A sociologist has advised people who have lost loved ones during the coronavirus pandemic to learn to adapt and find new ways to bury them.

The President announced that public gatherings are banned but numbers at funerals are allowed up to 25. He, however, said private burials can be done with a limited number of people.

Dr Peace Tetteh, speaking on the Super Morning Show Wednesday, said even though it will be a challenge to bury the dead in private burials innovatively because of the Ghanaian culture, it is something that everybody has to do.

Traditionally, “when a person dies there are elaborate rites to transition the person to the land of the ancestors and when these rites are not done properly, there are implications. There must be rites done by the children, grandchildren, in-laws,” she said.

“You also find that many times in Ghana when people attend funerals, they don’t know the dead person but they know somebody related to the dead,” and that’s why they attend. “We are a communal people.”

“Besides honouring the dead, funerals are for closure. For instance, when you see the body you’ll actually believe that the person has died,” she added.

Given all of these, she admitted it is a challenge to ask somebody to hold a private burial.

“It is a challenge to wake up one day and tell somebody that you must ignore all of these beliefs, laws, customs, habits, morals that make us Ghanaians. This is what identifies us as a people. It’s not easy to get people to change to this private burial practice.”

“Even if you are to invite only 25 people, who are you inviting and who are you not? You will be thinking of the repercussions afterwards. It is not a good time to lose a relative.”

However, she said one solution to help people in this time is to continue having the conversations on new ways to do funerals so that people can relearn how to organise them.

Dr Tetteh therefore encouraged traditional and religious leaders to join in on the conversation to engage their communities on how to have a private burial innovatively enough to cater to their needs while complying with the President’s directives. 

“It’s not going to happen suddenly because this is who we are. So the only way to get people to change to renew their minds is to engage them and talk about it.”