Zimbabwe runs out of gas for cremations

The corpses of white Zimbabweans are piling up in Harare mortuaries because there is no gas to fire the capital's only crematorium.

Black Zimbabweans traditionally bury their dead and undertakers said only whites ask for cremations.

But a crippling shortage of fuel has closed Warren Hills crematorium and some mortuaries have been forced to hold bodies in refrigerators for more than three weeks.

In the midsummer heat, the corpses will soon start to deteriorate but the crematorium's pleas have been ignored.

The Rev Noel Alfon, an Anglican priest who runs a funeral and cremation service, said: "We have phoned the government's fuel company but they will not speak to us.

"We will soon have up to 22 bodies and we don't have the capacity to keep them so we have sent the excess to a larger refrigerator at another company. It is very distressing for families. They want the ashes for, say, old Uncle George and we haven't got them."

Mr Alfon said whites who have emigrated have returned to the country for the funerals of relatives only to find that no cremations can take place.

"People come from Britain, Australia, South Africa to attend funerals and want the cremation carried out," he said. "Many have gone back to their new countries without this being done."

Mr Alfon said most of the elderly whites who have died in the past three weeks suffered from hypertension.

"I suspect this is because so many old people are anxious because their families have left the country or they haven't got enough money to buy food or pay for their flat or old people's home," he said.

Julie Atkinson's father, Myles, died two days before Christmas at the age of 78. His corpse is still in the refrigerator, awaiting cremation.

"He hadn't been well for some years," she said. "But he was upset because my brother was going to Australia and I am sure that had something to do with his sudden death.

"My brother was in South Africa saying good-bye to his wife's family, and immediately returned to Harare for the funeral but he had to go to Australia before Dad was cremated.

"The words I would like to use about this situation are unprintable and I will leave Zimbabwe as soon as I possibly can."

Cremating a few dozen bodies is not a priority for President Robert Mugabe's regime, which is failing to provide food for about seven million people, more than half the population, who are facing starvation.

Mr Mugabe's seizure of white-owned farms has devastated commercial agriculture, which was once Zimbabwe's largest single export earner.

The country is gripped by the worst economic crisis in its history. Without any foreign currency reserves, the country finds it increasingly difficult to import basic essentials and most garages have no fuel.

Webster Muriritirwa, managing director of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, responsible for all fuel imports, said: "I don't speak to foreign journalists."

Zimbabwe-AIDS: Cremation a burning issue in Zimbabwe as AIDS toll rises
Lawrence Bartlett
Agence France-Presse - August 29, 1999

HARARE, Aug 29 (AFP) - A golfer, his ashes and spiritual taboos are a burning issue in Zimbabwe's capital Harare as authorities face soaring AIDS deaths and overflowing cemeteries.

The city council plans a campaign to convince people to break with cultural traditions and accept cremation in an attempt to save space.

But the project could be buried under the weight of centuries of belief about the right way to treat the dead.

"It is totally against cultural traditions," says sociology Professor Gordon Chavunduka, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe and head of the country's National Traditional Healers' Association.

"The philosophy of death in Shona (local African) society says it takes about a year for a spirit to leave the body and join the spirits of the ancestors," he told AFP.

"If the body is cremated, that spirit would be blocked. Although it would remain alive, it would be angered that traditional burial rites had not been followed properly and could return to punish the family and community."

The strength of the belief is demonstrated by the story of the golfer.

A member of Zimbabwe's tiny white minority, he asked to be cremated and for his ashes to be scattered on the ninth green at his club, where he had scored his only hole-in-one.

His wishes were carried out, but alarmed black members of the club. Every time they dropped a shot on the ninth green, they blamed the spirit of their erstwhile colleague.

The greenkeepers didn't like it either, so before long what was left of the golfer was swept into the rough, according to sources at the club.

But Eladinous Zimbwa, Harare's curator of cemeteries, says cremation would be a simple solution for a city desperately short of burial space, with AIDS expected to kill 80,000 Zimbabweans this year alone.

"We want to make a video of how it is done and show it on TV," he told AFP at the Warren Hills crematorium in the capital. "We want to present it as an option.

"Out of 3,000 cremations here this year, only three were blacks."

Zimbwa and the crematorium attendant, William Gandiya, were enthusiastic as they showed off the neat chapel, the modern ovens and bone-grinder and the tiny plastic bags containing ashes of the dead.

But they paled a little when asked whether they would accept cremation themselves.

"I want to be buried among my clan at my rural home," said Zimbwa.

"I am not prepared," said Gandiya.

Realising, however, that they should perhaps lead from the front in their campaign, both men revised their positions slightly and maintained they had no real, strong, overwhelming objection to being cremated.

Apart from cultural taboos, cost could also be a problem in Zimbabwe, where poverty is widespread.

A Class-A grave -- under lawn -- costs 1,200 Zimbabwe dollars (about 30 US dollars) and Class-B -- bare earth -- just 500 Zimdollars, while cremation goes for 2,000 Zimdollars because of the price of imported gas.

Zimbwa admits the pricing structure could be a problem, but brightens up when he hits on a cost-saving idea.

"Many people who live in the city want to be buried at their rural villages but it costs a lot of money to transport a coffin. If they were cremated, their families could just carry a little box of their ashes on the bus," he said.

Once Zimbwa has fully convinced himself of the joys of cremation, he will have to move fast to pass on the message to his 11 million countrymen.

Of Harare's seven cemeteries, six are already full, and the swelling city is short of residential space for the living, let alone new resting places for the dead.

Official figures released in the first half of the year said more than 70,000 Zimbabweans were expected to die of AIDS in 1999.

An estimated two million people, out of a population of some 11 million, are infected with the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV), the precursor to AIDS.

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