By Andile Bongani Tshuma
Just the thought of burning the remains of a loved one sends chills down one’s spine, especially if that person is a typical conservative African.
It is a sobering fact, Bulawayo is facing the crisis of limited burial space and it is quite inevitable that residents might be compelled to start considering other more sustainable funeral alternatives, apart from the conventional burial rite.
The Bulawayo City Council has revealed that city cemeteries are fast filling up, with West Park Cemetery left with only a few months before closure.
This raises alarm, especially considering the fact that West Park has been the most convenient for the Bulawayo community due to its central location as it is closer to the Central Business District where many funeral parlours are, and is also affordable to many people.
“Athlone Cemetery and Hyde Park Cemetery are full in terms of open burials. They, however, have 370 and 80 reserved graves respectively. West Park Cemetery is estimated to have about three months burial space and almost filled up, while New Luveve Cemetery has adequate space to handle burials. We are currently awaiting the gazetting of Pumula South and Marvel cemeteries,” said Bulawayo City Council Public Relations Officer, Nesisa Mpofu.
While the City Fathers have managed to identify new burial sites, however, this has implications for residents, especially in these hard economic times, as they would have to travel over 22km (from the city centre) to conduct burials in the new cemeteries, while they would only travel about 5km to West Park.
Cremation is one of the funeral options that have been preferred in other countries but few people in Bulawayo have considered it. With the city running out of burial space, could cremation be a sustainable option that Bulawayo residents can consider?
It is not a very common practice in Africa, let alone Zimbabwe, but some people practise it. Cremation is different from conventional funerals because the body is not buried, but burnt first then the family decides on what to do with the ashes.
In separate interviews, it emerged that staunch cultural leaders and conservatives will not budge, as they emphasise that the old ways of practising cultural rites are the best.
Culturalist, Prince Peter Zwidekalanga Khumalo had strong views against the act of cremation, especially the discourse of attempting to prescribe it to Africans.
“It is a cultural disaster, it is unthinkable. Cremation does not have a place in African culture, it was never practiced.
It actually is one of those things that have no expression in our culture and our language.
“We cannot describe it because it never occurred, mainly because when a person dies they are expected to be buried and there is always a connection between the dead and the living, and the remaining members of the family which is a spiritual connection. So cremation is obviously a situation you destroy that connection between the dead and the living,” said Khumalo, a descendent of the Mzilikazi Clan.
His views were echoed by some Bulawayo residents, who are also strongly convinced that it is an alien act to their culture.
A retired policeman and former BCC employee from Tshabalala, Mfundisi Magijima (70), said while waving his hands in the air in disbelief, cremation was a foreign practice.
“Why should I forsake the ways of my forefathers and embrace a foreign culture, I have my own homestead, so if the City Fathers cannot provide a piece of land for my burial, my rural home will be my final resting place, probably esibayeni sami, (my cattle kraal),” said Magijima.
His ideas are informed by Nguni culture, which states that men are buried behind their cattle kraals, whilst women are buried behind their granaries.
The younger generation in the city seem to take a different stance to that of the grey haired. This could probably be because of the different cultures that the young are exposed to in the media.
A lecturer at NUST, Mr Blessing Tapiwa Jona, from the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, who subscribes to the Christian faith is of the opinion that there is nothing wrong about cremation, and dismisses mysteries and superstitions behind the act of cremation.
“Well, my general feeling is that it’s a good exercise. I think it’s the most cost effective way of burying someone. It’s actually not burying but it’s the most cost effective way of conducting a funeral.
“It’s a funeral way that we should always consider, especially in dealing with dead family members; it is a sustainable way of dealing with the dead body of a family member,” he said.
In Bulawayo it costs about US$63 to cremate a body, while conducting burial without a funeral policy costs no less than $1 000.
With cremation, costs of ferrying people to and from cemeteries are bypassed, and the cost of hiring a hearse to take the body to the graveyard is also avoided.
It also saves on land, but getting people to understand and consider the rite is an uphill task. Lynn Nxumalo, a legal practitioner thinks no one should suggest to the next person how to conduct a burial rite.
“Cremation is by all means a matter of choice and no one should prescribe to another person how to carry out a funeral rite.
“Culture, religion and human rights are involved here (lobbying people to cremate). People cannot just be forced to burn their loved ones because cities are running out of space. They (City Fathers) must innovate without compromising on culture,” noted the legal expert.
However, Jona was of the assumption that there are numerous factors to consider when talking of why the Bulawayo community should embrace cremation.
“When a person dies, where does a body go? It’s still going to decompose anyway …why should it happen in fashion?
Why have this huge casket which costs lots of money? Which is going to go six- feet under-ground and be covered by grease and dirt, maybe the following day it’s going to rain, for what really, for a body which is still going to decompose? There is nothing really but maggots and worms and termites, I mean really what for?
“I think all that hassle is not worth it. I think when a person dies, they are put in a mortuary, nice, next thing they are cremated nice, and then their ashes are put in a sort of a clay vase or container with a lid, a special kind of a vase, which is secured and the ashes are kept, a memento. This is less complicated, less costly.”
However, historian and researcher Pathisa Nyathi, relaxed at the National Art Gallery coffee shop, shared similar sentiments to Khumalo and noted that cremation has been practised by some cultures, but not amongst Africans.
“Such a subject is applicable to all our ethnic groups, Africans in general. People have a tendency of wanting to do things the way they have always been done.
“We have been around for thousands of years, and Africans have been burying. Africans believe in the dual nature of human beings, the physical and the spiritual. Death to the Africans is not the end but a new beginning and so what the Africans want is to bring back the spirit (umbuyiso). The grave becomes important in that rite,” explained Nyathi who runs a cultural centre, Amagugu Cultural Heritage in Matopo.
“So if we go the cremation route, we will lose a very important aspect of the African belief. Uzabuyisa njani umuntu etshile? (How will you bring back the person when they have been burnt to ashes?)”
Asked on his own personal feelings towards the subject, Nyathi, however, said: “Personally I wouldn’t mind cremation, but I want to create a legacy. When I go, I want to go like Cecil John Rhodes, choose a place where I say, ‘put my remains there’.”
Nyathi hinted that he would probably want to be laid to rest at his cultural centre and create a shrine that maybe turned into a tourist site.
“URhodes senza ngaye imali, (we are making money out of Rhodes), so my children should make money out of me.
That’s what I want, my wish, whether it will happen or not…that’s something else.”
While Bulawayo and other cities around the country are lobbying residents to consider sustainable funeral rites, other countries are a step or two ahead as they are considering more options, even beyond conventional cremation.
Short on burial space, China is now practising sea burials, where batches of ashes are loaded in a ship and then immersed in the sea.
Prices of graves are skyrocketing, as it costs about 24 000 Yuan (about US$800) to buy grave space for one body in the highly populated country home to over 1 billion people.
To encourage sustainable funerals, China has even moved to the extent of introducing incentives to promote alternative methods of conducting funerals. Those that opt for cremation are compensated by lump sum payments of money.
With over 100 000 people on Bulawayo’s housing waiting list, the city council and private land developers are running out of land to build houses. One wonders then, what is more important, securing land for the dead, or securing housing for the living?
Perhaps, it is time people started considering alternative and more sustainable funeral rites. Could cremation be one of them?
Andile Bongani Tshuma is a second year student in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the National University of Science and Technology.
