Young African Men and Suicide: An Overview with Special Reference to Spirituality and Social Change

This chapter unravels the complications of suicide. It focuses on the young African men but specifically drawing examples from Zimbabwe, my home country. The alarming numbers of young men who commit suicide deserve attention. While both the Shona (dominant ethnic group) and most churches demonise and spiritualise the act of committing suicide, further probing and analysis will do justice to shed light from a multifaceted approach. My argument is that the demonisation and spiritualisation of suicide is a manifestation of one of the dimensions of underrating the multiple and complex factors that cause suicide. Mental health issues are underrated in Zimbabwe and generalisable in most parts of Africa. The absence of proper health facilities, counselling services and moral support in contexts of deprivation, poverty, collapsed health system and other auxiliary factors all bundle to create crises that might lead to individuals committing suicide. More often, glossed over in families, society and worse, not given due attention and recognition within the health sector since medical personnel are also largely influenced by their religious and cultural environment.