By Dr. Major Rtd Lucy Wairimu Mukuria*
The fire was still burning at the site of the fatal helicopter crash in Marondera in Zimbabwe, when thousands of Kenyans, Zimbabweans, Namibians and South Africans took to social media to revel in the untimely demise of controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo.
The uncoordinated celebration in the aftermath of the Oct. 1 crash went so viral it took over social media sites for 48 hours. And each time an African head of state posted a message of condolence, the online chatter and engagement would peak once again as citizens poured out their unrequited grievances. There was a time when this level of schadenfreude would elicit a collective rebuke and be labeled unAfrican behavior. But that is no longer the case and here is why.
Technology has provided 50.89 million citizens between the ages of 24 and 35 in these four countries a megaphone to express themselves beyond the conventional limitations of geographical boundaries and government overreach. That helps to explain what happened in the days following the death of Chivayo, a member of Zimbabwe’s elite class who secured lucrative government contracts and often boasted his lavish lifestyle online even as he battled allegations of corruption.
The online cacophony of tweets, likes, retweets and shares shouted in unison about the gross injustices being felt by ordinary citizens across the continent. In Zimbabwe, they decried their failed infrastructure and election interference. In Kenya, the fury pertained to state house capture and national infrastructure take over. In South Africa, price gouging and money laundering was what infuriated those posting the most. And in Namibia, it was the subversion of election integrity that built palpable resentment.
From the perspective of the citizens in each country, the systems of governance and justice that are meant to protect and advance their interests have betrayed them through corrupt practices. This has dampened any sense of patriotic pride and human dignity.
As a psychologist, it is clear to me that citizens have inadvertently learned to abandon course correction to fate out of a sense of powerlessness. But that does not mean they have given up. Therefore, the death of a perceived oppressor provides a certain catharsis to people who experience oppression, injustice and exploitation. In effect, it is a window to enjoy a sense of justice, rest and hope. Additionally it serves as a reminder to those perceived as oppressors that even when the proverbial rain forgets the earth, the well remembers.
Whilst schadenfreude has its emotional and social benefits, they are all temporary. The invisible cost of this brand of gratification is an erosion of empathy and cynicism. Thus from an Ubuntu perspective, schadenfreude is in conflict with what it means to be an African.
From the African perspective, we also understand that celebrating someone’s death is taboo; that it may interfere with the deceased’s adoption into the ancestral realm. However, elevation into ancestor status is conditional. The deceased qualifies for the honor based on the measurements of the life one lived. And as much as some Africans worship the Abrahamic religions of their choice, it is the ritual activities carried out during wakes up to interment and into the mourning period that confirms these firmly held beliefs.
This is an open secret.
The appeasement of the spiritual realm to adopt the deceased comes down to rites on the body, the funeral site and observing the direction of the gravesite. If there is no body to bury, a banana sucker is used symbolically.
For some mourners, their proximity to the deceased on the basis of their emotional, ancestral and legal distance may require them to shave their heads, engage in coitus or abstain and sequester themselves for a period of time. The circumstances of the death also dictates whether mourners will be fed or having certain food categories not included.
Africans are well aware that death by suicide, a violent death and certain stigmatized illnesses require specific cleansing rituals, vigorous and long term based intercession for the deceased to achieve ancestor status. There are also specific funeral dirges and dances that are practiced. And in cases where the bereavement of those left behind requires a boost for the spiritual realm to take notice, professional mourners are contracted.
Africans understand that the criteria for admission into the ancestral realm requires kinship recognition that is achieved through rituals, libations and prayers. Since the deceased is helpless, it is the living who determine whether he or she has lived an ethical life, respected elders, upheld peace within the community and cultural values. The fulfilment of one’s social obligations is not simply limited to having left behind a lineage but whether one was a dutiful parent.
Therefore, from the African perspective, if whilst alive one uses their fleeting power, status and money to step over ordinary social mores, they are technically handing over their afterlife to those he or she injured, offended and wounded.
However, there is nothing that terrorizes Africans more than the nightmare of spiritual excommunication. The thought of being a wandering ghost is an absolute nightmare. This belief is the reason why in Kenya, A.I photos of the president inside a casket were countered by the weaponization of the Computer and Cybercrimes Act.
And so, for many African leaders, the online celebration that followed Chivayo’s death should serve as a reminder. Those of us left behind, living the daily realities of the inequalities you turn a blind eye to have spoken loud and clear. It is time for reform and do right by your people. After all, your afterlives are in our hands.
*Dr. Major Rtd Lucy Wairimu Mukuria is a clinical psychologist and a Public Voices Fellow Tackling Poverty, a partnership of Acumen and The OpEd Project