Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

davidoks.blog

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 245 posts

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#41

Post by willmeyers »

forthwall wrote: post #31

This article seems to establish that kinship leads to the failure of wage growth and ultimately wealth, people will hide their wages because people will ask for money. This seems like the issue rather is is that wealth accumulation in sub-saharan africa is limited to a small subset of population, I don't think this wealth tax by family members exists when you have a larger group of individuals making more money. You…

This is the most insightful comment in this thread. Unfortunately Oks decided to use a clickbait title that made people jump to conclusions.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#43

Post by Tade0 »

There's an interesting film focused on this topic:

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1499420/

The author traveled through Cameroon and documented, among other things, the realities of having a backlog of dead one must properly bury.

Turns out not everyone can afford putting their deceased relatives in a freezer - especially for extended periods of time, so sometimes the dead are stored in a separate storage area next to the home until the living gather the necessary funds.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#44

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

mlsu wrote: post #18

In America we spend that money on weddings. Lots of young people wipe their savings on getting married, at one of the most critical times in life (just before starting a family). It often prevents them having kids or buying a home for years.

This seems very different that what the article describes.

Sure, some young people may spend more than they can really afford on their wedding, but this still seems like a personal choice - tons of people have cheap weddings (or gasp, elope). I don't think may people are cutting back on eating (when they already suffer from malnutrition) to have a big wedding like how the article describes funerals in Zimbabwe.

Plus, I think the relatively few cases in the US where young people do feel intense family pressure to overspend on a "big wedding" show similar dynamics and downsides to the "kinship societies" that the article is really about.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#45

Post by AussieWog93 »

cortesoft wrote: post #26
mlsu wrote: post #18

In America we spend that money on weddings. Lots of young people wipe their savings on getting married, at one of the most critical times in life (just before starting a family). It often prevents them having kids or buying a home for years.

I am so glad we had a big wedding. It was so much fun, and all my friends and family had a blast.

It's so funny you say that. Was literally just chatting to my wife the other day about how mediocre weddings are. You spend $20-$50k basically LARPing as landed British gentry, and end up having less fun than the average 21st, Christmas or New Year's. So much more stress in planning too.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#46

Post by kenferry »

The factual material about funeral spending costs is very interesting, but when it gets into "Kinship societies are wealth-destroying societies" it seems rather… unsupported? That's a sweeping statement that actually requires understanding the whole picture, and the whole picture is not being presented. Is there reason to think the author truly has all the context to make these claims?

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#47

Post by jordanekay »

thelock85 wrote: post #15

It’s interesting how this is framed as a “bad deal” (being apart of a kinship society) without taking time to breakdown the cost of being on your own in Ghanaian society, especially when healthcare, credit harm and other emergencies are broadly unaffordable in individualist, capitalist American society.

No.

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#48

Post by orbital-decay »

The author is trying to generalize this narrative, but it still sounds pretty specific to Ghana and some other African societies. Chechnya and Dagestan are mentioned, but I struggle to remember any demonstrative wealth destruction practices there. Also what about other historic kinship societies (e.g. Scottish, Italian?)

Re: Many African families spend fortunes burying their dead

#49

Post by kenferry »

bobanrocky wrote: post #34
thelock85 wrote: post #15

It’s interesting how this is framed as a “bad deal” (being apart of a kinship society) without taking time to breakdown the cost of being on your own in Ghanaian society, especially when healthcare, credit harm and other emergencies are broadly unaffordable in individualist, capitalist American society.

Lots of buzzwords in your comment, but pointless. This is a complete waste of money, and a burden on the living to ‘show off’ their status. The ancient egyptian kings at least had the resources, power and wealth to build their pyramids..

You're talking about funeral costs; the author generalizes _a_lot_ from funeral costs to "kinship societies are bad". That's the leap the comment you're replying to is discussing.
Post reply on HN