Ideas of life after death dominate African religious practices in the societies. The people of Buha and Unyamwezi in
Western Tanzania maintained the relationship with the departed ancestors to address issues arising from the living
members of the family, clan and the society at large. With exception of theologians and cultural anthropologists,
ideas on life after death have not attracted attention of African historians. In this paper I envisage the ideas of life
after death from a historical perspective using Buha and Unyamwezi as illustrative cases. I argue that issues of life
after death are historically grounded and involve the interplay of natural and human-induced forces. This study relies
on both archival and oral sources that I collected between 2011 and 2012. I employ a comparative approach to provide
an account of how issues on life after death have had impacts on the lives of the people in Western Tanzania.