Some burial societies in Africa now focus on helping the living, too

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

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.

“That’s the time I decided to join them,” she said.

She took over her late mother’s 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.

Aside from supporting members' 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.

At a recent meeting of Kasu's Kuchemana Burial Society, death hardly featured on the agenda. Women sang, debated and pitched business ideas ranging from poultry farming to detergent-making.

“We wanted dignity in death. Now we are striving for it in life,” society secretary Nyadzisayi Mirisawu said. “We don’t want members suffering while alive.”

A group of women founded the society in Kuwadzana, a township in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare, in 2021 to spare families what members called “embarrassing” funerals that expose poverty.

Burying a loved one well is one of the most important family obligations. Kuchemana means “mourning one another” in the local Shona language. But membership means more than funeral preparation.

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.

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.

“Borrow for health care, school fees or projects,” 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.

For Kasu, who was laid off from a hardware shop in 2022, the group's 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.

“I bought gas tanks and a scale. Now I sell cooking gas to neighbors,” she said. “Business is good. I support myself.”

Researchers say such changes reflect a broader pattern across Africa.

“Banks normally do not lend to the poor or the unemployed, and governments are not providing enough support,” said Sharon Chilunjika, a lecturer in social sciences at Midlands State University in Zimbabwe. “People are using an institution they already trust, the burial society, and expanding it to cover more of their needs.”

She called funerals “one of the most underrated or underappreciated drivers of household poverty” in Africa, with families sometimes turning to loan sharks or selling their assets.

“The 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,” she said.

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.

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

Reports by insurance firms, research companies and the country's 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.

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.

“It is your neighbor, your church mate,” Chilunjika said. “They don’t ask you to fill a form. They come to your home and comfort you.”

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