The politics of death and enduring headaches of the troublesome dead

Zimbabwe looks like a country that cannot find a way to move on from its former president Robert Mugabe who was deposed back in 2017 and died in 2019. Some of those who celebrated his removal now say life is worse under his successor in office. However, that is not the cause of the headaches the former big man is causing the living. It has to do with his final resting place.

In a country whose history, as per one anthropologist, is littered with what he described as ‘political accidents’ and the ‘unfinished nature of death in Zimbabwe’, the dead man is still making more headlines than the living. A traditional chief ruled that the former president’s remains be exhumed and reburied in the National Heroes Acre, in Harare. His children, have appealed that ruling saying that traditional ruler has no jurisdiction on the matter.

This may seem bizarre to many, a family affair but it is just as much a political affair.

Zimbabwe has a long history of evoking the dead as spirit mediums on the living. Mugabe’s family says the old man did not want to be buried in National Heroes Acre in Harare for, among other reasons fear that those who deposed him will use him in death to give themselves much needed political legitimacy.

His removal from power, as much as it was celebrated by jubilant crowds in the streets of Harare was punctuated by conflicted feelings of those who had lived through both times of his long rule; the good and the bad. His death brought to the surface the complex nature of how best to remember the man who had given them political independence.

The dead can be far more dangerous than the living across the continent. In death they become symbols, far more powerful than a mere living mortal.

In many countries on the continent, especially those which went through bloody chapters in their struggle for political independence, or civil wars, it has become impossible to make any progress towards peaceful coexistence without first resolving the question of some of the dead.

Angola fought a long bloody civil war after gaining her independence between MPLA and Unita, which both had fought against colonialism but found that they could not both rule independent Angola. After Unita leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in 2002 and subsequently a peace agreement signed between the government and Unita which joined the political process, the ghosts of the past continued to haunt the country and Savimbi’s supporters maintained that for any meaningful peace to be achieved he must be reburied with honour.

Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni fully aware that he needs some political allies from the opposition and a degree of reconciliation, allowed the burial of Uganda’s former President Milton Obote despite strong opposition from some sections of the public.

It was the same thing in Nigeria, when the former secessionist leader Chukwuemeka Ojukwu who fought the bloody Biafran war died and was buried with full military honours after being pardoned. Nigeria has never fully moved on from the ghosts of Biafra, there are still those who are calling for secession. Giving such honour to the leader of the first cause who was still supported by millions was a better political move than the alternative.

In Mozambique, when Renamo leader Alfonso Dhlakama died, country’s President Felipe Nyusi eulogized him while calling for reconciliation. There are many such examples across Africa but all these do not quite fit or explain the current situation in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe and those who deposed him belonged to the same political party. Those who took control of the country have failed to deliver economic recovery which was in the minds of the majority of those who celebrated Mugabe’s removal.

They underestimated his bitterness for what he saw as their betrayal. They did not think even in death he will continue to reject them.

The continued search for political legitimacy which has eluded those who replaced Mugabe in power even after winning disputed elections means they cannot channel his spirit if he remains buried in his home village; they have no control over his backyard.

It would be a very different story if his remains finally ends up resting in the National Heroes Acre.

The continued sense of feeling rejected will continue to drive this bizarre political drama.