By Fidelis Manyange
AS I write this piece, I am mourning the passing on of my brother Thomas Mabwe Chitemerere and father George Chitemerere.
Thomas, who died on December 28 2024, in the UK, was buried on the 8th of this month while we bade farewell to Mudhara George two days later at ‘Pachikomo Chemachamaya’, as we call our family cemetery.
Thomas, who died in his late 40s, was well known in the country’s judiciary system as its youngest public prosecutor.
The former detective inspector was mourned by hordes of former workmates and court reporters. One after the other, mourners took turns to heap befitting homages to the young philanthropist, farmer par excellence and businessman.
‘It is only at cemeteries that one gets to see well-behaved people,’ is a common adage.
It is also common to hear ‘wafa wanaka’, meaning even the most wicked people are eulogised at their burial. But not always. It, therefore, came as a shock to me when I heard the following graveside speech: “Zimwana ramurikuona rirere apa ranga riine moyo wakashata fani.”
I later learnt from my friend that the deceased was a habitual thief in Mufakose who accused his mother of killing his father using supernatural means, or witchcraft, to put it more bluntly.
Mourners are accustomed to priests hired to preside over burials saying: “Mr or Mrs or Miss So-and-So was such a good person. His deeds will always be remembered by all”, even if the deceased was a good-for-nothing).”
The man of God always has a Bible in hand yet he/she avoids the truth about the dearly departed.
To be honest, I have yet to hear a truthful graveside speech.
If the priest were to tell mourners, “We are gathered here to lay to rest a thief, a murderer, an arsonist, a-good-for-nothing . . . please rest in peace and do not come back,” I will bet my last dollar that he/she would be tarred, feathered and driven out of town.
‘Praise and worship’ speeches apart, funerals are now a haven for some weird practices, some of them straight out of Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’. For example, who ever thought of having sex on top of a grave? But it is happening right before our very eyes and in broad daylight, all in the name of mourning.
Picture this. In December last year, the writer attended the burial of a lady of the night at Zinyengere Cemetery, Epworth. There I witnessed the shock of my life as fellow ladies of the night, completely nude, simulated sexual acts in pairs next to the coffin. According to them, this was a the most befitting send-off for their former ‘workmate’. As if that was not enough, a kombi parked nearby played one of Baba Harare’s X-rated songs at full blast.
But, believe it or not, this was not an isolated incident. Almost on a daily basis, we continue to witness the coffins of deceased kombi drivers and mahwindi strapped onto kombi roofs and being driven recklessly around town, gusheshe-style, all in the name of a befitting send-off.
In days gone by, funerals were sombre occasions with cemeteries treated with the utmost respect. Only the sahwiras were allowed the luxury of acting naughty to lighten the sombre atmosphere. In the late Oliver Mtukudzi’s words: “Sahwira aiitirwa kurerutsa ndima.”
Unfortunately, the ladies of the night and mahwindi are invading funerals and taking chisahwira to unprecedented levels, often throwing hunhu/ubuntu out of the window.
Once I stumbled upon a viral video of a couple engaging in sex in full view of mourners during the burial of a colleague. No wonder, some voyeuristic people now throng funerals in the hope of watching pornographic acts for free.
Worse still, cemeteries are now being used by some people instead of lodges for sexual acts while the criminally minded use them to hide or share their loot. Cases of graves getting tampered with after burial as thieves search for valuables buried with the deceased in the form of clothes, jewellery, blankets and expensive caskets for resale.
Recently, a local radio station featured a man confessing how he made money from exhuming corpses whose body parts he sold to businesspeople hoping to boost their earnings. He was pleading with traditional healers and prophets to exorcise the ‘demons’ that were now haunting him and causing him sleepless nights.
Let’s respect the dead and protect the sanctity of our final resting places, wherever they are. This sacrilege must stop!
