A social media star died, Then a battle over her burial rites reached Zimbabwe's high court

Ishmael Amuli (right) sits in court with his lawyer to win Islamic burial rites for his deceased daughter, a social media influencer, who her mother argued was no longer Muslim at the time of her death. Photo by Tawanda Karombo.

HARARE — Michelle Amuli was a socialite, fitness trainer, online influencer and unifier in life and yet a divisive and controversial figure in her death.

Popularly known as Moana in Zimbabwe, her burial rights divided her paternal and maternal families to the extent that the High Court in the capital intervened. The ruling became a landmark case on how to quell the all-too-familiar battles in Zimbabwe for religious and cultural burial rites.

A few hours after celebrating her 26th birthday at an upmarket nightclub in Harare this fall, Moana died in a fiery car crash. At the birthday party, they had popped champagne, danced for hours and cut a cake shaped in the form of a nude woman. It was a massive and extravagant celebration of her life. Little did she know that those would be her last moments alive.

In the early morning hours after her party, the Rolls Royce she was travelling in collided against an oncoming vehicle and burst into flames. Moana and her two female friends were burnt beyond recognition. The driver also died shortly after the crash, though he managed to exit the vehicle before the fire.

Moana’s three friends were buried a few days after the accident, but her parents haggled in court over whether she could be buried according to Muslim tradition. Her father insisted she be buried according to Islamic teachings, but her mother insisted that Moana was no longer Muslim at the time of her death and wanted a Christian burial. The debate raged on social media and tabloids for weeks, often spreading misinformation about Muslim customs, as the court proceedings dragged on.

Less than 1% of Zimbabwe’s population is Muslim, and most are South Asian origin, while 85% of the country identifies with mixed Christian traditions.

Imam Yussuf Binali said it was important that Islamic burial rites for Moana be upheld as a way of expressing the late Moana and her paternal family’s “submission to the will of the Lord” emphasizing that “being a Muslim was “about submitting oneself to the laws set out by God in the Holy Quran and in the tradition and teachings” of Prophet Mohammed.

 “We don’t face any other hurdles as [Muslims] in Zimbabwe; it was just this misunderstanding between the families,” Binali told Religion Unplugged in an interview. “There has been a lot of misinformation on social media in as far as Muslim burial is concerned but these are all false.”

The court decision and the religious and cultural disputes over burial

On Nov. 27, the Harare High Court ruled that the burial order earlier granted to Moana’s father remained valid and that a new order Moana’s mother was applying for could not be issued.

“I find no legal basis for cancelling the burial order. I also observe that this court cannot usurp the powers of the registrar. The validity of the burial order stands because it was acquired legally,” ruled High Court Justice Kwenda.

Precedent of Zimbabwe’s courts on the religious upbringing of children made it difficult for Moana’s mother to win the burial rite order in the absence of a will and testament from Moana.

Through his lawyers, Moana’s father Amuli argued that his daughter was a Muslim and he raised her in the religion from 1994-2013 without the help of her mother. Moana’s parents had divorced, and Moana grew up primarily in her father’s household. But in the past year before her death, they were not on speaking terms.

Amuli opposed his daughter’s lifestyle of attending parties, dancing in music videos and posting glamorous selfies on social media. She had also grown closer to her mother and this meant poor relations with her father. But Moana had never officially renounced Islam or converted to Christianity at the time of her death, the court ruled.

Muslims held their breath while the nation anxiously awaited closure to a long, drawn-out religious battle for burial rites.

After delivery of the judgement, Amuli said he was relieved that he was now able to bury his daughter in the Muslim way he had raised her.

“We are now able to bury our daughter in accordance with our religion and ways. It has not been easy for these past two weeks. I can’t say much, but we acknowledge that we have been granted the burial rights to bury her the way of our belief and religion,” said Amuli after the handing down of the judgement.

The ruling by the Harare High Court in the case of Moana’s burial rites also upheld that burial rights belong to surviving spouses. In the absence of a surviving spouse, the nuclear and extended families of the deceased have to meet and decide.

The judge asked Amuli to decide the burial site together with Kuvarega’s family as a way of restoring dignity to the deceased. He then said there was need for new laws to fill any gaps that may exist in cases of religious burial disputes.

Moana’s burial

As a sign of respect for Moana, the Amuli and Kuvarega families agreed to have her remains pass through her maternal residence in the suburb of Highfields in Harare in a casket, which was then discarded at the burial site to allow for her burial in accordance with Muslim practices.

The Amuli family also invited friends and relatives of Moana to attend the burial, largely as a way of dispelling misconceptions about Muslim burial practices that falsely claimed women are not allowed to attend burials.

“Finalizing her burial arrangements help us start the healing process of losing her in the first place. We have shed all tears we could shed. Now it’s time to lay her to rest. It’s just that this was her family, otherwise we all wanted to have the burial process done with as soon as possible,” said Shylet Shalom, a friend to the late Moana.

Tawanda Karombo is a Zimbabwe-based journalist covering development, religion, business and finance across Southern Africa. He has more than 10 years experience covering the region for local and international publications, including National Catholic Reporter and America Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @tawakarombo.