Would you rest in peace inside a bright red chilli pepper? Or enter your eternal slumber within a wooden pineapple or an oversized mobile phone? Fantasy coffins, an increasingly popular funerary tradition in Ghana, provide an outlandish alternative to austere wooden caskets.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Fantasy coffins not only add colour and beauty to Ghanaian funerals but also appear in art galleries around the world. Meanwhile, more and more curious travellers are seeking out the coffin makers of\u00a0Ghana<\/a>,<\/span> eager to meet the talented sculptors who send people to the afterlife in style\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n Known locally as abebu adekai (literally, \u2018proverb boxes\u2019), fantasy coffins are wooden and vaguely oblong, but their similarity to ordinary caskets ends there. They\u2019re works of art, inspired by animals, household objects, modes of transport and even food. Fantasy coffin makers pour years into their craft, combining carpentry skills with an eye for whimsical design.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n One of these artists is Eric Kpakpo Adotey, a husband and father of four children, who carves coffins at Erico Carpentry Workshop<\/a> in La, Greater Accra. For Eric, fantasy coffins reflect a person\u2019s talents and tastes \u2013 they help mourners reconnect with the unique individual they\u2019re bidding goodbye to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Your coffin speaks about you,\u2019 explains Eric. \u2018As soon as people see a red fish coffin, it tells them that the person is a fisherman. If they see a football boot, they know that, \u201cOh, this person is a footballer.\u201d\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Many cultures in Ghana believe that an impressive send-off can improve someone\u2019s status in their next life. The flamboyance of fantasy coffins is a way of honouring the dead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While the idea of burying Grandad in a giant shoe or plantain might seem unusual to some, fantasy coffins remind people about how their loved ones were in their prime. The more colourful the design, the more it transforms the atmosphere of a funeral, sparking memories and curious questions \u2013 an emotional power that makes coffin-making incredibly meaningful for artists like Eric.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Imagine seeing pallbearers carrying a gigantic microphone-shaped coffin. \u2018If you see a mic, it tells [people] it\u2019s a musician, you see?\u2019 says Eric. \u2018People start thinking: a musician? What kind of song [did he sing] when he was alive? It changes the atmosphere.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Compare that to a plain wooden casket, reflecting the silence of death back to you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you want to be buried in a beer bottle or a Bible, there\u2019s a chance one of Ghana\u2019s coffin makers has received that very request. Fantasy coffins are made to order, and families typically approach coffin makers with a clear idea of the casket\u2019s shape and design. Planes, boats and cars are common choices, though if you\u2019re in no hurry to meet your maker, perhaps a snail-shaped coffin would be more your speed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Many of Eric\u2019s clients request coffins shaped like canoes, fish and cocoa pods, reflecting common local occupations like fishing and farming. But eyebrow-raising requests are also part of his job \u2013 and the customer comes first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018One customer requested a snake [coffin],\u2019 recalls Eric. \u2018I don\u2019t like snakes, but because of the nature of the work and how the woman came and talked to me, I said: \u201cLet me do this for her\u201d.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Your imagination may have no limits, but there are some coffin taboos. \u2018A lion, eagle, elephant\u2026 most of them represent a chief,\u2019 explains Eric. \u2018So if you are not<\/em> a chief, you are not allowed to use such a coffin for burial.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the 1950s, fantasy coffins have grown from rare curiosities into big business. Visionary carpenter Seth Kane Kwei is credited with popularising them after he made a cocoa-pod-shaped palanquin (sedan chair) for a chief to use during a festival. When the chief died before the festival, he was buried in the cocoa pod instead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Soon after, Kane Kwei crafted a plane-shaped coffin for his grandmother, who never had the chance to take a flight. For coffin makers in Ghana, the rest is history: Kane Kwei\u2019s apprentices set about chiselling, sawing and finishing wood, until the craft of fantasy coffin-making became a fine art.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n For those who could afford them (they cost many times more than a regular coffin), fantasy coffins became increasingly popular \u2013 especially among Ghana\u2019s Ga community (in and around Accra) and spreading north and east to Ashanti land and Ewe land.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If you think it\u2019s a shame to bury these fantastical creations, many collectors agree. Fantasy coffins are snapped up by art enthusiasts (including former US President Jimmy Carter) as well as galleries: the largest collection outside of Ghana is in Houston, Texas at the National Museum of Funeral History<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Travellers are also adding fantasy coffins to their West Africa itineraries<\/a>. Visitors can pop into coffin workshops to witness the creative flurry of sawing and hammering for themselves, hear stories from carpenters like Eric, and see their obvious pride in the intricate discipline of coffin making.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018My favourite part of the work is the finish,\u2019 says Eric. \u2018When I\u2019m making a car and somebody enters the workshop and knows that this is a Toyota, or this is a Mercedes-Benz\u2026that makes me excited. I\u2019ve done exactly what they have requested.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n The ability to perfectly execute a family\u2019s wish and give them joy and consolation at a heart-rending time in their lives is its own reward. But Eric\u2019s mission goes even further: \u2018I want to take this artwork not only in the local community but [for] people to see what we can do as Ghanaians. That this is our culture. This is for Ghana.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Meet Ghana\u2019s coffin makers for yourself on Intrepid\u2019s new 15-day <\/strong>Benin, Togo & Ghana Adventure<\/strong><\/a>. Find out what else is new for 2025 with The Goods<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nMeet the coffin makers of Ghana\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nCommunicating through your coffin<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
How to commission a coffin<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
The unstoppable rise of fantasy coffins<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
From local farewells to global fascination<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n