David Oks writes from a statistical viewpoint on a lot of job automation and poor country topics.
How Funerals Keep Africa Poor.
And, finally, after all this, the big day comes. Your body is retrieved from the mortuary; hundreds of people show up, many of whom never knew you in life; and a great deal of money is spent feeding them, entertaining them, and sending you off in the style that an Akan elder deserves.
This all sounds, you’ll notice, very expensive. And it is.
A modest, mid-level funeral in Ghana costs about $5,000 U.S. dollars; a “befitting” one can easily cost $15,000 or $20,000. And all this in a country with a median income of about $1,500 per year.
5 comments:
'Not a wake nor a wedding for five miles around/
But meself in the corner was sure to be found.'
-Trad. Irish, "Juice of the Barley"
Ghana, anyway.
He said there were other African nations that did similar things. What do you know?
I am reminded of the potlatch culture of the Pacific Northwest, which allegedly kept the natives there poor, too. The idea was that if you gave lavish gifts to everyone in the tribe, they would not become covetous, murder you, and take everything you owned. I think I can see a moral hazard or two in that arrangement.
Not much. Ghana is famous for extravagant funerals. Liberia wasn't nearly so dramatic. I didn't attend funerals there -- except my father's, which I doubt was typical. The processions I saw seemed fairly sober.
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