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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines how the Covid restrictions interfered and created new dynamics in the Bukusu burial ritual. It also explores how technology was employed, to a limited level, to create virtual attendance and performance of the burial ritual.

Paper long abstract:

The mourning, burial, and transitional mechanisms among the Bukusu community of western Kenya are structured to allow for both the dead and the living to (re) integrate in the (new) world. Failure to adhere to any of the steps in the burial process is said to deny the dead from successful entry into the spiritual world and the living from pursuing a normal life after the departure of their loved ones. With a strong belief in life after death, the funeral ritual is both used as a means to help the family come to terms with the death and also help the dead to transit from the living to the living dead. The livings have to facilitate the dead in this liminal state and assign them a new identity to transit into the living dead. The mourning period is also transitional for the children of the deceased who become orphans, and the spouses who either become widows or widowers. The Covid 19 rules and restrictions limited the time and number of people who could attend a burial and eliminated physical interaction either among the mourners or with the deceased. This effectively curtailed the Bukusu burial ritual from taking place. This paper examines how the Covid restrictions interfered and created new dynamics in the Bukusu burial ritual. It also explores how technology was employed, to a limited level, to create virtual attendance and performance of the burial ritual.

Keyword: funeral rituals, death, liminality, performance, transition, Covid 19