LIFE CYCLE OF A SUPYIRE
Africa can be seen as a sort of sacrifice,
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but this does not appear to be the case among the Supyire.
Marriage
This is the rite that fully establishes an individual as a full-fledged individual in society. One must marry outside the family clan. The wife will invariably come to
live in the village of her husband. Indeed it is the norm for the husband to build a hut for her in his own parent’s home compound. So he will not move away from his
family. A series of long negotiations over the years between two clans culminate with
a family delegation from the groom’s side making an overnight stay in the village of the bride. They stay with their jatigi who then as intermediary goes with the
delegation to bring greetings and gifts to the girl’s family. Kola nuts, cloths, cooking utensils and two chickens to sacrifice to the ancestors are among the obligatory gifts.
There is also usually nowadays a cash dowry. After friendly banter over the quality of the gifts, the bride’s family provide a communal meal to seal the alliance between
the two families. Consistent with the third party nature of most dealings in Supyire society, the
couple to be married is at no point involved in the negotiations. They are not even in the village on the wedding day; the girl will already have left to take up residence in
the groom’s village the previous day. They are strictly forbidden to eat any part of the communal wedding meal, even leftovers.
The marriage is only really seen as consummated with the successful arrival of the first child. At this point they have fully entered into the ageless stream of
family life, by contributing to its ongoing existence and expansion.
Married life
Men and women tend to live very separate lives. The men eat together first and then the women and children. There is a fairly rigorous division of labour. For
example, it is the husband’s responsibility to provide the staple for the meal: corn,
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Dickson, Kwesi A. and Paul Ellingworth,, Pour une Théologie Africaine, Yaounde, Editions Clé, 1969, p.109.
millet or rice. It is the woman, no matter what her husband’s means might be, who
has to work to provide the tomatoes, spices and other condiments for the stew. Divorce is fairly rare. The families, having invested so much in the marriage
and the family alliance, will seek to ensure that it is successful. So although a wife may be mistreated, and may run back to her parents’ home, in most cases attempts at
reconciliation will bring the two together again. There is little alternative. There is no role for a single woman in society. She has no means of obtaining an independent
income. The children of the marriage belong to the family of the husband: it is they who have paid for the wife and the offspring of her womb.
On the other hand, if she is widowed, it is the husband’s family who has the
responsibility to take care of her material needs, and provide her with a younger brother or cousin as a husband. Any offspring of this levirate marriage are considered
as belonging to the deceased brother’s family. If he has not already done so, the younger brother in such a case still needs to get married himself to another woman to
be a fully fledged member of society. It is rare to see a woman enjoying an idle moment. From dawn to dusk, they
have responsibilities: collecting firewood, drawing water, heating it for bathing, pounding flour, cooking, tending the youngest and working in the fields. A good
wife does all this for her husband without complaining, and above all, bears him many children. The joy for women, as for men, comes in working together in
harmony, and sharing the chores with the members of the extended family. Polygyny is still practised, somewhat less now than in time of warfare that
claimed the lives of many men. The principal reasons for taking more than one wife are said to be:
1. If your first wife is unable to bear you children.
2. If your first wife becomes very sick or an invalid and can no longer work, or
cook or satisfy your sexual needs. 3.
If your first wife dies, even if she has given you children, and you are still young, you should marry again because of your own needs.
Funeral
One of the main goals in life for a Supyire is to have a good funeral; it is a prize to be won. To qualify for this, he or she will have lived a long life, produced
many offspring and have a family in a position to celebrate it. First, there is the burial
with a series of rites, including wrapping, washing, and dancing the body, and giving it its last meal before burying it in the graveyard outside the village.
Then there is the wake, a feast-cum-celebration, the size and extravagance of which reflects the age and importance of the deceased. Such a send-off, properly
performed, will ensure him or her a good welcome in the village of the ancestors. The wake does not always take place immediately after the burial. There can
be a delay of months or even years. The timing depends on the family having the grain and the money and the willpower to organise it. But for as long as it is not
carried out, no one else in the family can receive his wake; moreover the reorganisation of the family’s responsibilities cannot take place. Only when the wake
of the family is finished, can the authority of the deceased be devolved to the next in line.
As Joyce Carlson
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observes, the nightmare scenari o is a “bad death”. If a
person dies accidentally, by falling out of a tree, by snakebite, by suicide or murder, or in childbirth, or out in the bush away from their home, then they are a sinarbu, and
as such, receive a hasty, insulting burial. It is said that if they are shown honour in their burial, their spirit will bring bad fortune back on those who buried them. The
body is not washed or dressed in grave cloths. Nothing is done for it. The grave is dug right beside the body where it lies. The ditch is filled with thorns. Those burying
the body turn their backs to it, and roll it backwards with their feet pushing it into the grave. Finally they cover it with earth.
There is, though, a way of at least partially redeeming this shameful situation by ensuring that the departed does integrate into the village of the ancestors and is
not left homeless and dangerous. For someone who was married and would thus have had a full ceremony if he had not met a “bad death”, the family can organise for the
sinarbu to be transformed. That is, they go to the cemetery in the middle of the night with a flute player who calls for the soul of the deceased, and then a hunter fires off a
rifle round to indicate that the soul has come. Then they wrap a bamboo pole to represent the body in burial cloths, and bring it back into the village. There they go
through the whole burial ceremony and wake with the pole, just as though it were the body of the deceased.
33
Carlson “Senufo Funeral Ritual” unpublished.
Another case of “bad death” is when a child or young person dies unmarried. After the burial there is no wake. But at some stage there will be a ceremony to
integrate him into the village of the ancestors. If there is a death in his family soon afterwards, the ceremony for the youth will be carried out quickly during this fuller
funeral. Otherwise, on the third day of the village festival, a collective wake is carried out along with the music and feasting for all youth, children and aborted
babies who have died since the last festival.