Situating Black Death and Grief Within the Context of Ancestral Veneration

Authors

Chris Z. Sanders, Macalester CollegeFollow

Abstract

Death and grief are an ever-present phenomenon in the Black community. Starting with the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade and chattel slavery; then transcending into mortality rates; police brutality; gun violence; and just living while Black. Statistically, Black Americans die at higher rates than white Americans at nearly every age. As a result, the Black community has always had a very intimate and ambiguous relationship with death and grief. In response to this relationship, the Black community has created our own way of mourning through the formation of unique funeral and vigil traditions, the establishment of Black-owned funeral homes, the preservation of obituaries and other memorabilia as relics, and the obtainment of memorializing tattoos.

All of these examples have led me to the belief that Black death and grief have always been within the context of ancestral veneration, the practice of honoring one’s ancestors. This essay will discuss key examples of African American ways of mourning that were transferred from West/Central African conceptions of death. I will then discuss how death and grief have been constructed in the Black community. I will do this by comparing and contrasting the construction of the American cosmology of death with Social Darwinism and racial capitalism. I will bring these ideas together to state how African American ways of mourning were born out of survival and ancestral veneration to make the statement that naming and situating our grief within this context can be very healing and transformative within our community.

Author Biography

Chris Z. Sanders, a native of the South Side of Chicago, is a December 2024 graduate from Macalester College. With majors in American Studies and Educational Studies, Chris plans to pursue a Master's in Teaching and an initial Social Studies licensure to become a middle school teacher.

Recommended Citation

Sanders, Chris Z. (2025) "Situating Black Death and Grief Within the Context of Ancestral Veneration," Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 11.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/tapestries/vol14/iss1/11

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.