Going Gentle into that Good Night: Indigenous Therapy on Death in Kenya

Abstract

Through personal resonance with texts written on explicit and implicit indigenous therapeutic interventions on death and bereavement primarily on Kenya, this paper examines indigenous therapy on death and bereavement before the advent of modern counselling theories and practice in the country. In the process, it explores therapeutic implications of religious belief and ritual practices to death not only as an acceptable occurrence as a result of disease or age but also as a bizarre occurrence as a result of homicide or suicide. In the course of the exploration, it discusses therapeutic interventions traditional health helpers have employed to help individuals cope with death and bereavement and to bring about homeostasis in both the individual and the society. At the same time, showing why the therapeutic strategies work, the paper argues that the strategies are integral to a worldview that helpers and helped share and directive in orientation like therapy operating from behavioural theoretical perspectives. In the end, it evaluates the efficacy of, indicating some lessons we can draw and learn from, these indigenous therapeutic interventions that are still alive in a changed and changing Kenya.