In western Kenya, in Rabuor near Kisumu, funeral ceremonies are increasingly relying on professional mourners. Present during processions, they do more than just lament: they also offer organizational services, from setting up tents to providing catering, thus contributing to a veritable funeral economy.
“Sometimes a person has no family but has financial means. They need someone to keep them company and accompany the deceased in order to offer them a dignified funeral. At some point, they will have to call on professional mourners: that’s where we come in,” explains Francis Oyoo.
In the Luo community, this presence outside the family circle is part of a spiritual interpretation of mourning. "In our Luo culture, we believe that if a deceased person is not given a dignified farewell, their spirit can remain among us and haunt the living, including children or family members. Proper funerals, on the other hand, allow us to appease their spirit and make them happy," explains Georgina Achieng.
Beyond its commercial aspect, the practice also relies on a particular emotional learning process. Mourners draw upon a constructed empathy, based on identification with the deceased.
“We don’t need to be related to the deceased. We just need to know that a human being has died to start crying. We then imagine that it is one of our loved ones. That’s how we can cry for someone with whom we have no connection,” explains Willis Omondi.
At the University of Nairobi, researchers observe that these practices are part of a broader transformation of family structures. In large cities, support networks are shrinking, sometimes leaving the deceased with fewer relatives to accompany them.
“Urbanization has transformed traditional roles. In the past, family networks included many relatives linked by blood or marriage. Today, these ties have significantly decreased. Nuclear families have become the norm. In urban centers, when a person dies, they sometimes have fewer relatives to surround them,” explains anthropology professor Owuor Olunga.
At the end of the ceremony, the coffin is lowered into the ground. For the families, it is a final farewell. For the mourners, it is just another ordinary workday, within an informal but thriving mourning economy.
