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3.7 Nwoye’s sources of gain in African Grief Therapy (AGT) model
African grief work is defined as the patterned ways invented in traditional communities for the successful healing of the psychological wounds and pain of the bereaved persons (Nwoye, 2000). AGT has three interrelated objectives; that is a).
To engage in activities and offer services/rituals that mediates the impact of the loss;
b). To protect the bereaved from suffering from the loss, and; c). To avail bereavement rituals approved by the community; the rituals help the bereaved understand and accept that the grief-work in their African context has a definite beginning and a definite ending. To achieve these objectives AGT encompasses three major levels in its intervention programme; the biological, emotional and social levels (Nwoye, 2000). All these levels are targeted so as to promote recovery and well-being of the bereaved post being negatively impacted by the loss.
Nwoye goes on to breaking down and conceptualising the healing modes and mechanisms (i.e. the community‘s willingness to participate in the grief process), and the rituals and techniques implicated in AGT into two phases. Phase one is conceptualised in terms of the local community‘s voluntary involvement in the grief healing processes. While, phase two is conceptualised in terms of the patterned mourning rituals that are an essential part of healing in AGT. The basis for the solid local participation in AGT is founded on a two-factor theoretical explanation: the G- FACTOR and the S-FACTOR explanations. The G-FACTOR framework refers to the General Asset Factor, while the S-FACTOR refers to the Special Interest factor explanation (Nwoye, 2000). By General Asset factor Nwoye refers to the local
community‘s voluntary participation in all bereavement related activities (burials, ritual performance etc.), because death does not only rob the bereaved of an asset (the deceased), but the whole community. While the Special Interest Factor refers to individuals who in addition to participating in the general asset activities, extend their services (i.e. offering gifts, financial support or adopting orphans of the deceased) to the bereaved primarily due to feeling that they are greatly indebted to the deceased.
To demonstrate the G-Factor, Nwoye highlights that once death strikes, it robs the family and community one of its greatest asset in the form of a good mother, a great teacher, a great medicine man, a great peacemaker or a potential asset (that is a youngster of a great character and noticeable potential to add value to the community in the future). As a result the whole community grieves, as it strives to heal each other over the loss of a noble community member. This also reflects the solidarity of empathy, which greatly benefit the immediate bereaved family (Nwoye, 2000). However, the community in some cases withdraws their G-FACTOR services and refuse to mourn persons of poor moral character (i.e. thieves, prostitutes, death by suicide). Such persons are perceived as having violated the society‘s code of conduct and having been liabilities, rather than assets (Nwoye, 2000). As a result, the community would usually reason that since the deceased had rejected the society, the society now rejects him or her in return (Mbiti, 1989). To qualify for the community‘s AGT services one should subscribe to the African people‘s code of conduct which is underpinned by Ubuntu, and where possible continue to add value to the community (Nwoye, 2000). The community‘s voluntary participation or withdrawal of their services in this context seem to suggest that there are healing properties identifiable in the G-FACTOR principle
The S-FACTOR component of the model, explains those people who form part of the AGT, but go an extra mile in the process. For instance, they may offer gifts, instrumental support and other forms of services to the bereaved. According to Nwoye such people do so because of what the deceased or the bereaved stands for in their lives. The lesson that is meant to be learnt here is that the many sacrifices and gifts and the services that are lavished on the bereaved under the auspices of
the AGT model are often grounded in the psychology of gratitude, which certain core members of the local community feel they owe to the family of the deceased in recognition of what the deceased or the bereaved meant to them or has done for them. Examples of people who will partake in AGT with a special commitment would be former apprentices, in-laws, younger brothers and sisters, scholarship beneficiaries of the deceased or the bereaved (Nwoye, 2000). The G-FACTOR and the S-FACTOR are not always the determining factor, because some community members‘ contribution in the AGT is embedded in their feeling of being ‗‗blood brothers‘ or being in a special social or bonding or kinship relationship with the person who died or the one who mourns.
According to Nwoye, the model also addresses the question, what does AGT heal?
Accordingly, the major ‗psychological aspects‘ AGT heal are the bereaved‘s negative imagery, fantasies or daydreams on the meaning and implications of the loss event (Nwoye 2000). The key assumption in AGT framework here is that the news of the death of the deceased is received with shock, and images, or fantasies or hypothesis of bleakness by the bereaved. Thus, the AGT framework is based on an elaborate imagination by the community of the bereaved‘s thoughts and negative expectations following the bereavement.
The main assumption held by the community is that the cognitive world of the bereaved is inundated and overcome by recurring frightening imaginations and calculations of the unavoidable losses (for example, housing, financial and emotional support of the deceased) to be faced as a result of the deceased‘s exit. Cognitive factors also targeted are the bereaved‘s realistic worries, tendency to self-blame, survivor‘s guilt, and their tendency to feel rejected or demoralized by fate. The often lingering questions (such as why me?, who‘s responsible?, what wrong have I done?, and why always me?) have a damaging psychological factor and are the target of AGT. Nwoye mentions that all the services and rituals incorporated in the AGT framework are intended, in the main, to respond to these cognitions by helping the bereaved to dethrone and transcend them.
The technique here is to do things or say words and tell stories, sing songs, give testimonies and offer donations and gifts that reassure and cognitively challenge such negative questions. Such collective efforts send a message to the bereaved that the community is available for instrumental and moral support. The mourning practices and the funeral ceremony rituals that are successfully conducted tend to create a new and lasting impression on the bereaved‘s cognition as opposed to the initial negative internal dialogue they held. The bereaved is therefore faced with messages that contradict their initial belief post the death. This helps them to assimilate the positive support and solidarity which assists in the healing process.
The main effort of AGT is to ensure that, the initial negative translation the bereaved has framed on the meaning of the loss is not allowed to persist (Nwoye 2000.
3.8 The theoretical framework for the present study: The Afrocentric paradigm