College of Human Sciences

Death in abundance versus life in abundance in the context of Covid-19 and poverty

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Prof Olehile Buffel

On 3 March 2022, Professor Olehile Buffel from the Department of Philosophy, Practical Theology and Systematic Theology delivered his inaugural lecture titled “Death in abundance versus life in abundance in the context of Covid-19 and poverty: A practical theological reflection on the much-needed pastoral accompaniment of grieving families through the various stages of grief”. The inaugural lecture was held virtually on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Click here to watch a recording of the lecture.

The impact of Covid-19 on the poor

Buffel kicked off his lecture by reminding the audience of the traumatic last two years that the world has been through. “Covid-19 changed our normal lives and forced us to face the universal fear that we all share, the fear of death,” he said. “Covid-19 is the worst pandemic we have ever experienced, surpassed only by the Spanish Flu Pandemic e that killed 50 million people around the world in 1918.” He focused on the economic impact that Covid-19 had on the world and the fact that the poor were hardest hit.

During the lecture he took the audience through the five stages of grief emphasised the sad reality that the poor cannot afford to seek professional psychiatric help. “The poor rely on spiritual leaders like pastors to get through hard times,” he said. “With so much illness, and particularly an abundance of cases of death, there is an abundance of grief, which if not attended to, will lead to another pandemic, namely prolonged or complicated grief.”

Africanism and grieving

Buffel highlighted the fact that theologians and philosophers cannot ignore African beliefs and relegate them to irrelevance. “Whether Christian or not, African beliefs are embedded in our beliefs,” he said, “and these have been passed down from generation to generation. One of the impacts of grieving is the anger at God and I insist that pastors should not get angry at this reaction but must be understanding and they must continue to be a guiding hand.”

In closing

“Death is a certainty, and it is a phenomenon that we must all deal with,” Buffel summed up his lecture. “The main argument of the lecture is that grieving families must be pastorally accompanied as they go through various stages of grieving such as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. These are the stages enumerated by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, which were initially associated with dying but have now been extended to grieving. During our times, it is difficult to ignore the reality of death and grieving which is affecting millions across the world and in South Africa, in particular. As Covid-19 holds the whole world hostage, there is no person who can claim that he or she is not affected by the pandemic”.

Buffel in his own words

Before the lecture, we had a chance to pick this intellectual’s brain. Buffel has a passion for his African people and studying the impact of the world and secular beliefs on our core beliefs as Africans. We asked him if he had any aspirations of conducting research in other countries. Buffel had this to say, “It is my aspiration to do research in the Southern African countries focusing on the investigation of the therapeutic value of African traditional rituals that stubbornly persist in being practiced by African Christians despite being banned in some Christian churches.”

* By Veli Mabona, Marketing Assistant, College of Human Sciences

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Publish date: 2022-03-07 00:00:00.0

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