Ancestor

He's the most revered figure in Africa, but ancestors aren't the dead. In Africa, you don't die, you change your life, you change your dimension. It passes from the land of the living to the world of spirits. The body returns to the land to which humans belong and the spirit goes to the spirit kingdom from where it continues to act according to its qualities either bad or good.

But to access the rank of ancestor, certain requirements must be met. Not everyone who takes this world away becomes ancestors. It is essential, during the stay in this world, to have had exemplary conduct in all aspects of social, religious and family life and to have attained the human degree of maturity obtained through marriage and the procreation of an offspring. A single or childless man will never reach the rank of ancestor. Once dead, funeral rites are required and later mourning rites, processes that can sometimes last for several years. If the spirit separates itself from its carnal envelope too quickly, it can stay around the house and disturb its inhabitants, even after the burial. That is why, in addition to the rite of death, another is celebrated, according to the ethnic groups, at forty days, to give the deceased a second chance to enter the world of spirits together with the other ancestors.

The ancestor has a real and active presence in the family and in the village. He usually tries to be favorable to his own by intervening in the most important moments of social or religious life, on the condition that they behave well with him, otherwise it could bring them much trouble and misfortune. In order to attract his protection and help, he is offered sacrifices and offerings, and statues are often made, showing great dignity, representing him and venerated in family altars or incarnated in a specific mask during ceremonies. These statues or masks have a deep sacred character and are kept under the shelter of the eyes of the profane.

If elders inspire great respect in African societies, for authority and respect are obtained with age and their advice is indispensable for the proper functioning of their various institutions, the ancestors inspire true fervor, accompanied by affection, respect, devotion and fear. The ancestor occupies a higher place than that of the most important but inferior living descendant than that of the secondary gods or geniuses of nature, all of them intermediaries of different rank before the Supreme God or Creator God, to which man cannot, out of respect, address directly.

This is a figure of important dimensions that preserves the remains of his sacrificial patina. Generous breasts of the woman who has breastfed several children. The pronounced navel, common in many places in Africa, resulting from or bad cut of the umbilical cord has become a symbol of feminine beauty in many ethnicities. Very old patina.