In the south-east of Ivory Coast, the elderly are entitled to solemn funerals with a strong emphasis on musical, danced and sung events. The funeral lament and the noolo, mainly sung expressions, are executed as a tribute to the deceased. But if lamentations are rather tearful, the noolo is rather lively. And while words of lament relate to the physical and moral solitude in which the deceased leaves the living, to the questioning of one’s own fate, to the role of mediator (given to the deceased) between the worlds of the living and the dead, and finally refer to a certain helplessness in the face of death, the noolo is more a challenge towards death, which strives to give courage to the mourning in conquering death.