“Any box used to bury the dead in is a coffin,” says Wikipedia. Coffins are never intended to be just another items of relaxation like sofas or even beds. But some people do not see them like that. Coffins, to them, are just items of wood and it does not matter at all if the tired takes a nap in them. Whether they are called coffins (their original name) or caskets (originally a box for jewelry), these boxes for the dead, to those who make them, are cool means of livelihood, as well as for rest, while waiting for customers.ALL over the world, irrespective of social class or educational status, not many people ever want to have anything to do with the dead. It is not uncommon to see people distance themselves from any object associated with the dead.
However, a few others have made the business of taking care of the dead and preparing them for interment their chosen careers. And they do not only succeed in putting food on the table, they often pass such careers on to their offspring.
Yet, different generations of people all over the world seem to have woven the air of mystery and myth round the activities of undertakers, especially as regards their endless touching of corpses, making of coffins, as well as other activities associated with funerals.
For instance, it is believed in some quarters that coffin makers and sellers sleep in coffins as a form of ritual that goes with the demands of their chosen career. Others believe that for every stage of having a contact with the dead, certain words must be muttered because of the spiritual implication of touching the remains of people or any object associated with the dead, especially coffins. Some even see coffin makers and sellers (as well as undertakers in general) as people who must be avoided at all cost, while some people would even offer some words of prayers or make the sign of the crucifix on sighting a corpse or coffin.
Hence, it is not uncommon to hear people sing a popular Yoruba song that says ‘Won o tori mi ra’ja lodo baba oniposi...’ which means ‘no one has gone to buy a coffin from a coffin seller because of me’.
However, with a view to finding answers to some of these issues, Saturday Tribune paid a visit to Odulami Street at the CMS area of Lagos Island, which is widely regarded as the home of casket sellers and undertakers in Lagos State.
Saturday Tribune’s first port of call was Kafsan Casket located at number 31, Odulami Street, where the manager of the funeral planning outfit, Prince Adeniran Sanni, gave an insight into the world of undertakers. According to him, many of the myths woven around the business should be discarded outright.
He disclosed that there was nothing unusual about them or their business, saying that on the contrary, they were always sympathetic to the plight of the bereaved.
“I could have ended up being a ticketing officer for a certain company, but I chose this profession because I was practically born into it. It is a job I love and enjoy. People call us undertakers, but I call us practising sympathetic undertakers, because we share the sorrow and the pains of those who have lost their loved ones.
“This is a career that helps us to take care of the sorrows and sadness of the bereaved. It goes on to tell us all that life is really nothing, and also that death is just a part of the phase of life. We all came here and one day, we will go back. It is a certainty that we will all die someday,” said Sanni, who claimed to have been in the business for 25 years.
When asked if it was true that coffin sellers usually sleep in coffins, especially as a form of ritual associated with their profession, Sanni said, “Yes, we usually sleep in caskets as a way of telling people that there’s nothing to it. I do it too, but I assure you there is no ritual or spiritual connection to it. It is just of way of showing that coffins come from the same source as beds and furniture. If you can sleep on a wooden bed or rest on a piece of furniture, then there should be no strange feeling attached to sleeping in a coffin.”
He further noted that in his workshop, it was not unusual to find toddlers playing and sometimes sleeping inside coffins.
“If there was anything wrong in doing so, I would not do it or allow it,” he stated.
Going down memory lane, he disclosed that the pioneer of Kafsan Casket, Mrs Kafilat Sanni, because of fewer automobiles available in the 70s, was known to carry coffins on her head right from her workshop on the Island to the doorsteps of whoever needed them. This, according to Sanni, was the woman’s way of showing that there was nothing to coffin as many people believed.
This view was also corroborated by another coffin seller and funeral planner, Mr Taiwo Dawudu, one of the managers of Time Limited Funeral Undertakers, at number 49, Odunlami Street.
Dawodu, who has also been in the business for close to three decades, maintained that if there was nobody to do the job of taking care of the dead, it would mean that the dead would be treated with utmost disdain and sent to their eternal journey without any honour.
“If one has the means, there is nothing one does for the dead as a mark of honour that is too much. Our job as undertakers is to ensure that the dead receive a befitting funeral,” he said.
Dawodu, who also earns a living as a dresser and beautician of corpses, said it was not uncommon for undertakers to sleep in caskets. Like Sanni, he also insisted that the act of sleeping in coffins had no spiritual or ritual dimension attached to it, but that rather, it was to show that coffins were just items made from wood.
“Contrary to what some people might be saying, we don’t make juju in order to sell coffins and it would be wrong for us to pray for people to die. We don’t need to do these, because death is a passage through which all men must go. Therefore, as long as this remains true, we will never be out of business.
“The same principle is applicable to lawyers or medical doctors who don’t have to pray or do rituals for people to have court cases or fall sick. These things will always be with us they are part of life,” Sanni remarked when asked if it was true that coffin sellers usually pray or make juju for people to die so that they could sell more coffins.
“This business is not a boutique business where people rush in to buy clothes. There are times when in two to three weeks, we may not make any sales at all; but at times within one week, we might sell up to three coffins. It is like a pendulum that is ever swinging. When it swings to us, we will grab the opportunity it offers,” Sanni remarked.
Saturday Tribune gathered that depending on the type and where they come from, coffin prices at Odunlami Street range between N35,000 and above.
Though the profession is predominantly run by men, who usually act as pall bearers and band men, women also have a place in it, as they often act as flower girls, dancers or decorators.
A quotation given to Saturday Tribune by Mr Dawodu showed that locally made caskets with different grades of fittings could cost as much as N70,000 and N120,000, and, depending on the distance, especially between Lagos and other neighbouring towns, getting pall bearers and band boys also attracts different costs.
For instance, it could cost N25,000 to employ the services of a group of six professional pall bearers for a funeral to be held anywhere in Lagos, but it is N30,000 when it involves travelling to a place like Ijebu-Ode. Also, getting the services of a full set of horns men (trumpeters and drummers) will cost N25,000 and N30,000 for an event to be held in Lagos and Ijebu-Ode respectively. The same applies to hearses, which are hired for between N15,000 and N200,000 – depending on the brand of vehicles.
“It is a great privilege to give a befitting burial to our loved ones who are no more. Not all dead people have this kind of privilege. Our job as undertakers is to ensure that the dead are given a befitting journey to their final resting place,” Dawodu said.
In his own remarks, a cleric in one of the pentecostal churches in Lagos, Pastor David Fasunwo, said that God was not against any activity done in honour of the dead, but that no amount of money spent would change the ultimate destination of the dead. More emphasis, he said, should be placed on ensuring that people are treated well when alive.
“If you are spending millions in honour of the dead, there is nothing wrong in it, but it must be noted that no amount of money can help the dead where they are. Instead of tearing up our cheque books to take care of the dead, more emphasis should be placed on taking care of people when they are still with us and showing them the right path to follow. It makes no sense to neglect people when they are still here with us, only to spend millions of naira on them when they are no more,” he declared.
Tribune
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