WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2004-05-20 Time: 11:04:28 Posted By: Jan
[Ditto for Botswana and other African countries. Jan]
Lusaka – Even if the dead might turn in their graves at the thought of their last resting place becoming a marketplace, the stark reality is: If you are unemployed you have to devise some plan to keep going, says young informal traders who sell flowers, water and “services” at Lusaka’s Leopard Hill graveyard.
Rising death figures as a result of the HIV/Aids pandemic have resulted in the city’s two main graveyards, Leopard Hill and Chingwere being invaded by entrepreneurs who are even prepared to wash mourners’ feet at a price.
This service is essential when mourners accidentally step in the mud.
Traders sit in groups of five to ten from early in the morning at the gates to the graveyards. As soon as a funeral procession drives past they jump up, tearing after them in the hope of a small earning.
‘Then they are happy’
“We do the work to survive. The council also charges us a levy to work here,” complains Raphael Mafuta, 29. The levy of 1 000 kwacha (about R1,30) a day is a lot of money for these people who earn R32,50 a day at the most, depending on the number of funerals conducted on the day. “We are sometimes accused of being happy when the bodies arrive, but we are unemployed and we are not selling flowers for graves out of choice.”
Christopher Musenge, 32, is a married man with two children who lives in the poor neighbourhood of Mtendere. He walks 6km every day to sell flowers at Leopard Hill.
Currently flowers are the top seller, but ice cream carts also do the rounds where crowds gather to mourn their dead.
“Mourning family members seldom buy ice cream, but those who are sent ahead to dig the graves, sometimes buy ice cream to relieve the oppressive heat,” Musenge notes.
Ephraim Nkhomo, also a flower seller, says roses are scarce since flower growers export their roses.
“Last week we were told growers no longer want to sell to us, but they sell their poor quality flowers to us since they can’t sell them elsewhere,” he says.
Graveyards overcrowded
The Zambian statistics service declared that 16% of the population have HIV/Aids. In the age group 14 to 46 the figure is 22%.
Lusaka has a population of two million and the city council can no longer deal with overcrowded graveyards. Between 40 and 50 funerals are conducted at the Leopard Hill graveyard daily. More people are now being buried in Chingwere, close to the overpopulated poorer neighbourhoods.
Lusaka council spokesperson Peter Kashiwa says plans are under way to purchase more land for a graveyard, but it is not easy. Property owners around Lusaka are reluctant to sell their land.
The council has considered asking for a presidential order, forcing people to sell their land.
Attempts are being made to persuade people to cremate their dead. However, in this deeply Christian community the subject is emotional and the idea is not popular.
In the meantime the rising death toll is a veiled blessing for Leopard Hill’s flower sellers.
Edited by Trisha Shannon
Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Features/…/p>