Abstract This article uses the death and burial of one of the most important political leaders in twentieth-century Africa, and Nigeria's first and only ceremonial president, Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Nnamdi Azikiwe, to reflect on how and why the deaths and burials of significant persons in Africa represent occasions for the (re)production and management of cultural crises. It argues that the extant literature on the death of consequential persons in Africa either understates or overlooks the generalizability of the “essential contestability” of the material and immaterial relations of the past, present, and future provoked by such deaths. This is particularly visible when these relations are disturbed or challenged by the absence of the person and the process of their burial or reburial.

中文翻译：

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埋葬“非洲的兹克”：死亡政治与文化危机

摘要 本文使用了 20 世纪非洲最重要的政治领导人之一、尼日利亚第一位也是唯一一位礼仪总统 Rt. 尊敬的 (Dr.) Nnamdi Azikiwe，反思非洲重要人物的死亡和埋葬如何以及为什么代表文化危机的（再）生产和管理的场合。它认为，关于非洲重要人物死亡的现存文献要么低估了，要么忽视了由此类死亡引发的过去、现在和未来的物质和非物质关系的“本质竞争性”的普遍性。当这些关系因人的缺席及其埋葬或重新埋葬的过程而受到干扰或挑战时，这一点尤其明显。