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Saturday 29 August 2015

Fast Death


Khulu Reinfirst Manyuka, a 73-year-old Zimbabwean man, starved to death in an attempt to emulate Jesus's 40-day fast as recorded in the bible. He left his family and home on June 15 and went on a solo sojourn, only for his remains to be found about a month later by a stranger who then alerted the police. While he was obviously starving, he most likely succumbed to dehydration since he may have been attempting a dry fast in which no water is also consumed.
The bible story does not exactly state if Jesus also went without water in his fast.It would be hard to feel sorry for this man. He may have called himself Jesus (he was popularly known as Jesus of Zimbabwe) but I do not believe he was mentally ill. He simply attempted a very foolish venture which his aged body could not handle. Religious persons the world over believe absurdities, and commit atrocities all in the name of their religion, deity, or at the behest of those who claim to have some form of authority, so Mr Manyuka's behaviour is not exactly far from this purview.
In the illustration above, by Simon Bening, where Jesus was purportedly being asked by the devil to turn stone into bread, if Jesus did indeed walk upon this earth and then fasted for 40 days, the poor, starving bugger may have been hallucinating from severe hunger and dehydration, and must have been in such need of food he saw someone he claimed to be the devil offer him stone instead of bread. Mr 'Jesus' Manyuka may have had this same hallucination just before he died, only there were no angels to minister to him like the Jesus of the bible had. The only person who saw him met his corpse. I hope he goes to heaven where a mansion and an eternity of sumptuous banquets await him.



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