Departing in Style (3): Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins
Halloween and the Day of the Dead are just around the corner.So I thought maybe I’ll bring you a feature that relates to the dead. And what else could be the most tangible thing we associate with the dead – coffins! This week I bring you a special feature called “Departing in Style”. We look into the most curious and creative coffins in the market today.
Today,I feature “Ghana’s Fantasy Coffins”.Yes, they can custom-shape a coffin to the specs of a client’s imagination, no kidding!
GHANA’s FANTASY COFFINS
from Huffington Post
On the dusty, noisy, chicken-crossing streets outside Accra, the capital of the English-speaking West African country of Ghana, a tribe called the Ga is making its name in the business of coffins.
The coffins come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from cars to Coke bottles and cell phones. A Ghanian funeral is no small affair, and many families wish to bury their deceased loved ones in something that reflects their life and trade.
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| A Coffin Showroom in Ghana Image Source |
The BBC reports that Ghana’s “Fantasy Coffins,” as the business has come to be known, is a relatively new tradition. About 50 years ago, as the story goes, one Ata Owoo was well-known for making magnificent chairs to transport the village chief on poles or the shoulders of minions. When Owoo had finished one particularly elaborate creation, an eagle, a neighboring chief wanted one too, this time in the shape of a cocoa pod, a major crop in Ghana. However, the chief next door died before the bean was finished, and so it became his coffin. Thus, a tradition was born.
Today, tourists flock to the Accra suburb of Teshie to marvel at the coffin makers open-air showrooms. Tour guides, hired in Accra, can take visitors to the coffin showrooms on request. The coffins are also on display at various museums around the world, like Houston’s National Museum of Funeral History.
Fabulous or macabre? You decide!
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The Coca Cola coffin above
makes me think of the star of
The Gods Must Be Crazy, wouldn’t it be perfect for him? Image Source |
Here are some more photos from BBC
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BIRD
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GHANA AIRWAYS
Watch Ghana’s Coffin Art
on YouTube
This saw coffin was made for a carpenter. How fitting indeed!
DAILY DOSE OF ART 
i love what Ghanians do