The rich meaning of the term "living
dead" offers many opportunities for inculturation.  Even before death itself
there are different ways to remember and celebrate the rites of passage
connected to the African cosmology and worldview.  The Kuria people have a very
important celebration of elderhood called the Suba Feast in north western
Tanzania.  The men and women who go through this ritual arrive at a very special
position between the living and the living dead.

    Much preparation is needed.  First
permission is required of those who have already entered this special state of
elderhood.  Then all debts, especially involving the original bridewealth
(dowry), must be paid.  Even when the complete bridewealth (dowry) was paid at
the time of marriage, more cattle are given to the wife’s family.  The elder
becomes in some way a sacred person who is a mediator between the living and the
living dead.  He or she is never to steal, lie, or commit adultery.  This Suba
person has great spiritual powers that were often used in the past in a harmful
way.

    In some places the Catholic Church has
blessed this feast and given the elders the instruction of St. Paul so they will
use their position for good and not for evil:

    Have no debt with anyone, except the debt to love one another; for
the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "You shall
not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not
covet"; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, "Love your
neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the
fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8‑10).