Zimbabwean culture is rich with morals and values, these include respect for the dead.
This rich cultural heritage however seems to be fast evaporating judging the ubiquitous and rather disrespectful comments surrounding the popular socialite, Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure.
In Shona, our elders say ”Wafa wanaka” meaning that the dead are presumed good and people must not speak evil on someone who has died. Not only does the phrase mean that death is the ultimate peace, it also means that we are not to speak ill of the dead. Once a person has crossed over to the realm of the spirits, they take their transgressions with them hence we only speak of the good they did.
There is also a shona saying that states that ”Rufu harina mugoni”, meaning that anyone can die no matter how poor or rich one is. Death is uncertain, no one knows the time but seems people are now making a joke out of death, entertaining the masses with someone’s death news.
The way Zimbabwean media is covering the funeral is a little troubling. Are we the nation obsessed with grief? what is the point of taking pictures of the dead and circulating them on social media and interviewing grieving parents and siblings and probing them with personal questions without giving them the space to grieve their loved ones? All in the name of wanting to be the one to have the exclusive story!
Not to be outdone is the Harare rumour-mill, which is always out for a good scandal lased story. The sheer scale of ridiculous stories being peddled by Zimbabweans on social media is depressing to say the least. From strange stories of unsubstantiated claims of Vodoo and occultism to unproved corruption allegations, political intrigue and some such.
Some claiming to be the late Ginimbi’s relatives have widely shared strange stories of witchcraft claiming that the late socialite consulted witch doctors in Mozambique in order to obtain riches, where they claim that one is given maize meal grains to feed chickens, alleging that the number of years one will live after that will be determined by the number of maize grains consumed by the chickens.
Some claim that Ginimbi had huge lizards which fed of milk every morning and thus he had an accident while rushing back home to feed the lizards before day break. There are yet others alleging that Ginimbi ate his own waste each morning as part of daily rituals to get and keep riches; while some allege that he had a huge snake that he had sexual intercourse with.
All these unsubstantiated & unprovable witchcraft and juju stories are seemingly just creations of Harare’s rumour mill. This all goes against ubuntuism and the wafa wanaka African belief.
There are yet more people who allege massive corruption, underhand dealings and drug deals by the late Ginimbi but noone has proferred any evidence to back the claim. Not that he wasn’t corrupt or anything but since he is no longer here to defend himself, it may be time to slow down on the allegations and just focus as a nation of learning dome good lessons from all this. The biggest lesson to learn would be confronting the pandemic of drinking and driving, first AID skills and family unity.
Genius Kadungure, who was well known for his all white parties, lavish lifestyle and displaying his riches on Social Media, died on Sunday the 8th of November 2020.
His funeral attracted thousands of people who lined the streets of Harare to give the late Business man and Socialite a rousing send off. The huge numbers seen at his funeral wake were likened by some to those last seen at the burial of the late General Solomon Mujuru.
