AFRICANEWS

Malawi

AIDS has a silver lining

HIV/AIDS

Malawi is one country that has been devastated by the AIDS pandemic which now threatens the country's economic future. But amidst this gloom, some people like the coffin-makers can afford to smile

As the government and non governmental organisations are worried with the current high death rate in Malawi arising mainly due to the HIV/Aids pandemic, the funeral industry is booming in the main urban centres, turning into those involved it into wealthy people to the disappointment of some cross-sections of the society.

Nedson Chanache, proprietor of Chanachje Coffin Workshop attributes the flourishing of coffin making business in Malawi's second city of Blantyre to the devastation caused by HIV/Aids on human life. Chanache, who has been in the business for over two decades, remembers that his father used to make one coffin a week before the deadly virus infiltrated into the country in the late eighties. "Now we are selling about 20 or 30 coffins a day - that is only in town. But we have got branches... so in total we are selling almost 50 per day," says Chanache. The death rate is rising in Malawi, and there is little doubt as to what is behind it - AIDS. It is not surprising therefore that the coffin market has become competitive and is a lucrative business. National Aids Control Programme (NACP) official data indicates that one million Malawians out of the total population of 11 million are HIV positive. Last year about 70,000 people died of AIDS related illnesses.

This figure is taking its toll on those left behind in all sorts of ways. While the funeral industry has given opportunity to coffin makers to cash on the HIV pandemic, a look at the price list for the coffins reveals how hard the cost of death hits an ordinary Malawian family. The basic varnished coffin costs about US$29, while one with Formica makes bereaved families part away with US$60. Those who feel that the deceased family members deserve high respect go for executive coffins currently going at US$145. The wealthiest in Malawi especially senior politicians and cabinet ministers go for steel caskets that are as high as US$2, 230.

Whereas in the not too distant past, coffins could only be seen when death occurred, today they are displayed in coffin shops. Advertising coffins is a departure from tradition since death is not meant to be an opportunity for financial gain. But the coffin makers maintain that they are only providing a service that is not readily available. Considering the average monthly salary is just US$25, the prices are far from affordable. Somehow the money is scraped together. The wealthy pay up .The richer members of families are often leaned upon to provide funds.

Reverend Daniel Kunya a Presbyterian Church minister is worried that people are making money out of the rising death rate. Richard Chimombo, an employee with one of the commercial banks in the capital Lilongwe, estimates that he spent in the region of US$850 on burials last year. He sometimes has to find the funds outside working hours.

"I remember having to borrow money from friends," he says, " I remember one night going around where I collected about US$150, dropped home, and everybody was literally waiting for me, because I am the man with the money." When an employee of a statutory body or government ministry dies, in most cases the employer pays for the coffin as part of its contribution to funeral expenses. Otherwise the bereaved family has to find ways and means of paying for it. Wooden coffins are widely used and generally accepted as very suitable.

In traditional set up, normally there is no association with economic or commercial interests arising from death in the community. Financial rewards are not a prime consideration since death has a heavy spiritual explanation. People by and large feel obliged to give freely towards funeral expenses of a funeral. Selected people go in the traditional community and ask for any type of contribution, be it in cash or kind, such as maize flour. In the contemporary Malawian urban areas and other cosmopolitan centres, a number of these traditional valuable aspects, however helpful, cannot function and have therefore necessitated adaptation and change. In the urban setting, uprooted from the familiar context of the village, no such community support from an affluent and money oriented society can be taken for granted. The cost that death can incur means that sometimes sick people are not visited in hospital. Friends and relatives are scared that they could be lumbered with dealing with the funeral after that person has died. If no one comes forward to claim the body - the state has to conduct the burial. But that is not the only burden the state has to bare. Malawian economist Desmond Phiri, director of Aggrey Memorial College says that in a country struggling to develop economically, the rising death rate due to AIDS is holding that development back. "We have lost professionals such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, nurses, and all sorts of people who are still in their prime... And the work that should be done is not being done,” he says. Phiri estimates that between 10 percent and 15 percent of the able bodied population are not available for work. The high funeral costs have led to allegations that some people are cashing in on this national tragedy. Reverend Daniel Kunya says "people have gone into businesses which are not good morally... they are taking advantage that more people are dying."

But Nedson Chanache brushes aside such allegations. His priority, he says, is serving the nation – not making a profit.  He contends that he and his father has been in the coffin making business even before the HIV/Aids epidemic broke out. In the wake of the unprecedented increase in per capita deaths Chanache Coffin Workshop and Joinery - has embarked on an ambitious programme to set up a private mortuary. Richard Chanache, Managing Director of the company, said the mortuary is being constructed near Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital or QECH, Malawi's major referral hospital in Blantyre.

"We expect to start operating towards the end of next year. Installation of cooling systems will have been done by then," he said

Construction of the mortuary started early September 2000 and is to be completed by mid 2001. The news of the new mortuary comes amid concerns that the only morgue in the city at the QECH is inundated by an influx of dead bodies. Blessings Kotokwa, a mortuary attendant at the hospital, said the mortuary has the capacity of 20 bodies. "But nowadays we sometimes get an average of as many as 30 bodies a day," he added.

The situation makes the hospital to encourage relatives of deceased bodies not to keep bodies in the mortuary overnight.

Kotokwa said it becomes difficult when dealing with bodies of unclaimed people brought to the morgue by police as a result of road accidents or sudden deaths of visitors to the city, victims of mob justice or mad people. Chanache said new mortuary would have the capacity to accommodate 20 corpses at one go. It will have two rooms for washing the bodies, an embalming room, post-mortem facilities, and a chapel to take between 50 to 60 people. The morgue will cater for patients from both state-run and private hospitals.

Chanache, however, kept the cost of the project close to the chest, saying at the rate the Malawi currency, the Kwacha, was weakening, the final cost would be difficult to predictable. An earlier attempt by a group of businesspeople and charity organisations to construct a mortuary to accommodate 100 corpses in Blantyre has since hit a blank wall.

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