When there is no respect for the living, its no use honoring....

                                                            Crime scene above.

About 1000 bodies have been exhumed in old disused mine shaft in Mt Darwin. Nobody knows who they are, when and how they got there.

When there is no respect for the living, its no use honoring the dead! It is amazing what relation the dead and the living have. Simply put, the dead are those who were living at some point in time and are going to die at some point in time. It all seems like process or stage in the same cycle. In many families , cultures, and civilizations over thousands of years, the dead are considered sacred in one way or another.

There are many beliefs and theories when it comes to the subject of the dead. Many religions differ on what happens after one dies. There are also different versions and theories of burying the dead. Time will not allow me to talk about the ancient Egypt, probably one of the most common cultures that firmly preserved history and beliefs, even unto the grave. In most American old church buildings one cannot help notice that they have tombs of their community behind them. To me there is no pronounced way of exhibiting one's belief and faith.

A prominent Ndebele historian Pathisa Nyathi writing to on his Sunday News weekly column, many years ago raised an interesting observation and analysis about what the Ndebele people believed about death. He  had gone around interviewing old citizens in many villages seeking to unearth beliefs about the dead. He found that Ndebele people believed in life after death, hence they buried their people, man in particular in a squatting position. This was so that in case of war in the next life . One should be able to spring up and defend himself. He say that is why in Ndebele one  dies he/or she is said to have gone kogoqwanyawo! (Where one folds their legs)

 It is also amazing that while there are strong beliefs about the dead, yet there is not much respect for the living in that regard. Many people would struggle to build a shrine for a dead relative, whom they never cared about during his or her lifetime. I also share the idea that when one lies when they are dead, forever deserve to be given respects. For a lot of people the idea of tombstones serves that purpose. In our cultures, be it western or African, the dead must be given a decent burial. Period. For an average man, I must say that I have travelled the globe a little bit, to boldly arrive at that conclusion.
I must also say that the ways one dies can be  subject of great controversy. People's bodies have been exhumed for various reasons. Sometimes for forensic science to verify how one died. Arrests have been made and people have been prosecuted because of DNA evidence from the beyond grave. In some cases just to make sure that the right person lies in that grave. Also to determine the time and date one died. In some other cases for paternity tests. In all these process, a lot of money is spent. Almost all the nations on this earth have a special place designated to bury their heroes.

 In some Zimbabwean cultures especially the Shona, it is a common practice that the relatives of the dead seek paternity about the circumstances  surrounding one's death. If it turns out to be suspicious certain rituals must be done to appease the spirit so that there is no revenge.  There has been cases where huge fines have to be paid for that purpose, and if the alleged killers' family  does not pay up that fee, no matter how huge. They risk being wiped away one by one by the avenging spirits. There have been cases where the body refuse to fit into the grave, no matter how big a grave they dig, this is taken a sign that something is amiss, hence the  consultation of the spirit mediums.


 We have seen great friction, and fighting about issues that concerns the dead heroes or heroines. There is no specific way to determine one's heroic status, hence one's political affiliation becomes a big factor.

It all happens that some people who really deserve heroes status might not be  interested  in that type of  honor. They occasionally turn it down through their families. At the same time, some who think they deserved it, never get it. There are those who get it by party connections and  political loyalty and other forms of affiliations . This bunch is the majority.

The recent discovery of over 640 bodies in a mass grave discarded in a disused shaft mine in Mt Darwin is a such an example. The government thinks it the bodies of those who died during the liberation struggle by the Ian smith regime, and other parties and  civil /human rights organizations think its those that were killed after Independence in what is known as the "Gukurahundi period" or time of madness between 1983-1987 or there about.