At dawn, 65-year-old Nelly Mutandwa swapped her pajamas for leggings, a T-shirt, and sneakers. She grabbed a bottle of water before heading to an unconventional workout spot: a cemetery in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare. Surrounded by rows of graves, she joined other members of the Commandos Fitness Club in an hourlong session of squats, lunges, and stretches as upbeat music blared. For Mutandwa, the daily routine is more than exercise—it's her lifeline in managing diabetes. With limited fitness facilities such as gyms in their neighborhoods, older Zimbabweans are exercising wherever they can to combat Africa's growing problem of noncommunicable diseases like heart problems, high blood pressure, and diabetes, per the AP. Other groups exercise along highways or disused railway lines.
Noncommunicable diseases currently account for about 40% of deaths annually in Zimbabwe, according to its Ministry of Health and Child Care. In Zimbabwe and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, noncommunicable diseases are set to overtake communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and cholera as the leading cause of death or illness by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. Previously associated with older people, noncommunicable diseases are increasingly spreading to children and young adults due to smoking, frequent alcohol use, unhealthy diets, and lack of physical activity. This has sparked huge concern among experts and governments on a continent that's experiencing the world's fastest population growth and is home to its youngest population.
The Commandos Fitness Club is coached by Joseph Nekati, whose mother's stroke in 2023 inspired him to help others. The free club has become a sanctuary for older fitness buffs, with eight of the club's roughly 20 members being older people, per Nekati. Mutandwa said she picked up the habit of power walks when she visited her daughter in the UK in 2022. She decided to try it back home in Zimbabwe, but the roads in her township were potholed and crowded. She went for solo walks on a nearby hill, but she felt unsafe. Last year, she noticed the fitness club in the cemetery, which has since come to symbolize to Mutandwa and others a quest to live healthier and outpace death. "They are resting," Mutandwa said during a recent workout, pointing to the graves. "I just don't want to join them yet. That means I have to do the hard work here." More here.
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