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Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
THE Chirau family of Zimunya is at loggerheads after a tombstone was erected on the wrong grave, with the local traditional leadership advising them to consult traditional healers over the issue.
Instead of erecting the tombstone on the late Justin Chirau’s grave, they erected it on his late brother, Joseph’s grave, thereby irking Justin’s South Africa-based children, leading to Headman Chigodora summoning the family to his court.
The error was interpreted as disrespecting the dead and a violation of the burial customs of the Zimunya people.
A heated court session last Saturday saw some family members leaving in a huff, claiming that they were being fingered as the architects of the family’s misfortunes.
The family’s patriarch, the elderly Oliver Chirau and his unidentified son, had to be dragged back to the court by angry family members as they argued that the matter could only be finalised in their presence.
“We will not waste time attending this court session. You cannot force me to consult traditional healers. I told you that before my late father died, he advised us against consulting traditional healers. He was clear that anyone who does that should not involve the whole family.
“I will not succumb to your demands and I will stand firm on that. You can call me a wizard, but I know my principles. You will never see my foot at a traditional healer’s shrine,” said Oliver as he walked away.
His son, who claimed to be a police officer, said he would not allow anyone to force his father to act against his principles and conscience.
He shouted that the community court was trampling on his father’s rights.
“Is it a crime for someone to be elderly? Growing up, we all knew that we are not allowed to consult traditional healers. Why should this start now? Why are they forcing my father to do that?
“Refusing to consult traditional healers does not make him the culprit behind the family’s problems. This is not fair, and I will not let anyone disrespect my father in my presence,” he said as he also walked away.
On Saturday, Headman Chigodora ordered the Chirau family to consult traditional healers without the family’s patriarch.
“We cannot force someone to do what he is totally against, but we want answers to the challenges bedevilling the family. I am giving the Chirau family the nod to consult healers without their family head.
“I instruct you to seek for a ‘back to sender’ solution on this matter so that the person behind the confusion and bewilderment in your family suffers from it. The person’s children should also suffer,” he ruled.
During the previous court session, Chirau explained that the family experienced a strange bewilderment on the day they erected the tombstone, resulting in them failing to identify Justin’s grave.
“We were all confused and did not realise that we were making a mistake. It was like the whole family was in a trance, including Justin’s widow. We only realised our boob two months later after my brother, Teddy Chirau who is a prophet, dreamt that a mistake had been made. We realised that we had committed a very serious transgression and we are working towards rectifying the boob,” he said.
Justin’s widow, only identified as Mai Emmanuel Chirau, said her husband’s death was accompanied by a series of mysterious events, thereby making her and her children suspect that he was killed by a family member.
“My husband’s coffin was covered with a black cloth, something that has never happened in the history of this land. It was meant to blind his spirit so that he will not torment his killers. When I asked about it, the cloth disappeared and no one cared.
“Now, in a cemetery with a few graves, we were all confused and failed to identify his grave,” she said.
“My son, Emmanuel, used at least US$860 for the tombstone unveiling ceremony, and that money was wasted. We are in pain as Justin’s immediate family and we ask for the headman’s intervention,” she said.
The late Justin was 95 when he died in 2020.
His brother Joseph had died in 2019.
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