This was posted originally on the Land of Kam website at 2-12-2010
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krJW2qMVv4M]
This video feed is a New Orleans Jazz Funeral for tuba player Kerwin James. This is custom of dancing with the dead is believed to be influenced from the Kongo people of Central Africa. Note the rocking movement of the casket and the ceremoniously wearing of the colors white and black. According to ancient African mysticism the color black is the color of mysteries, the unknown, the hidden, which is why some equated it with death. It is also equated with renewal, resurrection and rebirth. The color white however is the color of purity, wisdom and ancestors.
If one looks long enough, when you compare this to the ancient Kamitic burial practices, we see that the dancer that comes out of the door first is none other than the Opener of the Way (Npu/Apuat), making a way for the newly deceased. We can go on and on, but this is just an example of how our ancestors continued to practice their culture under a different guise. It is in our blood, we just have to tap into it.