrifices, however, such behaviour can have fatal consequences.
The question arises of whether the ‘smearing’ of millet porridge and a bean dish on the house wall can accurately be called a sacrifice. Indeed, it is not a sacrifice in the usual (i.e. traditional) sense. However, Bulsa men use the verb kaabi (to sacrifice) for this activity, which is also used for all other sacrifices performed by men; women, according to Yaw (2008), use the verb taari [endnote 128] (to plaster) for their activity. Men even call the wall to which the women sacrificed a bogluk (shrine).
It must also be remembered that the meat for the millet porridge comes from cheri-dungsa animals, which were not sacrificed but killed in honour of the dead without shrines; anyone could perform this killing.
After the women’s sacrifice, a man sometimes sacrifices a chicken to the western compound wall. In Guuta, I found that the sacrificing man did not expose his upper body in the process, as is usually the case, nor was the chicken consumed by a sacrificial group.
Aduedem (2019: 21) describes this male sacrifice thus:
After this [the gbanta-divination], the sons and other relatives bring a fowl (a small one this time) to the elders, and they give it to the kobisa. They take it and go to the parik, the wall joining the main entrance, and slaughter it. They use the blood to smear the wall and then throw it into the ashes where the cheri-saab was prepared. Children pick it up and roast it.
The opinions of my informants differ about the actual recipients of the sacrifice to the wall. Leander Amoak explained to me in 1973 that the zamonguuna entrance pillars receive sacrifices because they also serve as ‘storage bins’. According to my observations, however, they are never used as granaries. In 1996, Leander’s son, Danlardy, said that the final recipients of the food are the ancestors and not the compound wall. According to U. Blanc (2000: 215f), a symbolic repair of the building is possibly implied here.
8.5 The widows (pokonga, sing. pokong) [endnote 129]
At Bulsa funeral celebrations, one can almost determine a hierarchy among the mourning relatives from how the body is painted with red daluk clay and the amount of paint applied. Distant relatives and strangers (if they are affected) often receive only one coat of paint on the face – for example, on the forehead or, like a tribal scar, on one cheek. Sons and daughters are elaborately marked with paint on their faces, arms and legs. Sometimes, the entire upper body of women is painted red. Daughters wear red caps, and the youngest son wears a bell on his belt or around his neck. Nevertheless they fully participate in the festive hustle and bustle of the celebrations, enjoy their cheerful components and are glad to be depicted in photos. According to my information, this alteration to their appearance prevents the dead person from recognizing them, which would enable the deceased to take the living person with them into the dead realm.
How are the widows of the deceased included in this order? They do not wear paint or a red cap or bell. They are largely isolated inside the compound, and when they come out of the compound, they appear only in groups. Although I, as a foreign guest, was allowed to photograph everything and everybody during the funeral celebrations, taking photos of widows was expressly prohibited. Still, there are two noteworthy ritual events where the widows are the centre of attention: the ritual bath with her head-hair being shaved on the fourth day of the Kumsa and the remarriage on the third day of the Juka celebration.
Some rites, involving widows, precede the funeral celebrations, such as the placement of the widow’s braided or twisted fibre cords around her neck and waist, preceded by a complete shaving of her head and, typically, a bath. The widow’s cords symbolize the still-close relationship of the widow to her spouse and should only be taken off after remarriage.
In the past, widows were dressed only in red-coloured fibre aprons during funeral celebrations; even today, they wear them over or under their cloth-based dresses. According to a Sandema informant, these (perhaps along with the other cords) are ritually disposed of by tossing them over the compound’s back wall (naangaang) at the end of the funeral.
At some funeral celebrations (e.g. in Sandema-Kalijiisa, Wiaga-Chantiinsa and Wiaga-Guuta), I observed that the widows also wore white headbands carried millet stalks in their hands. In more recent times, some follow the Akan custom and wear dark red or black dresses and headscarves.
All ritual activities are performed under the direction of an experienced woman, the jom-suiroa, and this woman is also responsible for the other rites performed on the widows during the funeral celebrations.
During the bathing of the widows on the fourth day (gbanta) of the Kumsa celebration, the group of widows in full-cloth clothing moves from the compound’s interior to the compound’s western outer wall. They are surrounded by other women at the wall so that no outsider can observe the bathing process.
Far from having a refreshing or purely hygienic character, the bath is intended to cleanse widows from their ritual impurities and is an atonement for faults committed against their late husbands. Aggressive and intentionally painful components seem to play a role.
According to one statement, the water is so scalding hot that burns may sometimes occur. For this, however, the water shaker is not made responsible. It means that the widow was not faithful to her husband during her marriage, especially in the time between her husband’s death and his funeral celebration. My informant, G. Achaw, reports (1973) that in Sandema-Kalijiisa widows are also beaten with thorn branches in some parts of this section.
After the bath, the liik pot that contained the hot water and some of the leaf aprons (vaata) remain at the bathing corner (see photo). Later the aprons should be kept in the widows’ room until the Juka celebration, but since they decay quickly, people keep only a few leaves or replace them with new ones for the Juka.
In Agaab Yeri (Chantiinsa), they place some branches over the liik-vessel and the vaata after the bath to prevent anyone from accidentally touching a widow’s leaves, for this would mean, that the offender be obligated to marry this widow.
The rites associated with the bath of the widows are repeated in a similar form on the second day of the Juka celebration, which even received its name after it: nyaata-soka-dai (the day of the bath). A hair cutter comes to the compound and shaves all the widows’ heads bald. In the evening, water is heated at the garbage heap (tampoi) for the widows’ bath, which takes place as described above. After a meal for the widows, also served at the tampoi, all widows are led back to their living quarters.
As reported here, the behaviours of and towards the widows are difficult to explain. However, it must be remembered that widows were and remain strangers in their husband’s compound. Unlike their sons and daughters, they do not belong to the deceased’s lineage, and even outside of funeral celebrations, there is a certain distrust of married-in women, who are not allowed to know, for example, any secrets from the family history. These assumptions are contradicted by the fact that the sons’ wives, who are also strangers, do not experience any isolation and even perform part of the general rites (e.g. the imitation of the deceased person). One reason may be that their position within the compound is unaffected by the death of the mourned and thus they do not pass through a liminal phase as the widows of the deceased do.
In some aspects, the widows can be compared with the deceased’s sons-in-law who are also strangers. These attend the Kumsa celebration on the fourth day (gbanta) and are isolated under a shade tree about 100 metres from the compound when they arrive. They are not allowed to enter the compound until important rites (e.g. parik kaabka and gbanta) have been concluded.
Although the widows’ strangeness to the compound may influence their treatment, it is not a sufficient explanation. Further research on Bulsa death celebrations, especially among the southern Bulsa, neglected here, might help clarify the question raised.
The second major widow ritual involves their remarriage on the third day of the Juka. During the time between the two funeral celebrations, the men of the compound may court a widow by visiting her more frequently and giving her small gifts. When the intervening period is long, firm ties have already been formed, which are later confirmed in the ritual of remarriage.
On the remarriage day, the widows gather in the room of the Ama (the most senior wife) while the men meet in the kusung. Through a messenger of the men, the women are asked one after the other whom they wish to marry. It is proper for the woman to give an evasive answer to the first question, such as ‘Nyiamu diem tuila kama’ (The water is not hot yet).
After the woman’s selection, the chosen man gives his new wife gifts, such as money and a guinea fowl (Mutuensa 1981). According to Aduedem (Sandema 2019), he gives the ‘presiding woman’ (jom-suiroa) a basket of millet, a guinea fowl, millet beer, and tobacco.
A widow is expected to marry a man from her deceased husband’s compound; here, too, the men’s claims are staggered without necessarily being observed by the widow in this sequence. The sons of her living or deceased ‘co-wives’ have the greatest claim because they sacrifice to the deceased. Marriage to a man of the ko-bisa (close relatives of the compound most which are living in the neighbourhood) is not encouraged but is accepted. If the widow wants to marry a man from another section (lineage), she will leave the compound and return to her parents’ house before undergoing the ritual of remarriage. There, a new courtship occurs with all the payments and rituals required of a first marriage. Should a remarriage occur in the deceased’s compound, the woman’s parental home is merely informed without needing to perform any marriage rituals or offer gifts.
The widow can also renounce a new husband on the remarriage day. When asked about her choice, she may answer, for example, ‘I marry my husband’s grave’ (Maa yali n chorowa boosuku). Or, she may choose a deceased man from the compound whose funeral service has not yet been held. Often, in such a case, she also names a young boy. In all these cases, she remains living in the compound and is taken care of, for example, by her adult sons. Still, a compound head does not like to see childbearing women opting to forego a new marriage.
After remarriage, ‘widows’ used to take off their leaf or fibre aprons and wear cloth clothes again.
ENDNOTES (8)
120 According to U. Blanc (2000), a distinction must be made between the sinsangula-yiila of the wives of the funerary section and the kum-yiila of the married daughters.
121 An exact meaning of the verb cheri (che) could not be given to me. Cf. also zong-zuk-cheka (ritual of the first day of Kumsa).
122 Examples of small scenes from the life of the deceased, as played by the impersonator, can be found in the main part of this work.
123 This information seems somewhat dubious to me. At the very least, it is unlikely to be a woman related by blood who is emotionally affected by the death of the imitated woman.
124 My deceased cook, Agoalie, for example, was imitated by the daughter-in-law of another of her husband’s wives.
125 Once a year, Anamogsi organised a tigi feast for his father Anyenangdu, who died in 1973. The Badomsa music band came to Anyenangdu Yeri, and dances were performed on the pielim. The highlight was the procession to the market, where I had to walk next to Anamogsi in Bulsa clothes, and Anyenangdu’s photo was carried ahead of the procession. Dances took place again at the market.
126 The sinsangula women accompanying her (see above) remain at the entrance.
127 At Anyenangdu’s funeral, it was Asiukpienlie, his daughter-in-law.
128 While men build buildings and shrines out of clay, it is the woman’s job to plaster them (taari).
129 The Buli term only refers to women from the time of their husband’s death up to and including the (first?) funeral celebration.