African-American Ancestors: A Unique Christian Concept of Life After Death

by Laura Strong, PhD

Many people in the "United" States of America make the assumption that the Christian beliefs that are often seen as the foundations of this country are the same for all of those who have adopted Christianity in this nation. From this perspective there is little need to explore the diversity that has been brought to this relatively new religion as a result of its convergence with so many other cultures. As a American interested in the spiritual beliefs and mythological stories and of the cultures all around me, I am particularly intrigued by the mix that can be found in the Black Christian church, where the old African customs can still be seen behind the mask of this Eurocentric religion. While this spiritual mélange has manifested itself in a number of different ways, some of the most unique are the  beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife in African-American Christianity.

Raised with the belief systems of a German Lutheran mother and Polish Catholic father, I was always taught that when I died, "if I was good," I would go to heaven. As I was growing up, heaven was always described to me as an ethereal realm filled with angelic beings who supposedly spend endless peaceful days far away from the earth's inhabitants. Since this always seemed like a complete bore to me, I have never had a single desire to aspire towards it. Feeling disconnected from this and many of the other religious teachings of my forefathers, I have always been interested in studying the religious beliefs of other cultures, especially those surrounding death and the afterlife. Therefore, I became particularly intrigued when I first started hearing various African-Americans refer to the dying process as "crossing over" or "passing over" instead of just the "end of life."

According to John Bolling, an African-American psychiatrist and spiritual counselor, in Africa death is seen as "a rite of passage wherein the soul passes into but another phase of continuous existence. The soul leaves the material world and crosses over into the spiritual world" (146). Seen as a rite of passage, rather than something to be avoided as all costs, death can be prepared for, experienced, and acknowledged after the fact, rather than just ignored as it is all too often by modern-day American Christians of European decent. The belief in the reincarnation of the soul is a carry over from some of the old African beliefs that "still influence the unconscious and conscious behavior of African Americans today" (147). One of the most important of these ancient influences is the African approach to death. "In many instances, the role of religion and the church serves as the outer format in which death is handled, but African spirituality is central to the inner format of the death/dying experience" (148).

Another differentiating factors of African-American spirituality is the belief in a unified world view. The body, mind, and soul are seen as one and this concept of unity is seen throughout the community as well, where every person is viewed as part of a larger whole. According to Flora Wilson Bridges, author of Resurrection Song: African-American Spirituality, Black Christians recognize "the human family as 'one branch of the cosmological Tree of Life.' In such a view, spirituality informs all understandings of self, reality, and divinity" (6). This cultural world view has a direct affect on the relationships between the human and the non-human, the visible and invisible, and the living and the dead.

This unique world view allows for a unity to exist between the dualistic realities that are often polarized in other cultures. "Day and night, dead and living are viewed as having reciprocal and unifying functions rather than dichotomous ones, which dynamically unite them such that they create a whole, maintaining equilibrium by adjusting each other." Because of this, death is not merely seen as "the soul leaving the body." It "is not simply the opposite of life but is inherently related to life; it is another dimension or phase of the same phenomenon" (Sullivan 161).

This unifying aspect can also be seen in the Afrocentric cyclical concept of time, where the past and present are eternally linked together. As John Mbiti writes, "Human life has another rhythm of nature which nothing can destroy. On the level of the individual, this rhythm includes birth, puberty, initiation, marriage, procreation, old age, death, entry into the community of the departed and finally entry into the community of spirits" (31). Therefore, the dead ancestors are considered to be very much a part of the living African-American community.

As a continuous part of the community, the ancestors are available to the living for advise, they may enforce discipline on those who are unruly, and they may even come to the aid of the dying. As Martha Adams Sullivan, a specialist in the mental health of elderly minorities points out, the ancestors in the African-American communities "are often thought of as playing a role in easing this passing over. For instance, a family member may be visited by an ancestor, often in a dream, notifying the family of that the actual death is at hand and thus preparing the living family." The ancestors also come to the assistance of those who are dying. "It is commonly recognized that dying family members sometimes begin to talk to people who have died. This is experienced as both upsetting and comforting to the family, for while it signals that the transition is at hand, it also reassures them that their family is there awaiting them" (163).

Unlike many other contemporary cultures in America, where a fear of dying alone is often expressed, death in Black Christian culture is experienced as a "group event." "Family and community experience a transition as a member 'passes over' to the other world. Members often avoid using the term 'dying,' perhaps because it is unidimensional and unidirectional. To 'pass on,' to 'make a transition,' connotes movement, a change in form more than a termination with no future" (Sullivan 162). In an effort to aid this transition, members of the dying person's community often step in to look after the person in ways that may seem relatively unimportant to others outside the culture.

Since African-American see the body and spirit as one, the physical body is looked after as much as the spirit. "Family members will oil their loved one's skin, groom his or her hair, and pay close attention to body temperature" (Sullivan 164). How the person appears at the time of death is not an issue of vanity, but an effort to  comfort both the dying person and those who attend him or her. "Since the physical self is not merely physical but manifests the spirit, attending to the body is a means of attending to the spirit. Having successfully assisted the spirit in its transition, the family can more easily reincorporate the deceased into the community as an ancestral member" (Sullivan 164).

This ability to become an ancestral spirit is based on more than just the events surrounding the person's death. The quality of the person's existence after the transition is directly tied to their thoughts and actions here on earth. "There is a strong belief that the deceased may become an ancestral spirit¨provided that he or she has lived a good earthly existence and that the proper funeral rites have been observed by the children and next of kin" (Bridges 33). By looking after a person as they are dying and performing the proper rituals once they have gone, the community does everything they can to assist a person in becoming an ancestor. A conscious effort is made to reestablish the equilibrium that can be found with the "reintegration of the deceased member into the community so that the sense of wholeness of the community is regained; the circle is mended" (Sullivan 166).

A proper funeral is an important part of mending this circle. "Traditional African religion incorporates the belief that at death the person's spirit immediately leaves the body and hovers around nearby (the house), waiting for the funeral rites that will enable  the spirit to go to the spirit-world" (Bridges 33). Here in the United States, African-Americans are increasingly "referring to funeral rites using such terms as 'home-going' services. The term reflects not only the strong belief in an afterlife but also the reinclusion in the community, since the community's 'home' extends beyond the physical world" (Sullivan 167).

Each of us on this earth will eventually "cross over" into another existence. As Howard Thurman writes, "The Human spirit is so involved in the endless cycle of birth, of living and dying, that in some sense each man is an authority, a key interpreter of the meaning of the totality of the experience" (11). We must each decide what we believe and everyone of us must prepare for the day when we will die. Having a clear picture of where we are going and who we might find there when we arrive on the other side is an essential part of the process. I often hear people in this modern world talk about the lack of "community" that they feel as they go about their busy lives, yet maybe its not the community of the living that so many really crave. Maybe its time for some of us to take a lesson from the African Americans in this country who still remember the old ways of their culture, maybe its time for more of us to get in touch with our own greater community of ancestors.

Works Cited

Bolling, John L. "Guinea across the Water: The African-American Approach to Death and Dying." A Cross-Cultural Look at Death, Dying, and Religion. Eds. Joan K. Parry and Angela Shen Ryan. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1995. 145-59.

Bridges, Flora Wilson. Resurrection Song: African-American Spirituality. The Bishop Henry McNeal Turner/Sojourner Truth Series in Black Religion ; V. 16. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.

Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Anchor Books ed. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.

Sullivan, Martha Adams. "May the Circle Be Unbroken: The African-American Experience of Death, Dying and Spirituality." A Cross-Cultural Look at Death, Dying, and Religion. Eds. Joan K. Parry and Angela Shen Ryan. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1995. 160-71.

Thurman, Howard. Deep River and the Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death. Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1975.