Religio-Cultural Practices, Gender, and the Afterlife Among Somali Muslims in Eastleigh, Nairobi

Abstract

This study explores the religio-cultural practices surrounding death and the afterlife among the Somali Muslim community in Eastleigh, Nairobi County, with particular attention to the concept of adhaab al-kabr (punishment of the grave) and the gendered dimensions of death rituals. Employing a qualitative ethnographic approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions with 48 participants, including community members, religious leaders, and cultural elders. The study utilized the theory of assimilation to examine how Islamic teachings on death and the afterlife have been integrated with Somali cultural practices, and the social interpretive theory to understand how community members attach meaning to their practices. Findings reveal that death rituals in the Somali Muslim community represent a complete assimilation of Islamic eschatology into indigenous cultural forms. Burial practices emphasize immediacy, ritual washing, shrouding, and prayer, reflecting Islamic prescriptions. The mourning process is structured, lasting forty days with specific rituals on the third, seventh, and fortieth days, blending Islamic supplication with Somali cultural expressions of grief. Women are systematically marginalized in death rituals, prohibited from approaching the grave, participating in burial, or engaging in formal religious roles during funerals. This exclusion is justified through cultural narratives about women’s emotionality, yet it stands in tension with Islamic teachings that grant women greater participation. The belief in adhaab al-kabr shapes these practices, with the community’s understanding of the grave as the first station of the afterlife informing how the deceased are prepared, mourned, and remembered. The study contributes to the anthropology of religion, gender studies, and Islamic studies by providing rich ethnographic data on the topic, as understood and lived, and on the intersection of eschatological belief, cultural practice, and gender dynamics in a diasporic Somali community.