For the Nyoro, a Bantu-speaking tribe in western Uganda, feasting extends beyond the festivities of the marriage ceremony. Following a person’s death, the immediate family members are barred from donning clean clothes, cooking, shaving, washing, and performing any labor for three days if it was a female who died or four days if it was a male. During this time, neighbors bring beer and food to the bereaved, who wait until the third or fourth day and invite the community to the deceased’s house for a feast. While burial occurs immediately upon death, internment of the head of the household is prolonged for one night, where they must rest for a final time in their home. During the mortuary feast of the fourth day, a date for an inheritance feast is set, where the patriarch’s heir is formally installed, given the deceased’s spear and stick, and provided with a speech dictating their new duties and responsibilities.[1]
Works Referenced
Beattie, John. Bunyoro: An African Kingdom. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1960. 65.
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[1] Beattie, 65.
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