Gasebalwe Seretse
6 July 2009
The recent death of pop legend, Michael Jackson, plunged the whole world in a state of shock.
Millions of fans and critics alike were caught unawares at the demise of a man, who has almost single-handedly reshaped the pop world into what it is today. Even public mourning is not commonplace in the Western world, scores of fans were shown on television and the internet in tears upon hearing the news of the death of the man some call 'Wacko Jacko'.
I received the news via sms from a colleague at Monitor early last Friday and my fist reaction was: Michael Jackson dead? Impossible! I quickly checked on Google and searched 'Michael Jackson dies' and sadly several news networks confirmed that the 'King of Pop' was indeed no more.
Although I am not a die-hard fan, I have learnt, with the rest of the world, that Jackson is not a man that you could simply ignore and the thought of him lying somewhere in a cold morgue seemed impossible. Mere mortals like me die, get mourned by a handful of people, get buried and its back to business, not so with the likes of Michael Jackson. He was a demi-god to millions of his fans and at the height of his fame, there had been rumours upon rumours of him devising ways to cheat death and to hear he was dead seemed like fallacy.
Strangely enough millions of people felt that they personally knew Jackson. Fans living in the furthest continents mourn him as much as his closet friends. It is safe to assume that his long time friend and screen legend Elizabeth Taylor was not the only one who collapsed upon hearing the news of his death, surely thousands of 'unknown' fans collapsed elsewhere. As if public mourning is not enough, it has been reported that at least six of his fans in Australia committed suicide after hearing of his death and it is likely that many other suicides will follow.
Michael Jackson is not the first celebrity to leave the world plunged in deep morning. When another 'king', the 'King of Rock' Elvis Presley died many of his fans could not believe it. Strangely enough, Jackson was a fan of Presley and at one point was married to his daughter Lisa Marie Presley. There are too many parallels between the two to mention, their larger than life dispositions, their flamboyant outfits, their 'massive' talents, their record-breaking achievements, their 'untimely deaths' and then their Graceland and Neverland. Both 'kings' collapsed with Presley being found dead after using the toilet by his girlfriend Ginger Alden. However one thing that separates Jackson from Presley is that the latter was considered a sex symbol while little is known about Jackson's sex life, except his questionable relationships with boys. Many of Presley's fans could not come to terms with his death and his corpse and that of his mother had to be reburied in his Graceland home in Memphis after a plan to steal his body was discovered.
Like Jackson, Princess Diana, died from cardiac arrest, after suffering massive internal injuries in a high speed crash in France. When Prince Charles' ex-wife, whom many considered an icon, died in August,31 1997, there was a spontaneous and public show of mourning. Nobody had expected the ever beautiful and graceful Diana to die in a car crash like a mere mortal. I had an opportunity to watch her funeral procession which took a very long time on TV and I can never forget seeing women who had lined the streets of London collapsing as they wailed, "Diana!"
When American President John Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, while riding in his presidential limousine with his wife Jacqueline Kennedy, few could believe that the life of the world's most powerful man could be snapped away that easily. It is reported that 54% of Americans stopped their normal activities on the day that he died and that 'in the following days, people wept, lost their appetite, had difficulty sleeping and suffered nausea, nervousness and sometimes anger'. Like the deaths of other aforementioned icons, his death 'did not suit a man of his status' as Wikipedia graphically describes it: "As the shot was heard, a fist-sized hole exploded out from the right of President Kennedy's head covering the interior of the car and a nearby motorcycle with blood and brain tissue. Then Jacqueline said, "His brain is in my hand".
When international icons die suddenly, there are always conspiracy theories and it is very likely that conspiracy stories about Jackson's death will soon emerge, as in the case of Princess Diana, Elvis Presley, John Kennedy and many others.
My personal encounter with public mourning happened in 1980 when the first president of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama died. Being a mere child, I could not understand why family members were mourning the death of a man in Gaborone. This man I would later understand not to be only family but also the first president of the country. As it is with other public figures, Khama was not only mourned by family but by the nation as a whole. People talked in hushed tones and radio volumes were minimised. Men and women left their villages and towns to grieve with the Khama family in both Gaborone and Serowe.
According to Wikipedia, 'Forty thousand people paid their respects while Khama's body lay in state in Gaborone'.
His funeral in Serowe at the Ngwato royal cemetries a few days later was attended by more than twenty thousand people.
Who can forget the sombre looking purple issue of the Kutlwano magazine that paid tribute to Seretse who was a hero to many.
Other deaths that have been mourned by thousands in Botswana include that of Khama III and my all-time hero, Tshekedi Khama. Like Seretse, these two Khamas were so much revered and when they died people could not believe it. The death of Tshekedi remains a sore part in the memories of my people of Pilikwe where I grew up listening to the song, "Pelo tsa rona, di utwa bothoko hare gopola Tshekedi Khama." He was a true hero, no only in Gammangwato but in the world as a whole having outclassed most of his African contemporaries. His funeral in Serowe is said to have also attracted more than twenty thousand mourners.
Although different religions teach us that death is a friend, many of us find it hard to embrace that friend. We wallow deep in mourning when somebody we love dies and when the dead person is a public figure, more often than not a public funeral is planned leading to a very public show of grief.
Despite the fact that Biblical figures like David had embraced their mortality as shown in his 23rd Psalm when he said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; I will fear no evil for though art with me," (Authorized Version) he was most certainly mourned like the other kings of old where by mourners would tear their clothes, wear sacks, shave, and cast soil upon their heads. Although this kind of excessive mourning was later shunned during the times of Christ, up to this day, people can never cope with death especially when it involves a large-than-life figure. I remember as a young boy, my grandmother and other adults telling me that when somebody great dies a meteorite called Sedumedi lands on the earth with an awesome sound. I can swear that I never heard the 'bang' made by Sedumedi when Princess Diana and Michael Jackson died but I have learnt to accept that death is a certainty and we mere mortals are just waiting to be thrown into deep morning when one of the greats dies.
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