Zimbabwe: Living next to the dead

In other cultures it is unheard of but in some societies it is the normal practice to bury your beloved ones just next to the homestead. Some areas have, however, designated certain areas to bury the dead depending on relations. Other places have burial sites or graveyards at the church yards where members of a certain denomination bury their own.

In cities and other urban settings, a specific area, usually situated far away from residential areas is set aside for burial purposes for the dearly departed.

However, the unavailability of land coupled with the hunger for more land to settle the ever growing urban populace has forced residents to cast away all about taboos and build their houses next to the graveyards.

Residents of the sprouting Harare suburb of Stoneridge are, however, unperturbed "living next to the dead."

Social commentators and urban town planners noted that the practice is not commendable.

They, however, conceded that most of these residents have been forced by pressure to have their own homes to build next to the graveyard.

Most people who have built their houses near the Granville Cemetery are uncomfortable talking to strangers after fighting many battles with authorities to keep their "homes".

However, those who opened up, especially the women who dominate the community, are not worried about living a few metres from the burial site.

The solemn mood at the graveside where families come to bury their beloved after every 45 minutes as the residents continue with their chores and it seems the grieving families, while casting a few glances at the "strange" settlement.

During our visit to Stoneridge, especially along the 40 or so houses lined up along the Granville Cemetery Extension, the residents are wary of any vehicle they do not know or associate with.

Some of the people shy away from strangers.

Women leave their chores as soon as they do not trust you. They would rather sneak back into their half-built structures in case these strangers ask them strange questions while they are afraid of authorities who threatened to evict them from the land.

Just in the graveyard at a place that looks like an area reserved for small children, kids from the area have set aside space for a small football pitch and do not seem to be bothered when their plastic ball is hit on to the graves.

People with relatives buried at this portion of graveyard have not bothered or are still to erect tombstones while some graves seem to have since been abandoned and are not maintained.

"I have been living here for the past year and life is as normal as it can be. The graves do not bother us at all because it is normal especially for some of us who come from areas where a graveyard can be next to the houses. Isu tinoviga vanhu kuchikuva," said a man who was carrying sawdust for his garden field and identified himself as Jonnie.

"I am even planning to build a bigger house when I get enough money for the project but at the moment I am glad I have a place I can call my own and life goes," he said.

At one home built directly opposite the fast approaching graves, the family has built a tuckshop.

Here there is a small cat with broken hind legs and as it drags itself towards the strangers, one is reminded of a scene from a horror movie.

The mind has its own ways of imagining things and this cat is surely a lost soul from the graveyard.

The tuckshop owner, feeling that she could have some ready customers, quickly opens up.

"This cat just wonders around the community and it does not really belong to any one. We are not even scared of it because it is an innocent animal that is seeking food from the residents."

But how do they feel living next to a graveyard?

"It was a bit strange in the first days but we can afford to sleep peacefully every night. These are just graves for dead people and they do not really have anything against residents. They are dead people, they do not pose any danger to us," she said.

Another woman was not sure how they ended up getting the stand.

"My husband should give you that information because he is the one that did all the running around so that we have this place. I am happy that I have a place I can call mine," she said. While the area has no running water, residents want the authorities to work on the roads first so that they start building their houses in an orderly manner.

"As you can see people are just building haphazardly but if there are roads we can start building the houses properly. We believe this place has been demarcated properly and people can build their proper houses but we are just going to wait for the relevant authorities to give us the go ahead," said another resident.

Social commentator and award-winning TV show host Amai Rebecca Chisamba had no kind words for these residents.

She believes building next to a cemetery is against the African culture.

"In our culture, we should have equal for both the living and the dead. It does not matter that those graves do not have souls in them although they hold the remains of our loved ones, hence the respect that should be afforded to them," she said.

Amai Chisamba conceded that social and economic pressures have forced many to build such structures next to graves adding that the practice was in total disrespect for the dead.

"There are cultures where people have graves next to their homesteads but these are not for strangers. It is unheard of in our culture to look at a stranger's grave. Yes, people some people bury their relatives next to homesteads but you cannot build a house next to a strangers' grave.

"The people who have graves next to their homesteads do it so that they can take care of them including periodically putting flowers and cleaning the graveyard. But the situation is different and some of these graves in the urban areas where people just dump the dead bodies and nobody checks on them," she said.

However, Professor Claude Gumbucha Mararike believes building houses near graves or a graveyard had no social or spiritual effect on the residents.

"It is not like they have built their houses on the graves. There would never be any problems for the people as long as they do not tamper with the graves and even unscrupulous people temper with the graves the residents would not be affected in any way," he said.

He cited as an example the cemetery near Rufaro Stadium.

"That cemetery is right next to the police station and there are people staying next to that graveyard and we have never heard of any stories about people who have had problems because of the graves," he said.

The University of Zimbabwe lecturer, however, conceded that people are scared of graves.

"Makuva anongotyisawo kana aine mhepo dzavo (Graves are scary in our tradition if they are associated with spiritual matters). We are scared of graves especially when they are associated with strangers and in our culture the dead are awoken through witchcraft but under normal circumstances there are no social or spiritual consequences for people with homes built near a cemetery," he said.

However, some commentators believe that Pioneer Cemetery near Rufaro Stadium was for white people only but has also been associated with uncorroborated stories.

Professor Mararike, nevertheless, said it was unhygienic for the residents to start building boreholes on the same land where water could flow from the graveyard.

"It is unfortunate that these people do not have proper amenities such as running water and resort to boreholes which could be unsafe," he said.

"Have you ever heard of the ghost of a pretty woman who crosses the bridge from Mupedzanhamo Market into the graveyard? You have to make sure that you hit that woman with your car or else you will be involved in an accident," a vendor near the cemetery said.

She, however, could not refer to any confirmed reports to such an incident.

Other residents, however, implored urban planners to identify more land especially on farms surrounding the city for residential stands.

"These people are desperate and Government cannot evict them from these stands because it will be a humanitarian disaster. The fact that these people have been forced to leave in this area shows how desperate people are for land to build their houses.

"What needs to be done is to identify proper land to resettle these residents.

"They also need proper infrastructure so that they are safe in times of disasters such as the cholera epidemic that once hit most parts of Harare and other centres," a worker at a sand quarry, Tonderai Chikaha, said.

Government recently ordered people staying on undesignated land to stop building permanent structures so that the stands can be properly demarcated.

However, Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo said people who have started building their structures on these areas not to be evicted while their residence status is determined.

Friday 14 June 2013

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