While death was considered the last phase of life by many communities, it was an adored rite of passage among the Nandi. The Nandi, a Highland Nilotic community occupying the lush Nandi County believed that life was cyclic. For them, it continued beyond the physical realm into the spirit world, before spurning back into the physical again through birth. Death wasn’t pondered upon in sadness and mortal fear. It paved the way for birth, as the dead were reintroduced into society through newborn babies.
To further their belief of life after death, the Nandi associated tremors and earthquakes known as girgirenet with ancestors moving underground where they were believed to live. If one happened to have not heard the tremors, it was believed that their ancestors weren’t among the ones migrating to new places.
Death rituals varied among members of the community. When parents died, two supporting stones out of the three at the fireplace known as goik ab maa were removed. The supporting stone on the right was removed when a father died while the left one was gotten rid of with a mother’s passing. The death of fathers of households prompted the cutting of kimonjok – the wooden tip of the family’s hut – so that members of the community could know that they no longer had the head of the household.
Death was also an age issue among the Nandi. After intervals of five to ten years following a bountiful harvest season, older members of the Nandi community had the option of doing away with themselves in a ceremony blessed by community elders called sheu morobi. The name took after the Sheu Morobi Cliffs – that still stand today – where the rite would take place.
The Nandi only buried children and elders who had died of old age and hadn’t undergone sheu. Corpses of the other adults of the community were left to be eaten by wild animals. This is because the Nandi believed that corpses were unclean, thus, family members of the deceased and those who disposed of the body went through a cleansing ritual before they could mix with the rest of the community.
The introduction of privatised land and burial by colonial missionaries evolved Nandi death rites during the colonial and post-colonial period. A regular memorial ritual called ng’anyet was introduced to keep the spiritual and physical world in touch. Upon a person’s death, ng’anyet was conducted by the living after a period of time to facilitate the transition of the community member to death. It was a religious duty of family members to take part in this ritual, therefore, could not be ignored.
Some Nandi people still observe ngany’et, but more in loving memory than as a way of connecting with the spirits.
How did people honour the departed in your community?
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