A BURIAL ON FOREIGN SOIL IS NO VICTORY
By Farai Ruvanyathi
The ruling of the South African Supreme Court allowing Zambia’s Sixth Republican President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, to be buried in South Africa closes a painful and unfortunate chapter in our nation’s history.
Whatever one’s political persuasion, it is difficult to celebrate the fact that a former Head of State will be laid to rest on foreign soil. Death ought to rise above political contestation. A presidency belongs not to a family or a political party, but to the Republic.
History will record that the Zambian State exhausted every legal and diplomatic avenue available to repatriate President Lungu’s remains and accord him a State funeral and burial at home. While the court has now spoken, no one can deny that every reasonable effort was made. The burden of history now rests upon the family.
Ironically, this burial will take place in a country that is currently convulsed by xenophobic attacks, where foreigners have are being chased, assaulted and made to feel unwelcome. There is something profoundly undignified and embarrassing about a former Zambian Head of State finding his final resting place on foreign soil under such circumstances.
The family has claimed that the late President had irreconcilable political differences with his successor and that these differences informed their decision. History, however, is often less sentimental. It will simply record that Zambia’s Sixth President was buried outside his country because disputes that should have been resolved in life remained unresolved in death.
The living should never seek to exacerbate the sentiments of the dead but should instead strive for peace, reconciliation and national healing. In circumstances such as these, one is compelled to ask: who truly wins? Certainly not the deceased, not the family, not the State and, ultimately, not the nation.
‘Let the dead bury the dead.’ Jesus Christ.