{"id":696943,"date":"2026-06-11T03:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696943\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T03:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T03:28:16","slug":"zimbabwes-burial-societies-expand-to-support-the-living-as-economy-worsens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/696943\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe’s burial societies expand to support the living as economy worsens"},"content":{"rendered":"

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) \u2014 Melisa Kasu said her mother died when the family was least prepared. Funerals in Zimbabwe<\/a> demand a large and expensive send-off with food and music, and loved ones can slide into debt to avoid any public shame.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old Kasu said the local burial society arrived to save the day, carrying huge pots and sacks of corn meal and other supplies. They even lit the cooking fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the time I decided to join them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She took over her late mother\u2019s membership in the society in 2023, and discovered a surprising cultural shift was underway: Burial societies in parts of Africa are expanding to take care of the living, too.<\/p>\n

Aside from supporting members\u2019 funerals, some now offer grocery savings plans and even small-business incubators. They are helping families survive challenges like rising costs, limited access to bank loans and unstable incomes in a country where over two-thirds of people are informally employed. Members pay a small monthly subscription.<\/p>\n

At a recent meeting of Kasu\u2019s Kuchemana Burial Society, death hardly featured on the agenda. Women sang, debated and pitched business ideas ranging from poultry farming to detergent-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted dignity in death. Now we are striving for it in life,\u201d society secretary Nyadzisayi Mirisawu said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want members suffering while alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

A group of women founded the society in Kuwadzana, a township in Zimbabwe\u2019s capital of Harare, in 2021 to spare families what members called \u201cembarrassing\u201d funerals that expose poverty.<\/p>\n

Burying a loved one well is one of the most important family obligations. Kuchemana means \u201cmourning one another\u201d in the local Shona language. But membership means more than funeral preparation.<\/p>\n

The group has 40 members aged between 23 and 72. They pay $3 monthly and receive groceries, cooking help and a $150 cash payout when a loved one dies.<\/p>\n

Alongside funeral contributions, members now pay $10 monthly into a collective savings club. Members and trusted people in the community can borrow from the fund at 20% interest, with members sharing profits yearly.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBorrow for health care, school fees or projects,\u201d Mirisawu told members gathered recently under an avocado tree. Clad in matching T-shirts and floral skirts, they lined up to pay subscriptions. A separate grocery program allows them to buy basics in bulk.<\/p>\n

For Kasu, who was laid off from a hardware shop in 2022, the group\u2019s attraction lies less in burial payouts than in the financial lifeline it provides. She received $100 from the savings cycle in December. She borrowed another $30. No bank hassles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bought gas tanks and a scale. Now I sell cooking gas to neighbors,\u201d she said. \u201cBusiness is good. I support myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers say such changes reflect a broader pattern across Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cBanks normally do not lend to the poor or the unemployed, and governments are not providing enough support,\u201d said Sharon Chilunjika, a lecturer in social sciences at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. \u201cPeople are using an institution they already trust, the burial society, and expanding it to cover more of their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She called funerals \u201cone of the most underrated or underappreciated drivers of household poverty\u201d in Africa, with families sometimes turning to loan sharks or selling their assets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way you bury your loved one says a lot about who you are as a family. A cheap coffin or scant food invites judgment. The society will talk,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Zimbabwe, burial societies date to the early 20th century, in the colonial era, when migrant workers formed mutual aid groups to ensure dignified funerals far from home in places like neighboring South Africa.<\/p>\n

The tradition has endured in Zimbabwe, where funeral insurance is more common than health<\/a> insurance, which many people cannot afford. Official statistics show fewer than one in 10 has it.<\/p>\n

Reports by insurance firms, research companies and the country\u2019s statistics agency indicate funeral policies are the most widely held form of insurance in the country, with providers, and even mobile phone companies, promoting low-cost policies.<\/p>\n

But members say the community-based burial societies survive in large part because they provide something that companies struggle to match: a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is your neighbor, your church mate,\u201d Chilunjika said. \u201cThey don\u2019t ask you to fill a form. They come to your home and comfort you.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

For more on Africa and development: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/africa-pulse<\/a><\/p>\n

The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) \u2014 Melisa Kasu said her mother died when the family was least prepared. Funerals in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1926,35411,28,101,4380,793,965,39361],"class_list":["post-696943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-africa","tag-africa-pulse","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-funerals-and-memorial-services","tag-general-news","tag-world-news","tag-zimbabwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}