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Life in a third world mortuary
Stanley Makuwe
Extracted from Pambazuka News : Issue 285
January 11, 2007

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/39143

Stanley Makuwe looks at what it means not to have access to basic services from a point of view of dead people. Through a dialogue among corpses in a mortuary, Makuwe criticizes a government system that disregards the poor, while simultaneously, exposes a rotten system that rewards unscrupulous politicians whose only concern is to fly around the world and shop at the most expensive boutiques.

"What brings you here?" an old voice asks from the top shelf. A maggot crawls on the old body's face.

"We are all dead. That's what brings all of us here," bellows a young voice.

"Is that how you speak to your elders? Young men of today have no respect. That's why you die young. Long ago no-one of your age would be seen in places like this. We were healthy and strong like oxen pulling a yoke. Look now, how many of your age do you see around here? You die before you grow pubic hair, while you still have breast milk on your noses."

Another voice groans and says, "Thank you for starting the conversation. Anyway what brings you here old man?"

The old body clears its throat before saying, "I have no family. I divorced my wife and she went away with my son. My parents said, ‘you are now a grown up bullock, you have to graze for yourself,' then I left their home to look for a job here in the city. You have to know someone to get a job in this country.

For me I knew no-one. I was left homeless and jobless. I slept under bridges for many years. The cold weather kicked me to death. Someone found me dead and informed the police who bundled my decomposing corpse into a metal coffin and brought it in here.

"Government people appeared on the front pages of newspapers, on radios and television talking about the things they said they were doing for the people - donations of food and clothes to the needy, building houses for the homeless, providing free medical treatment to the underprivileged. But they had no money to look after a useless old horse."

The stench in the mortuary almost chocks the dead bodies to a second death.

"You would put them out of budget. Fuel is now too expensive. Better one old man dies than having ten BMWs grounded," a young body with says.

"No-one has turned up to claim my body," the old voice continues, "we are becoming overcrowded in here. Do you think the president knows we are here? He is a great man, that president of ours. He wouldn't let us suffer. Lucky are those who died when milk and honey were still flowing in the rivers of this country. I feel sorry for those who will die in ten years' time. Sometimes I feel you are lucky, young men. You died at the right time, when there was still space in this mortuary."

To the body on the floor, "what killed you?"

"Nurses and doctors went on strike for pay rise. The government said they had no money because they wanted to buy bulletproof vests, handcuffs, bulletproof cars, tear gas and batons, and to train more police dogs. Apart from that, the president was abroad attending to very important matters so they had to wait for his return so he could decide how much increment the medical staff would get, if they were going to get any. I heard he wanted to return but his wife said she wanted to do her shopping so he had to wait and help her carry her shopping bags. You see, he is a busy man."

"They held fruitless talks while we took turns to die. It started in the first cubicle. I was in the fifth cubicle. I thought by the time death got to me the medical team would have returned to work but I was wrong. I held on for a while but in the end gave up. I couldn't wait any longer. I woke up dead one morning."

"We are piling up. I don't know if my family will find me in this place. Who said hell is somewhere up there?"

The doors slide open. Deafening silence fills the whole mortuary. The sound of a poorly oiled cart breaks the silence, followed by heavy foot-steps and a thud, signaling the arrival of another dead body. The doors slam shut and the sound of the broken wheels slowly fades away.

"I can see a child. Why are you here little one?" enquires the old body.

"I fell sick. My mother took me to clinic. Nurse said I was too sick and I had to be transferred to the district hospital. There was no ambulance. Father put me in our scotch-cart." The door opens again. More bodies are rolled on the pile. Other bodies shout words of welcome before the child continues.

"When we got to the district hospital doctor said I must go to the provincial hospital. There was no fuel for the ambulance. Mother took me there by bus. People were staring at me and mother. The whole bus was whispering about my sickness. At the provincial hospital they said I must go to the central hospital. We took another bus. When we arrived there was a long queue of very sick people waiting for their hospital cards to be stamped. Mother asked for permission to jump the queue. ‘You must have brought your child early. We are all sick here,' a man shouted at her in a harsh voice.

"Our card was stamped but not before mother paid all the money she had been left with. We waited for doctor. When he came he examined me and said I needed an x-ray for my chest. We had to wait for the next day for the x-ray department to open. When it opened we were told that the x-ray machine was not working. We went back to see doctor. There was yet another long queue. At last we saw doctor. He wrote some medication. We went to the pharmacy and we were told the medication prescribed by doctor had been out of stock for many moons," the child's voice pauses as a fly buzzes around her body.

"Mother broke down and cried, ‘what do you want me to do with my baby. Help my baby please. She is dying. Help her please.' ‘What do you want us to do? It's 4 o'clock, we are closing now,' the woman at the pharmacy said to my mother before she shut the pharmacy doors. She had no mercy in her voice. And I am here today."

A rat runs across the mortuary. Female bodies scream but other bodies pay no attention. Women.

"Your story, child, sounds like mine. I lost cattle, goats and chicken trying to be treated. I went to witch-doctors and spiritual healers. One of the witch-doctors told me my brother's wife had bewitched me. He took frogs and lizards out of my chest and bathed me in chicken blood. My brother divorced his wife.

One of the spiritual healers said my uncle had bewitched me because he was jealous of my successful life. He gave me cooking oil to add to my bathing water. It didn't help. Finally, I came to this hospital. The doctors gave me water through the veins. I was semi-conscious when I heard one of them saying to the other, ‘these are AIDS symptoms.' Days later I was dead.

"I had money. Real money. Not a few dollars in the bank but millions that could buy me anything in the world. I spent it with women of all sizes and colours."

"I died when I was drunk," a faint voice whispers. His eyes are wide open, staring at the derelict roof of the mortuary. "I was beaten to death by young men dressed in green. They said I was a supporter of the opposition coming from a party meeting."

A woman's voice interrupts, "I was a strong member of the Women's League. One of those women who wrap around cloaks with the president's face printed on them."

The voice starts singing a song of revolution.

Handei Handeiwo
Handei tinoitora
Nyika ndeyeduwo
Handei tinoitora
Ivhu ndereduwo
Handei tinoritora

(Let us go and take the country. It is ours. Let us go and take the land. It is ours.)

It is a hive of activity as mortuary attendants take turns to bring in more bodies, fresh bodies, some with blood dripping down their faces to the cold floor. The mortuary attendants pinch their noses as they walk into the mortuary. The opening of the door brings in some fresh air making the bodies feel refreshed.

"You deserve to be at the heroes' acre, woman," an invisible body shouts from the far end of the mortuary.

"No, I do. I was a war veteran. A liberator of my people," an angry male voice says.

"We both do," the woman's voice reasons, "we must be buried at the Heroes' acre. I don't think our president knows we are here. The president wouldn't allow this to happen. Someone hasn't informed him. Do you think the minister of information informed him?"

"How can you expect him to inform you about a place he has never been before?"

"Before I died I heard from someone that he is a busy man. He has a demanding job that keeps a minister busy."

"What kind of a job is that?"

"It's one of the greatest jobs in this part of the world. It's about talking the truth on radios, televisions and in newspapers. You have to be a professor to hold such a high post."

"Someone told me the minister of information has another job in the government as a spin doctor. You see, he is a minister and also a doctor. He is too busy to inform the president about dead people rotting somewhere in a mortuary."

"Spin doctor!" exclaims a surprised voice, "what kind of a doctor is that?"

"You don't know?" asks another surprised voice, "a spin doctor is the president's personal doctor. He treats him of the stresses caused by being a president."

"Doctors of today," says the old voice, "let people die in hospitals while they work in government as ministers of information. They have no ethics anymore. Look at that girl's nose. It's rotting. If things go on like this, we will march on the streets. We can mobilize all other bodies in other mortuaries. We have to speak with one voice. Our ancestors said one finger cannot kill lice. Just imagine dead bodies marching on the streets demanding fair treatment in the mortuaries."

A huge applause.

"You have spoken, old man," the young voice says, "your mouth has spoken. You are wise, I must admit. We must not only protest for fair treatment in mortuaries. We must also protest for fair treatment of our living families.

They have been suffering for too long. The leader of this country is taking them nowhere. If it were not for his mismanagement of the country we would still be alive. Those with no wisdom believe he is a great leader but the truth is this country has been brought down to its knees by this man. I want him out of office. How, I don't care. As long as we kick him out. The living ones have failed to push him out. It's now our turn, the dead, to do it."

"I support you, my friend," says another young voice, "if we start our own opposition party we can easily win elections just like that. People want change. They don't care who brings the change, as long as the president goes. They are prepared to vote for anyone or anything, even if it means voting for a donkey."

"You must be joking," says the female voice, "who would vote for a dead people's party?"

"Other dead bodies will vote. In this country dead people are more than the living ones. If all the dead bodies vote we can win. Imagine this country being run by dead bodies!"

"You must be dreaming in your everlasting sleep. The country would be dead too."

"It's dead already, killed by a living person."

Huge applause and laughter.

Five more bodies are thrown in. The old body asks loudly, "What brings you here young people?"

"Don't you know there is a civil war going on out there? Can't you hear the sound of AKs and landmines?" says a bleeding body, its voice full of fury.

"Are you saying you have just died? What for? For your masters? You die while they are busy holding endless meetings in five-star hotels."

The old body starts to weep, bringing grief to the whole mortuary. As the bodies wipe their tears from their lifeless cheeks, a thin and malnourished body is brought in. It wastes no time in making its voice heard.

"My, my, my, I wish you knew what's happening out there. There is a drought with a mouth full of long teeth; it is biting and killing the old and the young. Our leaders said the granaries are now empty. They are surviving by shopping overseas. We, the poor, can't afford to shop overseas. Only two days ago, before I died I heard that our very own president took his family to a far country for shopping. Him and his wife and two children took a two hundred sitter jet to fly to the far country to shop. They diverted the route of the plane so that they could use it to carry their groceries. Those who saw it returning said it was full of groceries, even on the roof, like a bus going to the village.

"We, the poor, wait everyday for death to knock on our doors. It knocked on mine. I said to it, ‘come in,' because I had no choice. I had nowhere else to send it because it had claimed the lives of my loved ones. My children died. We buried them last week. I died this morning. Only the strong survive out there. If the civil war misses you, drought makes sure it does not, or it leaves you devastated."

"I wish I was a government official," a tearful voice speaks, "I heard they have a nice mortuary. I heard it's a mansion of a mortuary. A palace. The bodies bath and dress in suits. They get the most expensive chemicals, oxygen, perfumes and three main meals and snacks in between."

To another decomposing body, "Hey, you have been quiet. Why are you not talking? Are you happy with your dead life?"

"I listen and take information."

"Are you a newspaper reporter?"

"No, I am a member of the government's secret agent. The way you are talking compromises the security of the country. I am not warning you again!"

Fear grips the whole mortuary and there is dead silence.

*Stanley Makuwe is a Zimbabwean writers based in Auckland, New Zealand. His short story collection, Under This Tree & Other Stories, was published last year by Polygraphia. He is also last year's runner up for the BBC World Service Short Story Award.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

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