IN this world nothing can be said to
be certain, except death and taxes. Each one of us has, at some time,
had to grapple with the challenges resulting from the death of a loved
one. No matter how many times we have gone through these traumatic
experiences, each time the experience appears and feels like new and,
often times, even more intense.
Being in the diaspora, the issues about how to finance the burial or
repatriation of a loved one are normally characterised by financial
challenges and contestations amongst those left behind.
Having lived in the diaspora for the past sixteen years, it has
become quite common to receive WhatsApp, text or Facebook messages
asking for financial assistance to repatriate a fellow Zimbabwean. Some
of these departed Zimbabweans would not have built strong enough
relationships which would, in such instances, donate funds to build a
benevolent fund to finance the funeral. For those who would have
belonged to church congregations or other community groups, one way or
another, after repeated calls, their remains have finally been
freighted to Zimbabwe. The delay in raising funds has often times
caused so much anxieties to relatives at home and by the time the
burial is conducted that feeling of loss is likely to have changed to
relief that, at least, the waiting is over.
Stories to explain the failure to finance repatriation of deceased
ones have always been accompanied by lies and at times, malicious lies
about the deceased’s past life. Failure to be organised, over working
and not saving for a rainy day, reckless living, overindulging in First
World glamour are but a few explanations often advanced both within
the diaspora community and those at home.
Church groups or in the case of former Zimbabwe national railways
employees, have formed burial societies to respond to these challenges.
Founding members of burial societies, normally become the fund
administrators. They tend to work relatively well as long as those
founding members are still alive and active in the administration of
the societies.
However, it appears like once leadership changes the original modus
operandi changes. After years of consistent contributions, the
societies’ funds would normally have grown to quite attractive sums so
much that some temptations to invest as way to grow the fund develop
and eventually hold sway.
Unfortunately, investments by their nature can be affected by
unforeseen turbulent economic activities ending up with loss of invested
capital. Such loses are known to reduce group cohesion and blame
appropriation erodes all the trust, leading to dissolution of the
group. Available funds get share amongst the surviving members who then
spend the money on other more immediate needs conveniently forgetting
what the money had been saved for in the first place.
Whilst all this financing drama is going on another parallel scene
will, at times, be also playing out. This drama will be around the
disbursement of the contents of the deceased’s estate. This can take
different shapes. Contestations are quite normal where a husband dies
leaving behind a wife and children. The deceased husband`s family might
attempt to wrestle a bigger chunk of the estate without any regard to
the surviving family who, in most cases will have lost their main
bread winner. However, it appears though, in the diaspora, most women
are the main bread winners. Where the wife dies, there is normally
very little contestation about the estate. The surviving husband can
always have the stamina to challenge any moves by the in-laws to the
estate.
Another phenomenon is where a man and woman would have been living
as unmarried partners and yet for all intents and purposes lived like
husband and wife building a joint estate. Death in such situations
always leads to fights as the deceased`s family tries to gain control
of their fair share in the joint estate.
With all these scenarios, one wonders whether it is not about time
we, the diasporans, become more organised and plan our estates better.
There are funeral plans available to finance repatriation and meet
other incidental expenses like shipping the deceased`s property back
home , buy tickets for family members to accompany the body back home,
feed mourners both in the diaspora and in Zimbabwe and finance any
other administrative expenses resulting from the death. At times,
financial strains and controversies lead to situations where the
deceased end up being literally thrown into a pit as opposed to being
given a decent burial.
Diasporans are renowned for working so hard. Is it not only fair
that we insure ourselves against untimely death and make the aftermath
of our death more peaceful by writing comprehensive Wills? Let us not
leave our lives to chance. We deserve a better send off and the
assurance that our accumulated wealth is inherited by our deserving
loved ones. Let us move away from the “mudengu mudengu, izandla”
practice and be more organised. “Gofundme” appears fine when used by
relatives scattered around the world to mobilise funds but I do not
think it is a dignified when strangers are called to raise burial funds
for someone they do not know.
Paul Mkondo, the late Zimbabwean Insurance Legend, has always been my inspiration in insurance planning.
This article was taken from NewZimbabwe.com: Jeff Sango is an Accredited Insurance
Adviser for the DiasporaFuneralCashPlan.com
