Removing the black

I had the pleasure of attending a traditional celebration on New Year’s Day, in honor of a woman ending her year-long period of mourning the death of her mother. Traditionally Liberian women have participated in an extensive mourning period when loved ones pass (that’s right, the men don’t mourn). If a woman is mourning the loss of a female relative she would have historically mourned for 3 years, and 4 years for a man’s passing. In current times if women enter a mourning period they do it for an abbreviated amount of time, sometimes just 3 or 4 months accordingly. During the first half of the mourning she will wear only black and for the second half she will wear black and white every day. Some mourners even give up eating rice for most of the mourning period because rice is seen to bring joy and fulfilment (there are billboards here that read: Rice is Life!) so by abstaining from eating it the woman is further expressing her sadness. At the conclusion of the mourning period a large gathering is held in celebration and the woman wears all white (similar to a wedding dress) and is escorted by a large group of her close female friends who wear matching outfits (I counted 24 ‘bridesmaids’ at the celebration). Friends and family gather and a list of names is read, at which time each person comes to the head table and donates money to the woman of mourning. This is done three times over, after the list is read each time the ‘bridesmaids’ change outfits, are re-seated and the same list is read again. This fundraising is done to help offset the expenses of the burial and celebration. Food is served to the masses (approximately 150 people were there) and I enjoyed the pepper soup, some rib tips and potato salad – I decided to chance it with the mayonnaise and surprisingly didn’t get sick! Everyone also enjoyed beer and softdrinks (I stuck with the Coke, didn’t want to play with fire too much by adding Liberian beer to my system). After the list-reading and outfit changing was finished a live band performed and the women shouted and danced. James explained that sometimes a woman will raise $100,000 US at the concluding celebration. The woman who’s party it was (she’s James’ neighbor) was in her 40s and unmarried – I don’t doubt that she was tremendously sad about her mother’s death, but I’m curious if the idea of a large party and wearing a white dress encouraged her to take on an entire year of mourning! The tradition is still upheld in many tribes living in the interior but is less common in the coastal regions, especially near the capital city.