Abstract
BackgroundWorldwide, different traditions of symbolic statements in graveyards can be found. However, studies on sub-Saharan Africa are rare. For BaKongo cemeteries, it is only known that they traditionally do not exhibit plants for decoration purposes. Our study wanted to inspect the influence of Portuguese culture due to the long shared colonial past.MethodsDuring 2015 and 2019, plant use in 87 graveyards in 13 municipalities of the province Uíge was documented. Five expert interviews with the village eldest in five municipalities completed the data collection.ResultsWhile 24% of the graveyards didn´t have any planting, 27 plant species were found in the remaining ones, including a high percentage of alien species (59%), mainly from the Americas. The most abundant plant species are Euphorbia tirucalli (23%) and Agave sisalana (22%). With increasing distance from the city Uíge (especially towards the Democratic Republic of the Congo), the utilization of living plants in cemeteries is decreasing except along the road. In most of the cases, just one plant species per gravesite was found.ConclusionsThis unexpected high number of plants might be interpreted as a strong evidence of outside influence. Cultural symbols of the BaKongo cosmology and Christianism appear to coexist or coalesce. Furthermore, plants are used as a marker for graveyards. Modern influences like the use of concrete in proximity to urban areas indicate a certain wealth.
Highlights
Worldwide, different traditions of symbolic statements in graveyards can be found
The increasing number of historical and graveyards in Northern Angola present studies on Afro-American cultures provide an important link because the slave trade, especially originating in West Africa, transferred workers and their traditional knowledge of plants as well as their cultural background and customs to the New World
Graveyards in Northern Angola list growth forms here (S1 Table), the data should be read with care without any overvaluation because in some cases, no clear classification is possible as several species can vary between tree or shrub form
Summary
Different traditions of symbolic statements in graveyards can be found. For BaKongo cemeteries, it is only known that they traditionally do not exhibit plants for decoration purposes. Our study wanted to inspect the influence of Portuguese culture due to the long shared colonial past
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