In western Kenya, in Rabuor, near Kisumu, funeral ceremonies are increasingly involving professional mourners. Present during processions, they are not limited to lamentations: they also offer organizational services, ranging from the installation of tents to catering, thus contributing to a real funeral economy.
"It happens that a person does not have a family but has financial means. She needs someone to keep her company and accompany the deceased to give them a dignified funeral. At some point, she 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 reading of mourning. "In our Luo culture, we believe that if a deceased person is not entitled to a dignified farewell, their spirit can remain among us and haunt the living, including children or family members. An appropriate funeral, on the contrary, calms his mind and makes him happy, confides Georgina Achieng.
Beyond its commercial dimension, the practice is also based on particular emotional learning. The mourners mobilize a constructed empathy, based on identification with the deceased.
"We don’t have to be family of the deceased. You only need to know that a human being is dead to start crying. We then imagine that it is one of our loved ones. This is how we can mourn someone we have no connection with", says Willis Omondi.
At the University of Nairobi, researchers observe that these practices are part of a context of profound transformation of family structures. In large cities, solidarity networks are shrinking, sometimes leaving the deceased with fewer loved ones to accompany them.
"Urbanization has transformed traditional roles. In the past, family networks included many relatives linked by blood or marriage. Today, these links have been significantly reduced. Nuclear families have become the norm. In urban centers, when a person dies, they may have fewer loved ones to surround them with", explains anthropology professor Owuor Olunga.
At the end of the ceremony, the coffin is buried. For families, it's a final farewell. For mourners, an ordinary day's work, in an informal but thriving grief economy.
