Fitness bunny Moana was no slay queen

Until her tragic death last Sunday morning, minutes after celebrating her 26th birthday at Dreams Nightlife club, Michelle “Mimi Moana” Amuli has dominated local conversations as the public attempts to dig deeper into who she was beyond social media influence.

Moana and two foreign friends met their fate in the company of controversial businessman Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure, who also died and was buried yesterday.

Ginimbi’s Rolls-Royce they were travelling collided head-on with a Honda Fit along Borrowdale Road, Harare, as he sped back to his Domboshava home from the nightspot, which he owned.

While it could take another week from now before Moana is finally buried as the family has had to follow a lengthy deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing process to verify the remains after she was burnt beyond recognition in the crash, conflicting accounts about her life have emerged.

To her father, Ishmael, the fitness enthusiast had become a party maniac resulting in their fallout when he tried to reprimand her. But her mother, siblings and neighbours tell a different story.

Additionally, despite the public viewing her with a judgemental eye and scrutiny that the famous cannot escape, she was a “good girl” to those close to her.

“Those who know her as a celeb, they know her in that capacity, but for us, she never changed, she was friendly to everyone,” a family friend only identified as Mai Karara told Standard Style last Monday.

“This is why you see that even local peers are here because she embraced everyone even when she became successful.” However, these conflicting accounts of a young life that was on the brink of becoming very popular in the eyes of the nation have created diverse images of who really the mother of one was.

Having featured as a video vixen in a number of music videos including Jah Prayzah’s Munyaradzi, Miridzo by Freeman, Takura’s Zvemoyo and Enzo Ishall’s Mwenje, Moana was beginning to capture attention with not only her striking image but precision in carrying out her various roles.

But, the internet has also gone abuzz branding her a “slay queen”. According to the Urban Dictionary, online slay queens are: “Girls who do not have a wealthy background but appear as if they do. They use malicious acts to attain cash, drink expensive alcohol, (and) procure expensive cellphones. But back at home, she’s a chicken chaser.”

Moana was far from all this, according to her sister, Tendai, who said they had lost a pillar in their family. “Moana was a humble person, she was always happy, she was just everything,” Tendai said.

She attests that she has spent the entire time offline to avoid bumping comments badmouthing her late sibling who, apart from taking good care of her seven-year-old daughter, supported the family financially.

“I am feeling so much pain and if I start listening to social media, it will affect me,” Tendai said. However, there is no doubt that at the time of her death, Moana appeared to live lavishly and hung around the who’s who of society as even evidenced by those she died next to.

But, can the appetite for high-end life be used to put down an adult working tooth and nail to secure a good living for themselves and their family? certainly not.