Godmark Graveyard furniture..morbid but interesting!

There is a place in town that makes coffins and wooden crosses. It is aptly named ‘Godmark Graveyard Furniture’. It is owned by two Moshi businessmen. One happens to be our contractor , Lucas, who oversaw the renovations on the new women’s centre and the other is a man named Macmillan who owns a neat little ‘pub’ in our neighbourhood called, you guessed it, ‘Macmillans’…more on Macmillan’s in another blog entry.
Macmillan has told me the whole story the other evening and it was so interesting that I wanted to share it. Normally when someone dies in Kilimanjaro, the home of the Chagga people, the funeral arrangements, including the making of the coffin, historically happens the same day. The tradition and belief is that no one wants to make a coffin for someone who is not dead yet so as to not conjure up bad omens and spirits and perhaps ‘force their death’. A number of years ago, Lucas and Macmillan decided to bring a new service to Moshi, they were going to produce , ‘ready made’ coffins available for sale to the public (ie. To the families of people who had just died). They named their company ‘Godmark Graveyard Furniture’ and initially made the coffins at Macmillans house where the pub is now situated. After some time, they needed to expand into new space and looked high and low for a good location that was the right size but no one would rent to them in town. It would seem that having anything to do with making coffins ahead of time was very much frowned upon. Macmillan found that friends were getting cautious about having him buy them a beer or visiting his house…they did not like the idea of fraternizing with someone who was planning for other people to die (even though that is something that will happen to all of us and happens at a rapid pace here in Moshi due to the lack of access to reliable health care). Macmillan eventually found a location that would rent to them. By that time they had multiple sizes available for sale right off the shelf. Once they found a new location and shifted the business there they needed to hire a salesperson to be around at the new shop. The first young enthusiastic woman they hired was quite pleased with her new job but upon returning home, she was told by her parents that she would need to quit that job immediately. Too many bad omens….
Macmillan eventually found someone who would work with them and the business has slowly grown and found a place in Moshi. Yes, people do like the convenience. I actually noticed that on the KCMC road there is several ‘pre-made’ coffin shops that have arisen…maybe Macmillan and Lucas’ idea wasn’t so bad after all.