The Sunday News
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu
CASES of suicide are certainly increasing in Zimbabwe as they now seem to spread to the country’s universities where at least two such incidents have occurred in the recent past. In one such case, a student stipulated in writing in the form of a will that his body should be cremated and the ashes should be scattered and watered in the yard at his home.
Another case involved a wanted criminal whose corpse was found in an advanced state of decomposition in the bush in Bulilima District.
In both these cases, the next of kin of the dead people collected their remains and gave them decent burials. That process included taking the body of the dead from the bush in the case of the wanted criminal and placing it in one of the family houses while the necessary documents were being done.
The way communities bury suicide victims differ according to tribes throughout Africa. Some communities bury suicides in the bush without taking their bodies home. That depends, of course, on whether the place is suitable for a grave.
Tradition and practice in parts of Matabeleland is not to bring a suicide’s body into the residential house, but to do whatever is necessary outside the village before the burial. Body viewing is confined to the closest relatives such as parents, siblings and children. Some communities do not body-view a suicide whatsoever. The reason for all that is that body-viewing is a very sensitive part of bidding farewell to the deceased and that the evil spirit that caused the suicide to take his/her life can migrate to one or more survivors, especially those related by blood to the dead person during that emotional stage.
Those who subscribe to this belief say that the dead person’s evil spirit hovers in the atmosphere seeking some accommodation, and that the most likely survivors to become inheritors of the demon are the hyper emotional relatives except spouses. Keeping the body in the hut or house in the village before burial would give the demon shelter and make it easy for it to migrate to another close relative, so says the belief.
After the suicide’s body is buried, the people involved are required to wash their hands or even their faces with water in which crushed green leaves of a herb called “ntata badzimu” in TjiKalanga have been put. It is believed that the smell of the herb drives away the demons that drive some people to commit suicide.Some people who actually believe in all this plant “ntata badzimu” in their yards.
Another very strong tradition concerning suicide is to destroy stem, branch and leaves of the tree on which the person would have hanged himself or herself, this is done by cutting down the tree very, very close to the ground, then chop it up to small pieces which are piled on the exact spot where the tree stood, and then burnt to ashes.
The ashes are then put in a sack and are emptied in a river. This is done in the presence and with the guidance of a local traditional leader such as a village head (sobhuku) or a headman or chief. The reason is that if the tree is not destroyed witches and wizards (baloyi, varoyi, abathakathi, ampfiti) will strip the tree of its bark, burn it and mix the ashes with some other charms and herbs and use the concoction to drive their enemies or victims to commit suicide.
In 1954, a man hanged himself late at night from a tree in a thicket where the Renkini rural bus terminus now stands. His body was removed the following morning by the police. After two days or so the tree had been stripped of its bark late at night by unknown people. It later dried up and was chopped by firewood vendors. That showed how deeply rooted the belief is about the use of trees from which a suicide would have hanged themselves.
The disposal of such trees is very important, as important as the disposal of a dead crocodile. Why? Because the black people of Zimbabwe by and large believe that the liver, bile, brain and generally all entrails of a crocodile are extremely poisonous and that if witches and wizards should access them all and sundry, would be at risk, especially at beer-drinks. Is it not rather surprising that some restaurants have crocodile flesh on their menu? But it is neither the brain nor the entrails that they serve, of course.
This narration about suicides and how they are buried is based on traditional and cultural custom and practice in some parts of Matabeleland.
However, most black people of Zimbabwe have lost all this as they follow Judaeo-Christian culture as written in the Bible. That culture believes that the spirit of an evil, criminal person goes to hell after his or her death.
It is unlike our traditional belief that holds that dead people’s spirits are inherited by surviving relatives. So, Christians and Judaists bring suicides into their homes and hold prayer services in the usual way. It is a matter of great controversy whether dead people’s spirits can be inherited by some of the survivors or that they go to heaven or hell depending on how the dead person lived on earth, that is to say sinfully or righteously.
That is a controversy that we had better leave to theologians. As for us, we can say that suicidal tendencies run in certain families or clans almost in the same way as drunkenness.
They seem to be a part of one’s temperament and are congenital. Some causes are, however, caused by consumption of drugs such as marijuana, hashish, mbanje and a variety of hallucinogens taken either orally or intravenously.
For one to consume such drugs one must be mentally unsound. That mental condition is what Judaic-Christian communities refer to as demonic and it is to keep such a demon out of the village or residential house that the suicides body is supposed to be left and dealt with out there in the bush where it would have been found.
Saul Gwakuba Ndlovu is a Bulawayo based journalist. He did research work among the Kalanga people with Dr Richard Werbner (now Professor), at Chief Bango’s area in the Mangwe District in the early 1960s. The team was under the professional guide and supervision of the venerable Professor Max Gluckman of Britain’s Manchester University and locally under that of Professor John Clyde Mitchel of the then University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, now the University of Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or email [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
