Marina and loved ones sing hymns during the intimate service for jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim, bringing to life the childhood melodies that stretched across generations and borders to bid a final, soulful farewell.
On Monday, 22 June, we laid uncle Abdullah Ibrahim to rest in the small Bavarian village of Aschau im Chiemgau, Germany.
It was a farewell that felt remarkably true to the man himself: intimate, understated, deeply spiritual, and woven together from different cultures, traditions, and histories.
The funeral was, in many ways, a melting pot.
A simple wooden coffin stood in a room adorned with paintings and a wooden sculpture of Jesus Christ, yet it was draped with a green Janazah cloth embroidered with verses from the Quran. It was a striking image. One that seemed to capture the essence of Uncle Abdullah’s life and journey.
