Avalon Cemetery is one of the largest graveyards in South Africa. It was opened in 1972, during the height of apartheid, as a graveyard exclusively for blacks. More than 300,000 people are buried on its 430 acres, the graves less than two feet apart. By 2010 the cemetery is expected to be at capacity, largely because of AIDS deaths. AIDS-related deaths in South Africa are expected to increase each year from about 120,000 in 2000 to between 354,000 and 383,000 in 2005.
Culture of burials
In Africa, death tends to be the most important rite of passage. AIDS victims who don't live long enough to marry are left with a funeral as their only major ceremony. Families will do whatever is necessary to ensure a comfortable journey for their loved ones into the world of ancestors. The dead are often called on by the living for guidance and inspiration. Funerals that attract 500 people or more are common. The mourners are not necessarily close friends or relatives. They are often friends of friends, and sometimes people the deceased might have met once or perhaps not at all. In return for their efforts to mourn the dead, the living believe they will be similarly blessed with a large crowd at their funerals. The standard for huge funerals was set in the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle. Thousands of students boycotted school, adopted the slogan "liberation before education" and took to the streets in protest. They inevitably clashed with police, and the death toll grew each week. The funerals for the victims became one of the most powerful expressions of defiance against the apartheid government. More than 10,000 people, some dressed in military fatigues and armed with wooden rifles, would flock to a cemetery to demonstrate their solidarity in the struggle. When there were not enough buses to drive them to the cemetery, the protesters stopped motorists and forced the drivers to give them a lift. By the end of the day, the funerals often generated new victims of the struggle to be buried the next week.
