It saddens me how our society views closure as a foreign concept, a Western ideology whereas it’s part of our cultural practices.
we’ve been detached from ourselves for many years we now view closure as a modern ideology, some of our elders can’t grasp the concept of closure because it’s often described in a European language.
Cleansing as a form of closure
In psychology, closure can be referred to as a feeling of resolving an emotional or traumatic experience.
In Isizulu we sometimes refer to this concept, as ukudlulisa which means to let go.
Depending on the situation, the concept of letting go isn’t taken lightly, part of finding closure and healing requires cleansing this can be either done at a flowing river or ocean with pure freshwater or elsewhere with a combination of both water and muthi( herbs).
For example, there are roughly three different types of cleansing rituals the most common being the one done once a person has been laid to rest. Depending on the family’s rituals and financial circumstances this is usually done a month after the deceased, has been laid to rest and if the deceased is married the wife usually does it after a year.
If a deceased had an unnatural death such as an accident or was murder, he or she is cleansed before being buried and certain rituals are performed to prevent others from suffering the same fate.
The cleansing of the deceased is merely done so that they can enter the spiritual realm in peace without scars and this also helps them find closure thus prevents them from being a haunting spirit or ghost.
The second type of cleansing is done when a woman has had a miscarriage or abortion, culturally a the foetus is the presents of a child, a spiritual being and they too return to the spiritual realm, therefore cleansing the mother is believed to help prevent more miscarriages and hopefully break the cycle of circumstances which lead to the short life span of the child.
The third type of cleansing is done to remove curses whether it was due to karmic debt or being cursed by someone.
These cleansing rituals are often performed by an elder of a family or a traditional practitioner such as a Sangoma or Prophet.
I truly believe that this is a form of closure because it requires acknowledgement and confrontation of the situation head-on, this can be rather emotional but one has to be truly open-minded and committed to the process. The elder or sangoma takes the role of a therapist they carefully mediate the process and the final step is to cleanse.
The cleansing is a way of purification and releasing the burden or baggage.
Usually, when you’re cleansing there are also chanting or words are spoken which command what should happen.
In conclusion, Closure isn’t a new notion we just have a different method of finding closure.
In African spirituality cleansing rituals are done to find closure, this allows a person to close the chapter and to move on gracefully to the next page of their lives.