IN the aftermath of the death of Cde George Rutanhire, the chairman of Fallen Heroes Trust of Zimbabwe, on August 19 2017, many people have been asking: What’s next, concerning the exhumations and reburials of men, women, boys and girls who died during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and lie in unmarked graves inside and beyond our country’s borders?
Many of them still lie unaccounted for in ditches, rivers, mountains and shallow graves, and as such, it is imperative that their remains be given befitting burials as promised by fellow comrades during and after the war.
From the accounts of those who took part in the liberation struggle for Zimbabwe, the war was no primrose path.
Some days were spent without food, diseases ravaged the lives of thousands in refugee camps like Doiroi, Tembwe and Chimoio, among others, clothes were a luxury, not to talk of home sickness.
It was a liberation struggle where supplies were prone to poisoning by the Rhodesian regime whose leader Ian Smith had vowed no blackman would ever rule this country in a thousand years.
According to Fallen Heroes Trust of Zimbabwe vice-chairperson Dr Arthur Makanda, the death of Cde Rutanhire is not the end of the journey, which began with a pact made by comrades during the liberation struggle.
“The exhumations will carry on in earnest once resources are made available,” Dr Makanda said.
“The reburial of the fallen heroes is a must as we cannot afford to turn a blind eye and pretend that the end of the war marked closure of the struggle to liberate this great nation.
“Many lives were lost during the war and we cannot afford to pay lip service on the sacrifices made by the thousands gallant sons and daughters of Zimbabwe.
“Parents and relatives of departed comrades still worry about the whereabouts of their family members, hence they continue to search and as a nation, we owe them.”
The exhumations and reburial process which began in 2011 has brought many heroes and heroines back home, to be properly laid to rest.
Previous articles in The Patriot have covered the exhumations at length, from Chibondo in Mount Darwin, to Butcher in Rusape.
With over 60 000 people said to have been killed during the liberation struggle, it is necessary for those unaccounted for to be properly laid to rest with their burial rituals done as the African culture requires.
Actually it is said a small percentage of the fallen heroes and heroines have been exhumed and reburied so far.
And 37 years later after independence, cases abound of relatives still searching for their kith and kin who went to war and never returned.
Take, for example, Elizabeth Chipendo from Mbare, Harare.
Tears flow as Chipendo, mother of the late freedom fighter Owen Marowa, aka Cde Straight Shooter, as she narrates to The Patriot her ordeal in ‘finding’ her son.
One can tell these tears are of a distressed mother who lost all hope of finding her son who left in his teens to join the liberation war and never returned home.
“I had the hope that my only son, born out of eight other girls would look after me,” she said.
“I had been looking for him since Ceasefire in 1979 and had not had anything at all.
“However, the manifestations of my niece, Cecilia Marowa have guided us to where my son is.
“Now all I want is that he gets a decent burial.”
Clara Mugwidi, nee Marowa and sister to the late Cde Straight Shooter, says her mother has longed for the return of her son.
“My mother looked for my brother for a long time and could not find him, but she kept saying munhu haarovi, kana akafa tichazviziva (A person does not just fade into oblivion, if he died we shall know),” said Mugwidi.
“She had been distressed about it and when my cousin sister’s husband called in 2015 to tell us that his wife Cecilia Marowa was having manifestations, we knew that my mother’s words were true.
“All she cries for now is that she buries her son and if she dies before then, that we the remaining sisters of the late Cde Straight Shooter bury him. “The manifestations disclosed where Cde Straight Shooter lies in Beira (Mozambique), where he says only eight of them are buried.
“Cde Straight Shooter said he had gone to give medical assistance to those who had been wounded there during the war.
“This information is confirmed by one of the surviving comrades who went to war with our brother.”
Of course there are doubting Thomases out there pertaining to exhumations and reburials, but there are cases of families who have had DNA tests on their relatives and found conclusive evidence of the exhumed bones being that of their relatives.
While DNA tests put to rest the case for many relatives, not many can afford the process.
The case of Saul Sadza whose remains are said to still lie at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospital is still inconclusive, with some claiming there are political implications to it.
But what is the significance of these reburials?
Lesiba Baloyi writes in The African Conception of Death: A Cultural Implication about the significance of reburials in the African culture.
Says Baloyi: “From an African perspective, death is a natural transition from the visible to the invisible spiritual ontology where the spirit, the essence of the person, is not destroyed but moves to live in the spirit ancestors’ realm dead.
It signifies an inextricable spiritual connection between the visible and invisible worlds.
For Africans, death is accompanied by a series of the performance of rituals which connect the living dead and the living.”
The writer adds:“Like birth, death is characterised by a series of cultural rituals and rites of passage which at times continue for the duration of the mourning period, as long as the living dead is remembered and continues to influence the actions of the living.
The mourning or grieving process cannot therefore be linked or limited to some time span in a discrete sense.
It is for this reason that Africans take time off from work when their loved ones are dead, to perform rituals that eternally connect them to the deceased.”
Rituals are a representation of cultural performances and rites of passage which mark a people’s life experience.
Properly construed, rituals are an expression of people’s thoughts, emotions, social organisation and cultural identities.
Denise Lillian Appel, in the Narratives on death and bereavement from three South African cultures (unpublished Masters dissertation) University of South Africa, Pretoria says, although the Batswana people do accept death as part of life, they tend to perceive it as a tainted darkness that could engulf and defile the survivors if they were not careful to perform certain acts and rituals.
Edson Fana, a materials and production officer in Heritage Studies says death must be respected culturally.
“Death is respected culturally in the African indigenous religion because there is a belief that if someone passes on, they still have a role to play even as a spirit to look after and guide the family,” says Fana.
“This is the reason they deserve a decent burial where rituals are performed and they are laid to rest in the family cemetery because there is nothing as bad as kumukirwa nehama (avenging spirit) because this can give bad luck to the family.”
Materials and production officer with the Curriculum Development and Technical Services Department in the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry, Sipho Mlambo, says it is the duty of those who remain to give their kith and kin decent burials.
Said Mlambo: “Since we revere death in the indigenous religion, it is the duty of the living to properly bury their member.
“While there were incidences in the past or present where delays in burials can occur, conflict resolution would compel people to run around and make sure one gets a decent burial.
“The failure to do so, would seem as neglecting the deceased, hence it would matter even where someone is buried.
“The manifestations in people would then be proof of the living dead and how it is important even to the living dead to be buried where their own are buried.
“While the Christians think that the manifestations are an evil spirit which needs to be exorcised, it shows lack of understanding of indigenous culture.”
There is no doubt that those who sacrificed their lives for Zimbabwe’s independence and who lie in unmarked graves and territories inside and beyond our borders long to come back home.
Their souls still wander and must be put to rest in line with our African values and tradition.
However, 37 years later, the continued manifestations by boys and girls, highlights the lack of commitment by many comrades who took part in the struggle to bring back the wandering souls and bones of those they promised to bring back home when the liberation struggle was over.
As Zimbabweans, and as black people, we must all keep that promise!