African body washing rituals pre-date islam and cross every religious spectrum
sorry, can’t blame muslims for this one
I agree. I would imagine it is rare to find what we term a funeral home in most of Africa. Before such establishments here in our country, the family also performed similar tasks. How the dead are buried in any religion is a critical subject because it is believed to influence their beloved’s afterlife.
Additionally, from what I have read, many of the traditional rituals are being abandoned in the Ebola epidemic with corpses being simply put into the street to be picked up. Again, this is similar to what happens in these types of events throughout history. Just read about the Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia in the late 1700’s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fever_Epidemic_of_1793