Ancestors have special powers. Like God the Creator, they can act on the living either to benefit their descendants or to punish them for not respecting customs or for committing transgressions regarding their daily life, traditional observances or taboos. The razana are feared for this reason and must be honoured regularly.
In order to make contact with the spirits of the razana, people regularly visit these monuments to ask for blessing, make offerings and render homage. |
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These are the thumbnails and texts for this alcove. They can be printed.
Death is a special passage because it entails a change of both state and status. It is a passage from the corporeal to the spiritual. This transformation is perceived as a kind of rebirth, which explains the risqué remarks and erotic images associated with the burial site. Once integrated into the invisible world, the ancestor becomes a new entity, spiritual and eternal and possessing supernatural powers.
But despite their belief in this passage to a higher level of existence, the living still fear death. This is the raison d’être of the ancestor cult: the living call upon the help of the razana by communicating with them at specified times and locations, while offering sacrifices. Apart from these rituals, there is a clear separation between the worlds of the living and the dead: to each his own place.
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