EXCLUSIVE BY LUCY LAING.
IS it a bird, is it a plane......no its actually a coffin.
These are the wierd and wonderful coffins produced in Ghana, where just getting buried
in a normal oblong box isn’t good enough.
Hours of painstaking craftsmanship goes into making these unusual coffins.
Local fisherman get buried in a fish, a farmer gets buried in a huge pineapple and a
cocoa farmer in a brightly coloured cocoa pod.
But now even the Ga tribe, who live on the outskirts of Ghana and produce these
coffins, are beginning to feel the pull of modern times.
It’s a tradition which has gone back generations in their tribe - but now more and more,
the coffins are reflecting the change.
Not all people are being buried in the older traditional coffins of the hen, lions, and
snakes. Now the coffin makers are busy fashioning the camera, the biro, the coke bottle
and even the Nike trainer.
Paa Jo, now 55, who has been in his family business for more than 30 years, said: ‘We
are seeing a real change now.
‘Those with traditional occupations, such as a fisherman or farmer, still want to be
buried in the traditional caskets, but we are seeing more and more people wanting more
modern coffins, like the mobile phone or the training shoe.
‘But whatever people want to be buried in, we can make it. But people are really moving
with the times now - and thats the way they want to be buried.’
The coffins cost approx £600 and take weeks for the carpenters to create in their tiny
workshops off the crowded high street in the Ghanian suburb of Teshi.
Their showrooms look more like colourful film sets than the sombre setting of a funeral
director.
But for the Ghanian people, they want their final send off to reflect what type of person
they are. They believe that when their loved ones die they move into another life - and
they want to do so in style.
The tradition began in the first half of the previous century when local carpenters made
magnificent chairs to transport the village chiefs.
One chief then decided he wanted a chair made in the shape of a huge cocoa pod - the
major crop in Ghana. But he died before it was completed, and it became his
coffin...leading to a tradition that still lasts today.
Priests are still buried in snake coffins and tribal chiefs are buried in roosters - but now
anyone that has enjoyed modern day travel can be buried in an aeroplane - complete
with wings.
Coca cola fans can be buried in a giant coke bottle and for keen photographers, there
are huge silver cameras. One of the most popular choice however is a white Mercedes rather ironic as Ghana has just been identified as the third worst place in the world for
road traffic accidents.
Mr Jo added: ‘We have even done computer keyboards, coke bottles for those who sell
and buy fizzy drinks and we have done lots of Nike trainers, for keen footballers like
David Beckham.’
‘The trainer is also popular with other athletes too.’
A neighbouring shop owner Cedi Anong, 20, added: ‘Approximately 20 per cent of all
our business now is for modern coffins. We are doing microphones for musicians,
cameras and trainers too. And we’re expecting that figure to increase as modern
technology grows here. More and more people here are using cameras, phones and
computers.’
‘We are certainly moving with the times. But at the same time we are keeping the
traditional craft alive by modernising it.’
Often the coffin is chosen by the person before they die, but sometimes afterwards it
can cause family rifts, if they don’t think the coffin is grand enough.
One such argument was caused by a family not thinking the boat coffin that was
handcrafted to represent their relative’s life as a fisherman was big enough to represent
his whole lifetime of work.
And the coffins are not just used to bury the dead in Ghana. They are such works of art
that Mr Jo has exported them all over the world, as far as America, Australia and even
Britain. They have also featured in art exhibitions too in Los Angeles.
Mr Jo said: ‘It’s nice to hear that they are in exhibitions. Such a lot of work goes into
making them, that it really is a shame that they end up buried six feet underground.