When Papa Mukendi started his business in 2002, the Democratic Republic of Congo was experiencing one of the bloodiest peaks of its more than two-decade-long war.
"There have been moments when the work has multiplied, and we've had to hire more staff," he says.
For this country's misfortune is his fortune. After all, if there is an industry that prospers in Goma, it is death. And Mukendi's speciality is coloured coffins.
When business is good, Mukendi sells three a week. When the conflict calms down, days can pass without a sale.
He used to make more money, he says, when he was the only one to envelop the dead in felt and wood. But as the conflict drew on, many carpenters reinvented themselves as coffin makers. For in this land soaked with the blood of the more than 5.4 million killed since 1998, coffins, not furniture, are the luxury on which people will spend their limited money.
"When there's conflict or a plane crashes, I sell a lot more. I don't like war, but if it comes I take advantage. It is work, and I welcome it," laughs Mukendi. Full story...
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"There have been moments when the work has multiplied, and we've had to hire more staff," he says.
For this country's misfortune is his fortune. After all, if there is an industry that prospers in Goma, it is death. And Mukendi's speciality is coloured coffins.
When business is good, Mukendi sells three a week. When the conflict calms down, days can pass without a sale.
He used to make more money, he says, when he was the only one to envelop the dead in felt and wood. But as the conflict drew on, many carpenters reinvented themselves as coffin makers. For in this land soaked with the blood of the more than 5.4 million killed since 1998, coffins, not furniture, are the luxury on which people will spend their limited money.
"When there's conflict or a plane crashes, I sell a lot more. I don't like war, but if it comes I take advantage. It is work, and I welcome it," laughs Mukendi. Full story...
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- Congo's coltan war: how the West can help...
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