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Dying peacefully: considering good death and bad death in Kwahu-Tafo, Ghana

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  • van der Geest, Sjaak

Abstract

People in Kwahu-Tafo, a rural town in Southern Ghana, regard a peaceful death as a 'good death'. 'Peaceful' refers to the dying person having finished all business and made peace with others before his/her death and implies being at peace with his/her own death. It further refers to the manner of dying: not by violence, an accident or a fearsome disease, not by foul means and without much pain. A good and peaceful death comes 'naturally' after a long and well-spent life. Such a death preferably takes place at home, which is the epitome of peacefulness, surrounded by children and grandchildren. Finally, a good death is a death which is accepted by the relatives. This 'definition' of good death--'bad death' is its opposite--does not imply, however, that it is a fixed category. The quality of one's death is liable to social and political manoeuvre and, therefore, inherently ambiguous. The good death of a very old and successful person can be decried by the younger generation as the death of a witch who managed to live long at the expense of young people who died prematurely. The article is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out intermittently from 1971 to the present day.

Suggested Citation

  • van der Geest, Sjaak, 2004. "Dying peacefully: considering good death and bad death in Kwahu-Tafo, Ghana," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(5), pages 899-911, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:58:y:2004:i:5:p:899-911
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    Cited by:

    1. Paolo Rossi & Matteo Crippa & Gianlorenzo Scaccabarozzi, 2021. "The Relationship between Practitioners and Caregivers during a Treatment of Palliative Care: A Grounded Theory of a Challenging Collaborative Process," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Chabot, Boudewijn E. & Goedhart, Arnold, 2009. "A survey of self-directed dying attended by proxies in the Dutch population," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 1745-1751, May.
    3. Olson, Rebecca E. & Smith, Alexandra & Good, Phillip & Neate, Emily & Hughes, Cody & Hardy, Janet, 2021. "Emotionally reflexive labour in end-of-life communication," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    4. Jelle van Gurp & Olaitan Soyannwo & Kehinde Odebunmi & Simpa Dania & Martine van Selm & Evert van Leeuwen & Kris Vissers & Jeroen Hasselaar, 2015. "Telemedicine’s Potential to Support Good Dying in Nigeria: A Qualitative Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.

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