Esther Magosha, living in the United States, is in a dispute with her late husband’s brothers after they accidentally dug up her husband’s grave instead of her late sister-in-law’s.
During this mistake, they discovered two knives wrapped in red cloth.
Last Friday, Esther took her brothers-in-law, Simbarashe and Richard Magosha, to Chief Makoni’s community court. She wanted to talk about the grave mix-up and their refusal to share her late husband’s belongings.
Esther said, “My husband’s brothers were setting up a tombstone for their sister, who was buried next to my husband. They mistakenly dug up my husband’s grave and found a knife wrapped in red cloth. We only heard about this from neighbors through WhatsApp voice notes, who also said Simbarashe was seen visiting the graveyard alone with eggs. Simbarashe and Richard never told us about these events.”
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She also mentioned that when her husband died of Covid-19 in the USA, she made sure his belongings were distributed according to customs in the US and Britain. Some of his things in Zimbabwe are still not shared because Simbarashe and Richard refuse to cooperate.
These items are now in a house in Harare that has been sold. Esther feels hurt by their actions, especially since she supported Richard’s education in Germany. She is also worried about her son Raymond’s health in the US.
In response, Richard explained that after finding the knives and red cloth, they burned them, believing they were harmless. He said, “We were shocked to find the knives when we dug up Elisha’s grave by mistake. We found another knife and cloth near our parents’ graves. We burned them after telling the village head. We then had a family meeting and decided to move on, thinking we did the right thing. We didn’t tell Esther and her children.”
Simbarashe admitted to visiting the graveyard alone but said he did so because Esther asked him to. He claimed he didn’t know it was wrong to visit graves alone and only learned this from the village head.
Chief Makoni suggested the family consult a traditional healer to resolve the matter. Richard and Simbarashe resisted, saying their religion didn’t allow it. When told it was necessary to find the truth, they said they couldn’t afford it. The court allowed them to see the traditional healer for free.
The healer suggested that Simbarashe might have placed the knives and red cloth at Elisha’s grave to suppress his spirit.
Chief Makoni has now arranged for the traditional healer to perform a cleansing ceremony at the family home.
