death and its dependants ........cofffin makers

Death is one of those things that you cannot control. The best you can do is probably delay it. Apparently the theory of life is once you are born, death sits patiently at your door waiting for its time.

 Well of course we all do not agree on its patience. Some people are born today and they meet their maker on the same day in such a circumstance I cannot say death exercised patience.

So, one of those days I decided to walk I came by a woman who was inconsolable. She was trying to buy a coffin to bury her beloved and the awkward part of the scenario was the coffin sales-man consoling her.

A strange thought hit me; poor guy has to be both a marketer and a sympathiser. He has to make sales to feed his family of five and also be a sympathiser as I later found out.

 So that is what gave me an interest in trying to understand people who depend on death as a source of livelihood.

There are a number of people who contribute to making the passing on to another life more honourable and treat it with respect. They include coffin makers, funeral services, crematoriums, morticians, undertakers, and minor groups like florists, bookmakers, catering services, book makers, photographers and videographers. Just to mention but a few.

 First we look at the coffin makers. I interviewed a Mr. Mukasa who does both coffin making and marketing. According to Mr. Mukasa he was just a regular farmer trying to make ends meet but with challenges like pests and diseases, poor yields, the ever changing climate and also the unreasonable prices for their produce he had to resort to something else that would give him enough income to feed his family, pay school fees, medical bills and so forth.

Mr. Mukasa averagely sells between one to five coffins in a good week and some weeks there are on sales at all.

He like any other business man faces challenges.

 The first being coffin pricing, he has to set a price that enables him to make a bit of profit and also should not aggravate the griever. Coffin prices depend on the size of the person and length. Child coffins minimally cost 70k,and the prices vary with the quality of the wood and coffin used and the furnishings added to the coffin. Adult coffins on the other hand also minimally cost 140k. (The prices vary for every coffin maker.)

The second challenge is the price of timber, the cost of timber keeps rising and there isn’t much anyone can do as the demand for the timber is more than the supply. So, picture yourself explaining to a bereaved person that the coffin price is high because timber costs  have shot up. You would look very unsympathetic.

The biggest challenge is the coming of funeral services. The clientele has tremendously moved towards funeral services as they offer a lot more than just the coffin.  So most people prefer to go to one place where all the burial arrangements can be handled at once.

The other challenge is internal completion. Mr. Mukasa is in an area where they are about 5 workshops all dealing in coffin making and sales so everybody has to convince the customer that their coffins are the best, without pressuring the customer to remind them that they have indeed lost a loved one.

About a decade ago, it was up to the bereaved to cushion the coffin. These days if you plan to get ahead of the pack adding cushioning to the coffin is an extra incentive to get your coffins bought. So Mr. Mukasa has to do this to boost sales.

Of course the coffin industry is not all challenges.  Mr. Mukasa has been able to take all his five children to school and pay their fees on time. The farm he once abandoned is now where he gets supplementary income.  Also form the proceeds Mrs. Mukasa has been able to start a poultry project.

 He hopes that in the next five years he would have partnered with one of the many up and coming funeral services to supply them with coffins. 

He also plans to acquire knowledge on the making of the modern coffins to make him marketable to upscale clients. He also hopes to have started work on a house for his family and to expand his wife’s poultry project.