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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Karama and zikr: mourn the dead, celebrate the living
| Panel |
55. Gender and death in Africa
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| Paper ID | 716 |
| Author(s) |
Willemse, Karin
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | In this paper I will discuss two aspects of the funerary rites as practiced among Muslims in the Sudan: the Karama, or thanksgiving meal, and the zikr, or religious recitation. Apart from the more general and compulsory burial rites, the ritual meal or karama is an important way of commemorating the deceased and at the same time a celebration of life by articulating the networks of the bereaved at the meal: as participants both in preparing, financing and consuming the meal. The zikr is a practice among adherents of sufi orders and is also a practice in which the living celebrate their common identity while commemorating the deceased. Both rituals are gendered and at the same time mark a transformation of the identities of the closest relatives of the deceased: they thus acquire an identity of loss, such as widow, orphan etc. In my analysis I will relate to the Work of Mourning by Derrida, who perceived mourning as preceding and following death. Derrida articulated a model of mourning as an ongoing conversation with the dead who are both within us and beyond us, and who trigger issues of responsibility and transformation among those who are left behind. |
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