Diversity challenges from urban West Africa: How Senegalese family deaths illuminate dominant understandings of ‘bereavement’

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on interviews with Senegalese people living in four contemporary urban neighbourhoods, who had experienced the death of an adult family member, we explore how the research challenged and surprised the White, British members of the research team. Such challenges help to shed light on some dominant, taken-for-granted understandings of ‘bereavement’ based in ‘Western’ perspectives. The surprises include how the death was discussed and explained; patterns of family living and the implications for how individuals responded to the death; the emotional significance of particular religious expectations; and the emotional implications of material hardships. After exploring how interviewees responded to the deaths in Senegal, we consider how these responses compare with expectations and taken-for-granted assumptions about ‘bereavement’ in the contemporary UK. We conclude by discussing the implications for bereavement support and professional practice, in relation to diverse responses to death.