The ManicaPost
Sharon Chigeza Post Correspondent
OVER the past few months, suicide cases have fashioned out a steep graph in Manicaland Province. And the trend is worrisome to say the least.
This has not only affected the parties directly involved, but the tentacles of desolation have spread to touch multiple lives, albeit negatively in all cases. Statistics recorded by police between February and March show a disturbing rise in suicides with most of the cases being attributed to domestic disputes and violence.
Domestic violence or abuse is aggression or mistreatment of one person by another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. It may also be termed intimate partner violence when committed by a spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other partner. It can also take place between former spouses or partners.
Such situations have often resulted in suicides, as couples fail to resolve issues and resort to killing themselves. In worst scenarios both partners die. Last month, Chipinge community was shell-shocked after a man, Francisco Mashava (20) and his wife Rebecca Sithole (26) were found hanging from trusses in their matrimonial bedroom.
On the floor were smashed cellphones, suggesting that a domestic dispute could have driven couple to take this heart-rending route – a double tragedy.
This incident was followed by a number of suicide cases reported in Rusape using similar modus operandi or through the consumption of poisonous substances.
Most of the cases within this area are being attributed to lack of counselling for the quarrelling parties.
The offended parties, in most instances take the dreadful decision of ending their lives after failing to stomach the pain and agony inflicted on them. Such was the matter in a case, which occurred on March 8 in Mutasa when a Penhalonga man, Goodluck Makalinga (30), took his life after failing to stomach the pain of being ditched by his wife Pauline Kapango (33).
On March 10, 2018 a Rusape man Charles Marume (36) was found hanging in Maninga Mountains in Hondohwe village. He had allegedly failed to come to terms with finding his ex-lover in the arms of another man.
On the same date in Chinhuwo village, Paulette Mashayanhira (29) consumed a poisonous substance following a misunderstanding with her partner Philip Chirovamai (33).
A week earlier Pedzisai Chipungare (33), of Village 34 Chiome, Inyati had hanged himself after a dispute with wife Jane Masvondo (29) over alleged extra marital affairs.
The act of suicide is considered an abomination both culturally and religiously and as such, people who commit such acts are rarely accorded the respect that is often given a dead person during burial.
With the coming in of funeral service providers, most of these suicide victims at least get one church service at the parlour for relatives to bid them farewell.
But that is as far as it goes.
That person’s body does not lie in state at their home before burial or presented for viewing or any other cultural or religious rituals for that matter. From the funeral parlour the body is taken straight to the graveyard, normally as far away from the homestead as possible if they are buried in the rural areas.
The village elders stand guard to make sure that relatives do not give the suicide victim a decent burial.
The actual burial is characterised by insults thrown at the deceased while their coffin is not lowered but thrown into the grave. If the coffin breaks or lands on its side or even opens in the process, they do not mind. That is how it is supposed to be. It’s part of the tradition.
Traditional leaders strongly condemn such practices as culturally unacceptable.
“Traditionally the deceased’s belongings are given to his immediate kin as their inheritance, but a suicide victim is buried with all her or his own belongings.
“There is no burial procession to talk of. Not much respect is given to the deceased with some going to the extent of even insulting them. This is a clear sign that the community around totally disapproves of the way one would have departed from them,” said Chief Mutasa.
Christians believe that these incidents are more the working of the devil or a diabolical spirit operating within a family or area.
“Every region’s spiritual climate has either a demonic prince or angelic prince and the behavioural pattern of people living in that region is a clear sign of the predominant spirit, either divine or diabolical.
“It may be seasonal or prevailing in the sense that the spirit is always there in an area’s spiritual atmosphere and seasonal in that according to a particular season, the predominant spirit will manifest itself in different forms. In other seasons it will come as strange gossip, in some seasons as a suicidal spirit and in some season as hatred and witchcraft,” a prophet, Moreblessing Rwambiwa explained.
This in a way from the religious perspective explains why there has been this rise in such cases despite society being educated and enlightened on rights and how best to deal with domestic violence.
Committing suicide is rather a selfish move on the part of the deceased, as killing oneself would not change the situation that would have resulted in the domestic brawl but rather bring up a second burden of emotional and psychological upheaval for the family unit.
