Liturgical inculturation of Tsonga widows’ mourning rituals

Abstract

Liturgical inculturation of Tsonga widows’ mourning rituals is a dissertation prepared in the department of Practical Theology. The research studied mourning rituals and ceremonies that are practised by Tsonga widows in Ka-Mhinga village in Limpopo, Republic of South Africa. The researcher limited her study to widows within that area, and all participants were members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in South Africa (EPCSA) at the time of the interviews. The researcher being a minister in the church has observed the exclusion of widows in the church and this exclusion was not based on any doctrine of the church but on the widows’ choice to be excluded as part of respecting Tsonga traditions. The exclusion of the widow is also respected and understood by members of the church because they believe in respecting people's cultures and traditions; the majority of members of the EPCSA are Tsonga speaking. The research starts with a brief introduction and also gives an overview of the study. The research methodology was a combination of literature review and qualitative empirical research. Christianity in sub-Saharan Africa and beliefs were investigated and how these beliefs relate to Tsonga traditional beliefs regarding ancestral worship, African religion, African hermeneutic and death and rituals in Africa. Ubuntu and mourning practices in the Tsonga culture were discussed; in Africa, a person does not exist without the other. African rituals and practices in Africa are known and respected by the whole community. A funeral does not belong to the deceased family but to the whole community. The empirical chapter summarised both the focus group and individual interviews. The participants in this study are members of EPCSA who have experienced widowhood. These interviews allowed participants to share their experiences on mourning rituals that they had to undergo as Tsonga widows. Data were analysed by means of Python, a software that is used to analyse data for qualitative research. Python was used to analyse individual interviews and coding analysis was used to analyse focus group data. The researcher then combined both data by using thematic analysis. The following was found from the analyses; for some participants, these Tsonga mourning rituals were seen as a sign of respect and a form of protection from ancestors and the spirit of their late husband. Collected data and analyses, found the following themes from all data; Patriarchy, Exclusion/Inclusion, Graduation, Clean/Unclean, Ritual Space, church and culture. Some of the participants were very proud of having mourned for their husbands for twelve months. However, there were a few who felt mourning rituals are downgrading to women and not of any benefit for women. These participants can serve as an indication for a need for a praxis theology for EPCSA. A praxis theory was developed to create a new inculturated praxis for EPCSA by identifying some mourning rituals elements that can be embraced without downgrading widows and others that should not be embraced because they discriminate Tsonga widows. The findings of the research confirm that there is a current liturgical moratorium on liturgical rituals of mourning for widows in the EPCSA in Tsonga culture.