In some traditional African perspectives on afterlife and burial, it is believed that the dead are nearer to a “singular supreme being” than the living. Certain afterlife beliefs in Africa hold that reward and punishment are experienced in this life and not after death. However, the traditional African beliefs also state that the dead have an effect on the living. It is a negative effect that the living attempt to avoid with rituals, which are considered funeral rites associated with a “correct burial.”