Tuesday, April 1, 2014

From Harvard: disco matanga

 2014 Mar;36(1):2-4. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdt102. Epub 2013 Oct 17.

Let's talk about culture! Experiencing a disco funeral in Western Kenya.

Author information

  • Harvard School of Public Health, Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
"The purpose of the disco matanga or disco funeral is to help raise money in order to give the deceased husband a proper burial.7 There is usually a specific way to raise money at these events. At the event that I attended, fund raising began with music playing and an MC who started the party, ‘If you are sitting, you either have to pay 20 bop or go out and dance’. Those who want to continue sitting on the bench have to pay 20 Kenyan Shilling (KSh), while those who don't want to pay, get off the bench and dance. This trend continues throughout the night. The microphone also gets passed to a person who would pay for a dance or suggest for a named individual to dance with them for one song."

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