Manyonganise, MollyMollyManyonganise2024-01-092024-01-092023978-3-86309-911-4https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/92496Since the year 2019, the world has been grappling with the coronavirus. The virus which was first detected in the Chinese province of Wuhan in December 2019, landed on the African continent in February 2020. The fast spread of the virus threatened the socio-economic well-being of most countries of the world. To contain the spread of the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) put in place several measures. Some of these measures were masking up, sanitising, constant washing of hands as well as social distancing. While these measures were noble and seen as effective in containing the spread of the virus, some of them infringed on the African religio-cultural beliefs and practices mainly when it comes to the funerary rites. The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the measure of social distancing. This is done to establish the various ways in which this measure disrupted African ways of mourning and burying the dead. In doing this, the study explores whether it is possible, in the context of COVID-19, to come up with more acceptable ways of mourning that are indigenous to Africa while at the same time paying particular attention to international standards of dealing with the pandemic. Data for the paper were gathered through interviews with people who lost their loved ones in Zimbabwe as well as online media reports of the same. Secondary sources were utilised to support primary data.engAfricacultural beliefCOVID-19disruptiondistancefunerary ritesWHOZimbabwe390bookpart