Nyabeda Tragedy

Abstract

It was normal for male mourners—energetic young men as well as the old ones—to wear battle dress and to decorate their faces, legs, and arms as warriors, looking fierce with their spears, shields, and clubs. At the homestead where the funeral was taking place, they ran and charged in style, singing war songs and praising their friends and other heroes in a warlike mood. They charged against the imaginary enemy that had caused the death in that home to scare it away forever. They threw their spears and clubs cautiously at the enemy, which sometimes scared the women and children and forced them to run miles for their dear lives.