A painted tomb containing ancestors
The people of Madagascar believe the dead, or ancestors, are more powerful than the living, that death is a transition to something greater. This means they greatly respect old people, as they are nearly ancestors.
When someone dies, they are dressed in their best white clothes for the period of mourning, then wrapped in a white silk shroud and placed in a family tomb – a large concrete box, often decoratively painted. About seven years later, they are exhumed in a big ceremony known as the famadihana, or turning of the bones. The bones are “turned” so that the loved ones can be remembered and because people think the ancestor might be cold and lonely – and in need of a big party.
Ancestors being re-wrapped at a famadihana
I was nervous about going into a tomb in case it stank of dead bodies, but it smelled like a cellar and looked like a supermarket but with corpses on the shelves, all labelled to prevent mix-ups. The dead were brought out on raffia mats and carried once around the tomb. Women trying to get pregnant touched the mats, believing that they bestow fertility.
Eventually the corpses were re-wrapped in fresh shrouds by guys who were laughing, smoking and chatting. People were singing and dancing. When a husband and wife have decayed away to just bones, they combine the bones to make one ancestor.
Death – Delve deeper into the riddle of human mortality in our special report....