By Tendai Makaripe
Upon hearing of the passing of Stella Dambudzo (not her real name) from Warren Park 1, Harare, the local community gathered to pay their respects. She had died peacefully in her sleep after suffering multiple strokes, leaving behind her grieving husband of 40 years, Jason.
He struggled to come to terms with the loss of his wife, partner, and friend.
As customary, the community inquired about funeral arrangements.
“I was part of the Harare Municipal Funeral Services (HMFS) scheme when I worked for the City Council. They will handle everything,” said Jason.
But things took an unexpected turn when mourners arrived at the funeral parlour.
Members of one Apostolic Church (name supplied), to which the Dambudzo family belonged, refused to allow the body to be carried by the parlour’s vehicle, stating it violated their beliefs.
What had begun as a peaceful farewell quickly spiralled into a clash between religious traditions and modern funeral services
Church leaders objected to the body being kept at the funeral home, insisting that it violated their faith.
“We do not plan for death; we face it when it comes,” one leader explained.
The deceased’s sons were visibly upset but powerless to challenge the church’s decision.
Reluctantly, they watched as their mother’s coffin was loaded into a pickup truck.
The old pickup truck struggled down the road, rattling with each bump.
The atmosphere grew tense—what had begun as a simple farewell was spiralling into disarray.
This clash reached a head the following day when HMFS provided a bus to transport mourners to Zororo Memorial Park.
Again, the church rejected this service, leaving many mourners stranded without transport to attend the burial.
What should have been a peaceful ceremony was marred by disagreements, as the family’s wishes were overridden by strict religious doctrines.
This incident reflects a broader societal conflict playing out across Zimbabwe, where modern funeral services sometimes collide with cultural and religious beliefs.
As the country urbanises and communities diversify, tensions over how death should be handled are becoming more common.
For many families, funeral homes offer professionalism and dignity, while for others, these practices feel impersonal and disrespectful to long-standing traditions.
Research has shown that as Zimbabwe becomes more urbanised and communities diverse, these conflicts are becoming more common, raising important questions: How do we reconcile the convenience of modern funeral practices with the need to honour cultural and religious values? Can there be a compromise that respects both the wishes of the family and the beliefs of the faith community?
To explore the reasons behind some people’s reluctance to use funeral assurance policies, the writer embarked on research to extract several realities from individuals drawn from diverse socio-cultural and religious backgrounds.
Interviews with several individuals from a Christian background revealed that some sects have eschatological views discouraging long-term financial planning, such as funeral policies.
Investing in such policies reflects a lack of belief in the imminence of the end times. As believers, we should be focused on spiritual readiness rather than earthly concerns,” said a member of the aforementioned church who requested anonymity.
“Insurance policies demonstrate a lack of faith in God’s provision. God provides for all our needs, including funeral expenses, through the community or divine intervention. Purchasing funeral insurance is the same as trusting in human institutions rather than relying solely on God’s protection and provision.”
Research also revealed that some like-minded Apostolic churches in Zimbabwe emphasise simple living, following what they interpret as biblical guidelines for modesty and humility.
“Apostolic sects view elaborate funerals and funeral insurance as luxuries that conflict with their belief in simplicity and faith, relying instead on God’s provision, as taught in scriptures like Matthew 6:25-34,” said social commentator Tinos Jujuju.
It was also noted that these sects, guided by strict religious beliefs, do not allow the bodies of their deceased members to be taken to funeral parlours for preparation.
Instead, they insist on handling every aspect of the burial process themselves, including bathing, dressing and burying the body.
Similarly, some cultural conservatives are against having funeral policies because they feel they are too modern and violate some cultural values.
Said social scientist Gift Mazhozho: “Mistrust of modern institutions like funeral parlours arises from a fear of losing control over sacred traditions. For many, traditional practices provide a sense of identity and continuity, preserving cultural values and connections with ancestors amidst rapid modernisation.”
Research has shown that some Shona tribes believe that the deceased’s body must be prepared by family members through a symbolic ritual—washing the body to cleanse the spirit and make it acceptable to the ancestors.
“Some Shona tribes believe the body must be washed by family members to cleanse the spirit for its journey to the ancestors, a ritual that reflects their cultural values,” said theologian Berry Muchemwa.
To add to the belief that a corpse should only be handled by close relatives, social commentator Struggle Muzavazi said in many Zimbabwean cultures, especially among traditionalists and members of apostolic churches, death is seen as a natural process that should be handled by the family or community, not by external entities like funeral parlours.
“The involvement of parlours is viewed as disrupting the intimate, sacred connection between the family and the deceased,” he said.
After the washing of the body, culturally, it should be wrapped in a white cloth.
Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at The Mexican American Catholic College John Chitakure posits that: “It seems that wrapping in white cloth is ubiquitous in Africa. When the old women have anointed the body, they take a length of white cloth and wind it around the waist of the dead person,” he said.
“While the wrapping of the body with a white cloth is a common phenomenon in Africa, its significance has rarely been explored. Among the Shona, the official ancestral colours are black and white sewn together, and it might be that the white colour is very significant,” he added.
However, the Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers (ZAFA) chairman Patrick Mhuka said funeral assurers are now letting relatives carry out their rituals following their religion and customs like night vigils and religious ceremonies.
“Through direct engagements, we have now started to see increased uptake of funeral policies by various sectors who hitherto did not believe in financial security during times of bereavement,” he said.
“We believe that it’s important to listen and understand the market demands before we develop products that will be accepted by our communities. So, we have been aligning our new generation products with the market demands.”
Some people mistrust funeral parlours, fearing issues like ritualism and body mix-ups, as seen in last year’s case between the Dube and Tsingidzi families in Bulawayo, where a body was mistakenly swapped.
Last year, the Dube and Tsingidzi families in Bulawayo found themselves at loggerheads with Kingdom Blue Funeral Services after a tragic body mix-up.
The Tsingidzi family insisted the body of Ashley Tsingidzi be transported in the same hearse as the one transporting Mayibongwe Dube from the hospital mortuary.
“This is against procedures and we too did not know that this is what had taken place. So, in offloading the bodies I suspect that the driver may have mixed up the bodies,” said Kingdom Blue Funeral Services marketing director Mbongiseni Ncube.
Research shows that the belief that funeral assurance companies profit from death clashes with cultural values that see death as sacred. Critics argue that turning death into a business undermines the dignity of life, raising ethical concerns in communities where death is treated with reverence, not as a profit-making opportunity.
According to this view, these companies depend on the passing of individuals for revenue, which unsettles those who value death as a solemn occasion.
“In our culture, death is sacred. It is a time for mourning, not making money. Seeing businesses profit from loss diminishes the value of life,” said Macdonald Mativenga from Musonza kraal in Goromonzi.
Mhuka said nowadays very few religious sects completely oppose funeral assurance policies.
“The few that still oppose funeral policies do so because they want to manage potential competition between the haves and those who cannot afford. So, they believe equality in death can be brought about by shunning the funeral policies,” he said.
“Some do not want the use of coffins and want the bodies of their followers to just be wrapped in a cloth while some do not want anything steel or metal to be associated with the deceased bodies so coffins made of boards and screws will be shunned.”
He added that others do not want the use of hearses, especially branded ones and if they happen to transport the body with a branded vehicle, it must not get closer than 500m from the home as ‘it might result in more deaths driven by the funeral assurance company’.
He however noted that some of these religious sects listen to their leaders and once the leaders’ mentality changes, the mentality of the church also changes.
