By Anelitha Tukela
In the Eastern Cape, there are many practices and customs that contribute towards a sense of unity and solidarity in Black communities. One such tradition is the collective grave digging by young men when a community member passes away. Typically, grave digging occurs two or three days before the funeral, as digging the grave can take two to three days depending on terrain. The grieving family is responsible for providing food for the diggers, and tools are sourced from the local community. This act serves as both a practical service for the bereaved family, but also as form of moral support.
This practice of grave-digging changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the Buffalo City Municipality stepped in to assist rural villagers by digging graves with tractor-loader-backhoes (TLBs). This was in response to lockdown regulations that limited many aspects of traditional burial practices, including grave-digging practices. This as because funerals were identified as "hotspots" for the virus, and eliminating communal grave-digging was believed to help mitigate the risks of viral transmission among diggers. This TLB service, was already common in urban areas, and was generally well-received by villages in Kwelerha. One member of the community stated “We were happy with what the municipality had decided to do. This was a sober decision as it helped a lot of the people in the village. Young men who were doing the job have since gone to big cities and this was a struggle for us as elderly people”.
Figure 1: TBL digging a grave in Kwelerha, two days before the funeral.
One grave digger shared how pre-pandemic customs made it difficult for young men with jobs to fulfill their community responsibilities. In his words, "We used to struggle with this grave digging rule as a working class [as people with jobs] because the community customs wouldn't excuse us as we were working during the week . The grave digging usually starts at 4 am and every young man would be expected to be at the grave site at that time even if they were working. I had to make sure I attended grave digging at least for an hour before I went to work, which would be a struggle for me as I would arrive at work tired and late.”
The grave digger continued to say “There were consequences for not attending grave digging while you were around the community: they would sentence you to 6 months of not attending any traditional ceremonies in the community, and once the six months is over, you would need to buy bottles of brandy as an apology.” He acknowledged that while grave digging provided moral support, the pandemic freed them from these challenges. After the pandemic, new forms of support emerged, such as helping with funeral preparations and other tasks, which were less taxing yet still meaningful.
This grave digger expressed his gratitude for the new regulations during Covid, “COVID-19 saved us from a lot of that trouble, COVID-19 changed the traditional burial customs and freed young men from torture. Even though we were giving moral support to the grieving family by grave digging we were struggling. After the pandemic, we had to find ways of giving moral support to the grieving family by attending the funeral and participating in cow slaughtering, building a tent and sorting out firewood".
Older members of the community, who had been shouldering much of the grave digging due to the absence of young men, also expressed relief. One elder shared "As old people, we had participated in grave digging because there were few young men in the community as many were working in cities. We are old and we didn't have the energy to dig a grave every other week. When we stopped digging graves during COVID-19 lockdown, I was so happy and prayed that COVID-19 wouldn't end as I didn't want to go back to the usual traditional burial customs. But I was glad that the municipality didn't stop helping us with grave digging even after the pandemic. I could say that I'm glad for the COVID-19 lockdown even though it impacted many people badly but it also brought some positive impacts to other people".
Figure 2: Young men digging graves before the pandemic. Photo credit: dispatchlive
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the Buffalo City Municipality continued with the service of digging graves for people in rural communities beyond the COVID-19 lockdown. However, some young men in the village stated that even though they were saved from digging graves by the municipality, they believe that the Municipality could have taken this opportunity to decrease the rate of unemployment in rural communities by employing young men in each village to be gravediggers and pay them with the same money that is used to hire TLBs every other day of the week. He said, "What is being done is good, but they should have engaged us as the youth so that we keep doing the work and share the money that has been used to hire these TLBs”. He suggested that grave digging could be formalised as a paid role, similar to programs like the Extended Public Works Program (EPWP), which could help reduce unemployment and, in turn, lower crime rates.
The COVID-19 pandemic may have altered customs in Kwelerha, but it also brought relief to many. The effects of the pandemic on rural communities are thus complex, with people seeing some benefits despite the many challenges that persist. The continuation of municipal grave-digging services post-pandemic seems to have eased traditional burdens, but some believe it could have been leveraged to create jobs and empower the youth. Ultimately, this example of the pandemic’s impact on Kwelerha highlights the complex intersections of tradition, burden and relief and the missed opportunity for community development and youth empowerment when it comes to grave digging.
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