DEATH AND THE HEREAFTER AMONG THE DAGAABA OF NORTHWESTERN GHANA: A CRITICAL REFLECTION TOWARDS ANTHROPOLOGICORELIGIOUS AND PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES

ABSTRACT This dissertation looks at the beliefs and practices on death and the hereafter from the cultural context of the Dagaaba in northwestern Ghana and how these concepts helped them to be fully engaged in the ‘here and now’ because they were motivated to do their optimum. The Dagaaba, perceive life, death and the hereafter, as being solemnized and is socially, morally, religiously and materially integrated in the community. Therefore, beliefs and practices on death and the hereafter have a central place in Dagaaba culture because the notion of ancestors was reminding the people in the community about the value of good, moral life. The study examines the changing discourse on the beliefs and practices on death and the hereafter and the notion of ancestorship, among the people in an engendered, transforming and socio-cultural milieu and the impact of such changes. Therefore, the work is an attempt to provide more accurate and current versions on the performance practice of the Dagaaba rites on death and the hereafter. Hence, the study seeks to construct, explain, critique and justify these cultural practices among the Dagaaba. For the Dagaaba, death and the hereafter are pervading and encompassing reality. Death, which ultimately includes life, relates to time and is a rhythm with a cycle which includes: birth, puberty, initiation, marriage, procreation, death, and entry into the community of the departed in the eschatological-spirit world. For such a wide ranging topic, it was necessary to bring it to focus by adopting an ethnographic approach that incorporates the use of Dagaaba discourse and literature, observation and participant observation methods, funeral dirges, folk-songs, dance, symbolic actions, idioms, proverbs, poetry, story-telling, gossiping, formal and informal interviews, paradigms and mythologies which were examined, juxtaposing the realities of life as the Dagaaba see it with the myths of narratives which encapsulate the issues of death and the hereafter.