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Due to harsh, exploitative labor, death was common on plantations. Afraid funeral gatherings would be used to plan a revolt, enslavers rarely permitted funerals. Committed to honor the dead, our enslaved ancestors held secret funerals where they buried loved ones under the cover of darkness.
In southern states like South Carolina, where roughly 40 percent of the enslaved population were descended from Kongo, the enslaved commonly adorned caskets and burial mounds with white shells.
Within Kongo’s death rites, the spirit realm is underground, tethered to our realm by the waters dividing us. Shells left on top of graves were invoked to honor this boundary between the realm of the living and dead. And funerals like this built the foundation for us to honor each other through homegoing traditions.
Black church homegoing traditions can occur one to two weeks after a loved one's death, and can last for several days, giving our community time to gather and mourn. Like the ancestral graves marked with shells, we adorn each other with food, love, and remembrance.
Our ancestors paid respect by sending our deceased off with love. But homegoings shouldn’t be the only time we gather in love. How can we better love our living communities now? Black liberation is when we choose to love abundantly in this lifetime.