“Bones in the Wrong Soil”: An Idiomatic Metaphour for Reflecting on the African Psychology of Death and the Afterlife

In African traditions, people die only in body and not in spirit, continuing to live as ancestors or members of the living-dead. This essay examines how this psychology of death and the afterlife, drawn from John S. Mbiti's work, dominates the thoughts and anxieties of displaced Ugandan refugees whose relatives died and were buried in refugee camps away from ancestral homes. The analysis draws on questions about conditions for a successful afterlife experience from Jahn & Wilhelm-Solomon's 2015 article.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In his book, African Religions and Philosophy, Professor John S. Mbiti boldly affirms that in Africa people die only in body and not in spirit. In making such a generalized claim about Africans and their notions of death and the afterlife Mbiti appears to suggest the implication that in Africa people die only to continue living, everything being equal, as ancestors or members of the living-dead. This critical essay aims to demonstrate how the African psychology of death and the afterlife is encapsulated in Mbiti’s (1969) assertion and how an aspect of it could be found dominating the thoughts and anxieties of displaced Ugandan refugees whose relatives died and were buried in their refugee camps away from their ancestral home. To interrogate this theme, some pertinent questions and answers relating to African understanding of the conditions of possibility for a successful experience in afterlife will be drawn from the incisive article by Jahn & Wilhelm-Solomon published in 2015.