Death and dying

Like marriage and birth, the death of a person is surrounded by ritual, much of which has come down to the present day. When a person died in the days of long ago, his body was washed carefully by the wife or wives, helped by the son of his brother.

A dying man is expected to reveal the whereabouts of any hidden resources, arrange for the settlement of outstanding debts, and to confess any outstanding offenses against members of the community. He may be given traditional medicines to make his passing easier.

In many areas, people sing and dance in honour of the deceased outside the room in which the corpse is lying: the songs express the merits of the deceased and the grief of the community. This may go on throughout the night if burial is to be deferred to the morning.

The body was then placed on a mat in the man's hut, and wrapped in a bark fibre cloth. After washing the corpse, and plugging the body orifices with bark fibre, an appropriate relative (the relationship varying with local custom) is appointed to choose and mark the site for the grave.

A small cave or cleft in a rocky outcrop may be chosen, or the soft damp soil by a river bed or in an ant heap. The site is normally within a couple of kilometers of the homestead of the deceased.

When the site has been chosen, relatives and friends of the deceased prepare the grave: a grave dug in soil is normally dug to a depth of six feet and then an inlet is dug out to take the corpse.

The direct members of the family then built a stretcher on which the corpse would be carried to the grave, simply wrapped in a clean white cloth. In some areas, the task of cutting poles and bark to make the bier is the task of sons-in-law to the family of the deceased.

The body is often carried around the homestead in a last farewell before the funeral procession sets off briskly towards the grave. Young children are not allowed to take part: they used to be shut away in a hut or granary for fear that sight of the corpse would make them blind, but now people do not bother too much — they say that since the coming of the white people it does not matter.

Gifts were then brought by the relatives of the dead man, and farewells were made, before the body being placed on the stretcher and carried in procession to the grave where it was buried. On the way to the grave, the close female relatives would run ahead of the stretcher, fling themselves on the ground and cry out.

In central Shona country, tension is often relieved by the antics of one or more ritual friends (sahwira) who are honoured guests at the funeral, and who have a permanent joking relationship with the deceased and his or her family. A sahwira may freely make fun of the immediate relatives of the deceased, and so break the intensity of mourning by introducing a certain amount of laughter into the proceedings.

The Shona believe in flexed burials, and the body is placed in a flexed position in the grave, the knees bent and the arms folded across the chest. The most suitable place for a grave is considered to be an anthill.

Normally the corpse is buried within twenty-four hours of death. In the case of a chief or headman, however, it lies in state for a longer period in order that representatives of the deceased's children can pay their last respects.

After the body is placed in the grave, the relatives throw soil in, and meat and beer are placed by the graveside. Later, a form of wake is held at the dead man's village.

Burial is not the end of the death ceremony, however. Between one and two years later comes the ceremony of kurova guva, literally "to beat the grave". A procession is once more made to the graveside, with the women mourners running ahead as before and throwing themselves on the ground, and great note is made of whether the pots which were left by the grave have been in any way damaged.

If they have been so damaged, it is an indication that one of the close relatives of the dead has committed adultery within the prescribed period after death, and reparation must be made.

An offering of beer is placed on the grave, and it is an occasion for feasting. At this stage, if the dead man's widow so wishes it, she may offer a gourd of beer to her living brother-in-law, as a sign that she is prepared to marry him.

In this way many widows are "inherited" by their brothers-in-law, who will then also inherit the goods and chattels of the dead man. Nothing personal belonging to the deceased should be available for use until after the inheritance ceremony.

Graves are always avoided except for ritual purposes, and mingled with the fear of death is a fear of the occult powers which are believed to linger around any grave. Thus a case of madness in a small boy may be attributed to his stumbling across a grave while herding cattle in the veld, and other mishaps may be attributed to the proximity of graves.