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Abstract:
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Death is an inevitable occurrence that affect most human beings one way or another
such that some people engage in several activities in response to its affects and to
obtain spiritual healing or closure (Baloyi 2016, 201-216, Itsweni and Tshifhumulo
2018, 11705-11727). Among the Balobedu people of Bolobedu south in Limpopo prov ince, South Africa, there were speculations about death and mourning rituals that be reaving members observed which left some who fellowshipped in Emmanuel Assem blies Church not sure as how to respond to the call of rituals. They used the Bible as
their guide to evaluate the situation so that their faith would not be compromised. This
gave birth to researching these rituals by purposefully sampling 39 participants from
Ga-Motupa, Kgwekge, Relela, Morutjie and Motlhomeng, to establish the reality of the
matter. The objective of the study was to investigate the death and mourning rituals
that Balobedu people of Bolobedu south in Limpopo province, South Africa; performed
with a view of formulating a biblical counselling model that can assist Emmanuel As semblies church members residing in the same vicinity to deal with death-related ritu als that directly need their engagements.
With an approved consent form signed by the participants, various one-on-one inter views, pre-arranged by the participants recruiter, using semi-structured questions
translated into Khelobedu (a dialect of Balobedu People) were conducted to collect
data after the permission from both the royal house in Khetlhakong and their respec tive headmen were obtained.
The research findings indicate that death and mourning rituals are performed by some
nations around the globe, Balobedu included, to honour the deceased, to appease the
dead and to obtain healing from the loss. The study also found that, Emmanuel mem bers lack a biblical counselling model to assist them on matters related to death and
mourning rituals. The researcher also proposed a biblical counselling model to Em manuel leadership for adoption and use among their churches for them to obtain guid ance in the event of loss. The model combines Magezi’s seven approaches of pastoral
care and Steward’s three steps of counselling. |