'Flinging' into the afterlife ... Ding Dong's songs used at man's funeral

Dancer-turned-artiste Ding Dong says it is not his place to cast judgement on the relatives and friends of a deceased man from Guyana who chose to celebrate his death in a 'non-traditional' way.

A video clip from the funeral went viral on the weekend as pall-bearers were seen 'flinging their shoulders' as they carried the casket.

Some social media users were less than amused that the funeral celebration felt more like a 'dancehall' session.

They felt the dancing and the theatrics were highly inappropriate and expressed that there is a time and place for everything.

The artiste, who posted a snippet of the video on his Instagram page, said he thought people were just having fun and perhaps hoping to gain attention with the casket element.

However, when he learnt that it was an actual funeral and realised that the deceased was a dance lover, he said he had no issue with the manner in which they celebrated.

"When I post the video, I post it out of amusement because that was something I never see yet, and I thought it was just a casket and people a dance; I never know it was an actual funeral. I even thought it was in Jamaica. Is when I post it now me find out say is in Guyana, and the man weh dead name Kingman and him was part of a dance group," he said.

Ding Dong said he later learnt that the deceased loved all his songs, but Fling was his favourite.

PEOPLE DEM HAPPY

"Dem say at the funeral all of Ding Dong songs were playing and I was really happy because when me look into it me a say di people dem happy, and a dance, and a enjoy demself in a moment dat supposed to be sad," he said.

The artiste suggested that people should not focus on the negative or the 'inappropriateness' of the dancing.

"I have videos at weddings, videos with politicians, videos of babies, celebrities doing my dances, and the common thing is that everyone is happy. So who are we to judge and say this isn't the way to celebrate this man's life?" he said. "We don't know if this was his wish. If this was a person who wasn't into dancehall music or the party life and dem pass off and people a celebrate him like that, then that would be dishonouring that person, but his family thought this was the send-off he wanted."

He added: "Besides a nuh everybody did a think negative because you have some people weh did a say if dem funeral is not like dat, dem don't want it. Not because people do things different mean dem wrong because dem tell you say cry when somebody born and rejoice when somebody dead. The greatest thing is dat him family and friends did happy."