when an individual died, after grieving for two to three days, the fore women cut up, divided, shared, and consumed the body. the men rarely partook in the dismemberment and consumption of the corpse. they took great care to consume all parts, even drying and crushing the bones and all used cooking utensils and mixing it in with vegetables so that nothing was missed. a series of purification rituals meant to cleanse the body of "kwela" then took place over several weeks. finally, there were feasts and rituals that simultaneously compensated the women for housing the "kwela", acted as the final step in cleansing the body of "kwela", and sent all remaining parts of the soul to the land of the dead.