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By Masimba Mukichi

I would want to think that the mentioning of donating one’s organs after death sends shudders down the spines of many Africans. I am equally convinced that if one tells the immediate family about his or her intention to donate organs upon death – the relatives will disown him or her, they will call him or her all sorts of names. The way we value and respect the dead make us shy away from discussing about donating our organs in the event of death. The fear of the avenging spirits and the ancestral spirits make us resent donating organs. The question remains, if we don’t donate organs who therefore shall donate organs to us?

Any Family member who advocates for the donation of vital organs would be labeled a social misfit, a witch or a wizard and a person of vile thoughts by the kith and kin – the community too would shun such a social deviant. No matter how much we detest donating vital organs – the facts on the ground are that many African patients who need organ transplants took long time to find a donor and a match than our white counterparts. Our conservative ideas of fearing the unknown when it comes to donating organs makes it harder for us to find donors. Only individuals and family members who have benefited from organ transplants can see why it very important to give the gift of life through donating organs upon death.

Those Africans who might think itstaboo to donate organs, I can understand why they think so, but hang on a minute, before they rubbish the idea they should have a moment of reflection on how many lives which had been saved by organ transplants? Whilst they feel it’s un-African to donate organs I also feel that it is un- African not to save life – so a balance should be struck here. The African culture believes in the sanctity of life – it should also believe in the sanctity of saving lives through organ donation. After all the parts to be donated would be of someone who would have passed on peacefully – on the other hand there is this young girl on the hospital bed in pain craving for a donor to donate a kidney to save her life. I feel it would be humane to donate the kidney to the young girl – A sad moment of one family may bring a smile to the other family receiving the kidney rather than losing two human beings at once.

It is high time as Africans to take a hard look at some of our beliefs regarding donating organs of our kith and kin who would have passed on. Those who live in Wales it is now normal procedure that everyone is a donor unless you opt out. In my view, I feel it is a noble idea which needs to be emulated by African policy makers in Africa and the world at large. This idea will limit waiting times for patience to find a matching donor.

The idea is food for thought to us as Africans. It’s either we change our beliefs and embrace the idea of donating organs as a gift of life or we stick to our beliefs and say let’s just die and die in large numbers without these organ transplants – we need a mentality shake up and embrace reality so that we may give hope to the frail, who desperately need organ transplants.

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