Avalon Cemetery
Encyclopedia
Avalon Cemetery is one of the largest graveyard
s in South Africa
. It was opened in 1972, during the height of apartheid, as a graveyard exclusively for blacks. More than 300,000 people are buried on its 430 acres (1.7 km²), the graves less than two feet apart. By 2010 the cemetery is expected to be at capacity, largely because of AIDS
deaths. AIDS-related deaths in South Africa are expected to increase each year from about 120,000 in 2000 to between 354,000 and 383,000 in 2005.
, death
tends to be the most important rite of passage
. AIDS victims who don't live long enough to marry are left with a funeral as their only major ceremony. Families will do whatever is necessary to ensure a comfortable journey for their loved ones into the world of ancestors. The dead are often called on by the living for guidance and inspiration.
Funeral
s that attract 500 people or more are common. The mourners are not necessarily close friends or relatives. They are often friends of friends, and sometimes people the deceased might have met once or perhaps not at all.
In return for their efforts to mourn the dead, the living believe they will be similarly blessed with a large crowd at their funerals.
The standard for huge funerals was set in the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. Thousands of students boycotted school, adopted the slogan "liberation before education" and took to the streets in protest. They inevitably clashed with police, and the death toll grew each week.
The funerals for the victims became one of the most powerful expressions of defiance against the apartheid government. More than 10,000 people, some dressed in military fatigues and armed with wooden rifles, would flock to a cemetery to demonstrate their solidarity in the struggle. When there were not enough buses to drive them to the cemetery, the protesters stopped motorists and forced the drivers to give them a lift. By the end of the day, the funerals often generated new victims of the struggle to be buried the next week.
, Joe Slovo
, Lilian Ngoyi
, Helen Joseph
, Nkosi Johnson
, and Hastings Ndlovu
.
Graveyard
A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
s in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It was opened in 1972, during the height of apartheid, as a graveyard exclusively for blacks. More than 300,000 people are buried on its 430 acres (1.7 km²), the graves less than two feet apart. By 2010 the cemetery is expected to be at capacity, largely because of AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
deaths. AIDS-related deaths in South Africa are expected to increase each year from about 120,000 in 2000 to between 354,000 and 383,000 in 2005.
Culture of burials
In AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
tends to be the most important rite of passage
Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
. AIDS victims who don't live long enough to marry are left with a funeral as their only major ceremony. Families will do whatever is necessary to ensure a comfortable journey for their loved ones into the world of ancestors. The dead are often called on by the living for guidance and inspiration.
Funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
s that attract 500 people or more are common. The mourners are not necessarily close friends or relatives. They are often friends of friends, and sometimes people the deceased might have met once or perhaps not at all.
In return for their efforts to mourn the dead, the living believe they will be similarly blessed with a large crowd at their funerals.
The standard for huge funerals was set in the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. Thousands of students boycotted school, adopted the slogan "liberation before education" and took to the streets in protest. They inevitably clashed with police, and the death toll grew each week.
The funerals for the victims became one of the most powerful expressions of defiance against the apartheid government. More than 10,000 people, some dressed in military fatigues and armed with wooden rifles, would flock to a cemetery to demonstrate their solidarity in the struggle. When there were not enough buses to drive them to the cemetery, the protesters stopped motorists and forced the drivers to give them a lift. By the end of the day, the funerals often generated new victims of the struggle to be buried the next week.
Famous burials
Avalon Cemetery is noted for a number of famous people interred on its grounds. Notables include Hector PietersonHector Pieterson
Hector Pieterson became the subject of an iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa when a news photograph by Sam Nzima of the dying Hector being carried by another student while his sister ran next to them, was published around the world. He was killed at the age of 12 when the...
, Joe Slovo
Joe Slovo
For Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town, see: Joe Slovo .Joe Slovo was a South African politician, long-time leader of the South African Communist Party , and leading member of the African National Congress.-Life:Slovo was born in Obeliai, Lithuania to a Jewish family who emigrated to South...
, Lilian Ngoyi
Lilian Ngoyi
Lillian Masediba Ngoyi "Ma Ngoyi", , was a South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first woman elected to the executive committee of the African National Congress, and helped launch the Federation of South African Women.Ngoyi joined the ANC Women's League in 1952; she was at that stage a...
, Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph , a South African anti-apartheid activist, was born in Easebourne near Midhurst West Sussex, England and graduated from King's College London, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph...
, Nkosi Johnson
Nkosi Johnson
Nkosi Johnson was a South African child with HIV/AIDS, who made a powerful impact on public perceptions of the pandemic and its effects before his death at the age of 12. He was ranked fifth amongst SABC3's Great South Africans...
, and Hastings Ndlovu
Hastings Ndlovu
Hastings Ndlovu, was a black Sowetan schoolboy who died in the Soweto uprising against the apartheid system.Little is known about him, but on June 16, 1976, when the police opened fire on Sowetan students protesting against being forced to learn Afrikaans in school, he took the first bullet...
.