From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: WHERE PARENTS RANSOM CORPSES
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 23:47:28 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1993, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ZIMBABWE: WHERE PARENTS RANSOM CORPSES


an inter press service feature

by andrew zhakata

harare, jan 13 (ips) -- thomas nyahuma had lived with mabel
masawi for six years as her common-law husband without any formal
marriage or her parents' consent.

twenty-year-old mabel died at the beginning of this year
when she allegedly doused herself with paraffin and set herself
ablaze after a domestic dispute with thomas at their place in
highfield, one of the high-density suburbs of the capital.

mable had two children with thomas. now her parents are
refusing to bury her unless thomas pays them 5,000 zimbabwe
dollars (about 1,000 u.s. dollars) and nine heads of cattle as
lobola (dowry).

mable's body may remain in the mortuary for weeks while the
two families haggle over the lobola.

demanding outrageous sums of money, heads of cattle and goats
before burial is a practice that has been troubling this
southern african nation of about 11 million people since
independence from britain in 1980.

the practice has in some cases seen relatives of the deceased
demanding a whooping 10,000 u.s. dollars and 30 heads of cattle
before burial takes place.

in some cases, the deceased had been dumped at the home of the
family facing the demands. in other cases bodies remain unburied
and lying in mortuaries for weeks while the families squabble
over payment.

in 1989 in karoi, about 300 km north-west of harare, a woman
had to be given a pauper's burial after spending six months in a
hospital mortuary because her parents refused to bury her until
their son-in-law paid them 5,000 u.s. dollars and 13 heads of
cattle.

demands for payment before burial often arise in suicidal
incidents and where a wife dies before the lobola was fully paid
or when the woman's family seeks to blame the husband.

in most incidents demands have not been met either because of
poverty or intervention by the police. (more/ips)
----

zimbabwe: where (2)

numerous police arrests and intervention have been made over
the years, but the practice is still rearing its ugly head in
the country. the capital, harare, alone handles an average of 50
corpse ransoming cases per year.

takesure huyo, a counsellor in the harare-based marriage
guidance society, says police arrests and interventions will not
solve the problem.

''if you do not follow our tradition of paying lobola and
suffer the consequences, you have no one to blame but
yourself'', huyo told ips.

the minister of home affairs, dumiso dabengwa, rejects the
practice as immoral and retrogressive, and zimbabweans must
renounce it.

''the least a dead person deserves is a decent burial and if
there are any disputes we have courts of law where the cases can
be ironed out'', he says.

the secretary for research and education of the zimbabwe
national traditional healers association (zinatha) says
demanding money before burial is a sad example of the extent to
which traditional african customs have been corrupted.

''holding corpses as ransom has no basis in our african
tradition, whatever claims there might be to the contrary'',
explains peter sibanda.

he says in the past much respect was given to the dead,
whether the death was a result of natural causes or suicide.

nowadays, however, a huge appetite for money and material
gains has resulted in people losing their most cherished
tradition: respect for the dead.

sibanda urges a debate at the village, district, provincial,
parliamentary, church, labour movement and at the level of
chiefs to end this ''shameful and archaic'' practice threatening
to rob zimbabwe of its respectful tradition.

zimbabwe's president robert mugabe has on several occasions
condemned the practice as ''barbaric'' and said it must be
abolished.

''the barbaric practice of selling the dead or ransoming the
dead should be abolished and zimbabwe has no room for these
cultural saboteurs enriching themselves through the sale of dead
relatives'', mugabe said recently. (end/ips/az/apc/93)