Around noon today, the population of Bojayá will give final burial to the victims of the Massacre on May 2, 2002. Last night they made the vigil with praises, prayers and gualíes to say goodbye to their loved ones.

Bojayá did not sleep. In a great act carried out throughout the night by more than 600 families, at the town’s sports center, the feeling sprang up in each expression of singers (cantaores y cantaoras) who last honored the dozens of bodies of the victims of the Bojayá Massacre who lie in brown and white coffins to signify the new colors of their hope.

Funeral rituals, typical of Afro culture, were accompanied by praises, prayers and gualíes, and alabaos (praises). Alabaos are ancestral songs known as the art of singing to the dead, of saying good bye to them and accompanying them in their passage to other worlds where the spirits of their ancestors reside. The gualíes are songs to accompany the children who die and the raising of the grave is the end of the novena and is done to the deceased adults.  

With this act, the community of Bojayá carried out what they call "The Last Night", the act of funeral services to their deceased before the "Final Burial" that will take place today in the mausoleum of the population. 

The Victims Unit attended these acts to support and accompany family members in the process of reparation, understanding the meaning it has for each of them and thus leaving them the message that they will continue to work together for the victims.

The official program for the final burial of the victims will be as follows: 

Monday, November 18th

Mass - 8:00 am - 9:30 am

• Procession, taking the bodies to the mausoleum - 9:30 am - 10:00 am
• Inhumation / Burial of the 99 victims, until the end of the service- 10:30 am 

From November 18th to 27th

• There will be novenas (ninths), tree planting and a traditional ritual in memory of those who left (8 am).

November 19th

• An event called "The rebirth of hope" will be carried out, which includes planting a tree for each victim in their memory.

November 26th

• At 7:00 am, a general report of the act of spiritual farewell of bodies will be rendered and between 8:00 pm - 6:00 am, the last novena and the raising of graves in memory of the victims will be held.  

(FIN/JP/MPA)