The fantasy or figurative coffins from Ghana, also called ‘abebuu adekai’ in the Ga language, meaning proverbial boxes, or coffins are real coffins made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana.
In Ghana, a funeral is a celebration as well as a time of sadness. Family members collect, borrow, and donate money to send their loved ones off to the afterlife in style. It is said that funerals can cost up to a year’s salary.
The fantasy coffin developed out of the figurative palanquins are considered real works of art and were shown for the first time to a wider Western public in the exhibition ‘Les Magiciens de la Terre’ at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1989.
The seven coffins which were exposed in Paris were done by Kane Kwei and by his former assistant Paa Joe.
After Kwei’s death in 1992, Paa Joe has continued the business which has earned him recognition in many international art museums and galleries around the world.
In 2014, a coffin in the shape of a Porsche made by Paa Joe set a record for abebuu adekai at London auction house Bonhams when it sold for $9,200.
Paa Joe says his caskets also have very practical elements to their design.
The shapes he carves represent the professions and careers of the deceased and so could be made into sailing ships for sailors, airplanes for pilots, tanks for soldiers, or fish for fishermen.
His large body of work also includes coca-cola bottles, chickens, cars, and even a lion.
Other coffin makers in the Greater Accra region have made coffin-sized replicas of hairdryers for hairdressers, bottles of whisky for bartenders, and even a giant talcum powder bottle called ‘Paradis’.
Paa Joe says the coffins are traditionally displayed with the deceased inside them before the burial and stand as a celebration of the departed’s life.
Over the years Joe’s caskets have been bought by US presidents, exhibited in art galleries around the world, and photographed regularly making Paa Joe one of the most renowned coffin makers in the world.
As a result, museums have commissioned him to make specific pieces whilst Ghanaians continue to come to him to bury their loved ones.
Some of Paa Joe’s creations were exhibited at the Shika Shika art fair that was part of the two-week-long annual Chale Wote street festival being held this month in Accra.
“So these kinds of things, if you go for a funeral and you see it displayed, you might think it’s a joke but it isn’t a joke. It isn’t a joke at all because it represents your profession and you must leave with the same, hence the reason it will be used to bury you in. So when you go to the funeral you might think it’s a joke but the deceased is inside this coffin,” said Paa Joe.
