Blog: A funeral in Jalay Town, Liberia
We have arrived in Jalay Town, a tiny village in Liberia’s south, right in the middle of 10-day long funeral festivities. The drumming begins late at night, around 11 pm, and continues till sunup. The village usually doesn’t have electricity but generators have been on every night, as though the very act of lighting up the town is a celebration of the dead man’s life.
He was 42, a ranger in the nearby forest, and a tree branch fell on his head. Like funerals elsewhere in West Africa, the entire town is in exuberant mourning. There is plenty of cane juice (alcohol made of sugar cane) and beer to go around, courtesy of the Forestry Development Authority. Supplies were fetched from Greenville, the closest ‘city’, and everyone has been drinking heavily for the past few days.
Once the cans are empty, children pick them and pretend to be adults as they dance to high life music while swigging down invisible spirits.
Heavily armed officials from the immigration authority march through the town, keeping on their vests and boots and hats despite the heavy heat.
Goats for slaughter are paraded in front of officials who’ve turned up at the funeral. Men use the chance to ask for jobs, and the village football team dances in at a critical juncture to demand a football to play with.
Tears finally flow as the coffin is hoisted up on the shoulders of his friends and colleagues and left on the outskirts of the village. The next day, the man’s family shave their heads in a cleansing ritual.