In this Book

  • In My Time of Dying: A History of Death and the Dead in West Africa
  • Book
  • John Parker
  • 2021
  • Published by: Princeton University Press
    • Viewed
    • View Citation
buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary

An in-depth look at how mortuary cultures and issues of death and the dead in Africa have developed over four centuries

In My Time of Dying is the first detailed history of death and the dead in Africa south of the Sahara. Focusing on a region that is now present-day Ghana, John Parker explores mortuary cultures and the relationship between the living and the dead over a four-hundred-year period spanning the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. Parker considers many questions from the African historical perspective, including why people die and where they go after death, how the dead are buried and mourned to ensure they continue to work for the benefit of the living, and how perceptions and experiences of death and the ends of life have changed over time.

From exuberant funeral celebrations encountered by seventeenth-century observers to the brilliantly conceived designer coffins of the late twentieth century, Parker shows that the peoples of Ghana have developed one of the world’s most vibrant cultures of death. He explores the unfolding background of that culture through a diverse range of issues, such as the symbolic power of mortal remains and the dominion of hallowed ancestors, as well as the problem of bad deaths, vile bodies, and vengeful ghosts. Parker reconstructs a vast timeline of death and the dead, from the era of the slave trade to the coming of Christianity and colonial rule to the rise of the modern postcolonial nation.

With an array of written and oral sources, In My Time of Dying richly adds to an understanding of how the dead continue to weigh on the shoulders of the living.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Half-title, Title, Copyright
  2. pp. i-iv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. v-vi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. List of Illustrations
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgements
  2. pp. ix-xiv
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-8
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Cultural Encounter
  2. pp. 9-25
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Body, Soul and Person
  2. pp. 26-41
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Speaking of Death
  2. pp. 42-57
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Grief and Mourning
  2. pp. 58-75
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Gold, Wealth and Burial
  2. pp. 76-91
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Faces of the Dead
  2. pp. 92-106
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. The Severed Head
  2. pp. 107-123
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. Slaves
  2. pp. 124-138
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. Human Sacrifice
  2. pp. 139-154
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. Poison
  2. pp. 155-171
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 11. Christian Encounters
  2. pp. 172-190
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 12. From House Burial to Cemeteries
  2. pp. 191-209
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 13. Ghosts and Vile Bodies
  2. pp. 210-227
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 14. Writing and Reading about Death
  2. pp. 228-244
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 15. The Colony of Medicine
  2. pp. 245-258
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 16. Wills and Dying Wishes
  2. pp. 259-276
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 17. Northern Frontiers
  2. pp. 277-290
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 18. Reordering the Royal Dead
  2. pp. 291-307
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 19. Making Modern Deathways
  2. pp. 308-325
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Conclusion
  2. pp. 326-330
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Glossary
  2. pp. 331-334
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 335-380
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 381-398
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top