Nfinda Kalunga/ Sacred Burial Grounds

Urban Paleros are accustomed to large city cemeteries, where bodies line up in rows, double or triple deep.  These cemeteries have strict hours and access.  What is more common out here are many small rural graveyards, sometimes attached to a church, sometimes belonging to an old home or farm, some have as few as a half dozen graves, some have more like a hundred.  Many are overgrown with weeds and even become absorbed into the forest.  Others are mown by someone once in a while but many are neglected.  

We are fortunate that adjacent to our land there is a graveyard (shown in the first 4 photos), where many of the people who tended this whole area now rest.  This graveyard was connected to the local "Black Church" which later moved down the road a couple miles.  Once in a while we see a car full of people looking for it, but most of the time it is quiet.  Most of the bodies in the graveyard are a hundred plus years old.  The graveyard is surrounded by forest on 2 sides and unless you venture into the forest you would not realize the number of graves that are right inside the forest at this point and are totally overlooked by whoever is tending the graveyard.

During our visits to the graveyard we noticed the various plants growing and noticed that they had obviously been consciously planted and placed, specifically the YUCCA plant.  The YUCCA plant is a native plant, it has spiky evergreen leaves and sends up a tall flowering stalk in the summer which flowers white edible flowers.  The leaves can be used to make twine and baskets and more.  In some places the gravestone had become swallowed up by the Yucca plants.  There are also a number of evergreen trees, especially cedar and native pine, which we know symbolize immortality or everlasting life!

Yucca was used much more in the past in this region by those of African descent and tradition to give protection and grounding to the Spirit of the person in the grave.  You see Yucca often planted by specific graves and often at the entrance of the graveyard.  You do not see the Yucca typically on graves of those of western religious traditions.  

These photos show other graveyards in the area that we have visited which also have patches of Yucca surrounding certain graves.  The graveyard adjacent to us has far more Yucca because of course it is connected to the "Black Church".  If you drive down the back rural roads and look carefully for old graveyards, there is a strong possibility that you will see graves with Yucca.  

For Paleros and those who practice other traditions of African roots, the Yucca tells a story about the tenacity of African Traditions in this country.  

As Paleros who have worked with Yucca, we know how it expands greatly from its original planting and forms a large mound that grows larger and larger.  It is difficult to remove once it is rooted, especially because its leaves are spiky and not easily grasped.

Yucca is not the edible tuber (Casava or Yuca), apparently it received its name because of confusion of the Spanish (who were confused about basically everything pertaining to Indigenous culture).  

We have seen Yucca in literally 50 graveyards within an hours drive of our home.  Once you start to look for it, you will see it everywhere.  We bring forth this brief post in order to educate those who may be seeing this, and perhaps not know of its significance.  For us it is a powerful statement of the resilience and adaptability of our traditions and holds within it many lessons that we can benefit from.  By its very presence it is a voice that arises from the graves speaking to those who have the ears to listen!