The faith-based segregation of interments: insights from a Senegalese commune

ABSTRACT

In Senegal’s Thies Region, Joal has separate cemeteries for Muslims and Christians, while the neighbouring community of Fadiouth has one cemetery for the dead of all faiths. This paper uses these cases to shed light on why some communities have separate cemeteries for people of different faiths while others bury people of all faiths in the same cemetery. I argue that the manner in which Christianity and Islam spread in the two communities explains the differences in the spatial organisation of burials. This study of divergent approaches to burying people of different faiths sheds light on histories of migration and the important issues of inter-communal and interfaith relations. The paper is based on ethnographic research and also draws on a participatory cartography exercise.

KEYWORDS:

• Inter-communal relations
• inter-faith relations
• migration
• funerals
• cemeteries
• Senegal

Acknowledgement

I thank Mamadou Fallou Diouf, Justin Sonko, Sereign Cheikh Ka, Simone Faye, Ellen Ngom, Rosalie Diop and Pierre Dioh for guidance and support in carrying out this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Ato Kwamena Onoma is a senior programme officer at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). He is the author of The Politics of Property Rights Institutions in Africa and Anti-Refugee Violence and African Politics. His current work uses epidemics and interment practices to explore inter-communal relations in Africa.

Notes

1 Interview with a community leader in Fadiouth, 19 February 2016 (Interview 1B).

2 Pangool are ancestors for whom a cult of veneration has been created. More is said on Pangool below.

3 Interview with a notable of Fadiouth on 30 December 2016 (Interview 1C).

4 Interview 1C.

5 ‘150e anniversaire de la Paroisse Notre-Dame de la Purification, Joal, 1849–1999: 4 siècles de présence chrétienne,’ 2.

6 Interview with elders of Joal, 21 2016June (Interview 4) and 22 June 2017 (Interview 9).

7 Interviews with an old lady in Joal, 21 June 2016 (Interview 7) and a descendant of one of the first Muslim families to settle in Joal, 23 June 2016 (Interview 15).

8 Interview 15.

9 Interview 29; Interviews with notables of Fadiouth, 19 June 206 (Interview 1B) and 21 June 2016 (Interview 3).

10 Interviews with elders of the Toure family of Fadiouth, 28 June 2016 (Interview 29) and the Cisse family of Fadiouth, 22 June 2016 (Interview 13).

11 Interview 29.

12 Interview 13.

13 Comment by an old notable of Joal during a dissemination seminar on 13 October 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity [Grant ID 2016-SS320]; and by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa.