Thousands of mourners recently gathered at Muwa Village, Traditional Authority Chikulamayembe in Rumphi to pay their last respect to a man who was buried in his own 12-year-old concrete grave.
Samson Muwa Luhanga, who fought during the Second World War, worked as a professional hunter for many years, and served his community as a Village Headman, died recently after a short illness. He was 93.
Luhanga, who was popularly known as the moving encyclopedia of the history of Nkhamanga Kingdom by many history researchers, prepared his own concrete grave and made his own coffin. He is said to have practised lying in it several times before his death.
His wish of being buried in his own grave was respected by village elders, however, his other last wish to be entombed in his own coffin was not honoured. One Village Headman said that they turned down the late Luhanga’s wish because they wanted to honour him by providing a decent coffin for him. However, this angered some mourners as they felt the village elders angered the deceased’s spirit by not following all his directives.
“I am disappointed that his wish has not been respected. They could have done exactly what he wanted,” one of his three hundred grandchildren was heard complaining after seeing the pieces of the coffin. Elders in the village destroyed the coffin which the late Muwa Luhanga had made.
At the graveyard mourners were also shocked to find out that the late Luhanga had written on his own monument all his particulars and achievements. He just left a space where the relatives were to indicate the day he died. He even wrote Church of Central Africa Presbytery (CCAP) hymn number 271 on the tombstone. The church honoured his wish by singing this song as his remains were being interred.
He also wrote his own history in English and the whole of it was read out at the memorial park. The eulogist sent the mourners into rounds of laughter when he failed to translate what the deceased had written in English.
Among his many achievements, Luhanga wrote that he had fought as a soldier during the Second World War in countries like Burma, Ethiopia, and Eretria among others. He also claimed to have crossed Indian Ocean, Red sea and other big lakes when he was working with the King’s African Rifles (KAR), a multi-battalion British Colonial regiment.
As a professional hunter, Luhanga wrote that he had killed five lions, ten leopards, fifteen crocodiles, ten hyenas and innumerable dangerous snakes and elephants.
