Posted on 01/29/2005 10:56:13 AM PST by ijcr
Even Ghana's director of tourism may have to admit that Accra has its work cut out competing with other tourist destinations in Africa. Yet just outside the capital, is the suburb of Teshi and it is here that tourists are coming to look at a relatively new tradition - the fantasy coffin makers.
Drive slowly down the main high street in Teshi, Eastern Accra, and you would probably glance at showrooms and wonder why anyone would want to exhibit a large red fish, or an oversized hammer.
It is as if you have arrived at some strange storage area for a local drama group or even film set.
But, further into town, you will see another couple of "film set" workshops, and another, and goodness, is that really an aeroplane?
On closer inspection each of these objects turns out to be a wooden casket highly crafted and lovingly finished to transport the newly deceased on their journey to the afterlife.
Many of their clients want to bury loved ones in something that reflects their trade - even if that means being buried in a Coca-Cola bottle Isaac Adjetey Sowah is the manager of the family business his grandfather started.
And at only 22 he has seen it all and he has made it all.
Coffins crafted as hammers, fish, cars, mobile phones, hens, roosters, leopards, lions, canoes, cocoa beans and several elephants.
It seems there is nothing Isaac's company would not consider.
Mercedes and Cadillacs are very popular he tells me.
'Dignity and status'
But if the designs are fanciful, the business of death is taken very seriously indeed.
And the final journey on this earth has to be marked with as much dignity and status as can be mustered.
Isaac and his team of carpenters work with many different types of wood in the open-air workshop.
One employee is crafting a cocoa bean, another is chiselling the fine details of a complicated pineapple design.
Many of their clients want to bury loved ones in something that reflects their trade.
Perhaps surprisingly, this is a new tradition. It has only been around for about 50 years.
The story goes that in the first half of last century 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 neighbouring 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.
Then in 1951, the grandmother of one of Owoo's apprentices died.
She had never been in an aeroplane, so he built her one for her funeral.And a tradition was born.
Popular designs
When I asked Isaac about his most unusual commission his eyes light up and a big grin envelopes his face.
A Bible coffin, starting at around $400, might represent a year's salary for many of Isaac's clients
"Oh," he says, "An angel, a big white angel".
Now it seems he cannot wait to craft the archangel Gabriel himself.
But for those wanting something more conventional, there is always the Bible coffin which remains a popular design.
Think of a large box in the shape of a leather bound book with the front cover on hinges, and you get the idea.
It became a bit of a challenge to guess how each of these coffins actually opens.
To my untrained eye, I had no idea how you would get a body into an enormous snail that would not have looked out of place on the film set of "Dr Dolittle".
Isaac gently explained that the shell came off.
And I felt even more foolish when I had to ask who it was for. A snail seller, of course.
You can buy large fat specimens any day of the week in the market.
And that enormous biro?
A journalist of course. I was beginning to get the hang of this.
But even in death there are often disputes.
One part of the family will come along and decide that the canoe another family member ordered, just is not right for uncle Jo.
He should have a much larger boat to represent a lifetime as a fisherman, despite the fact that Isaac's team has lovingly crafted an oarsman to row him to eternity.
Meanwhile, Uncle Jo lingers in a mortuary for a year or so while the two sides fight it out.
And what about Isaac's own casket. What would he have?
He had obviously worked this out a long time ago and decided he had made far too many hammers.
He was going to have a carpenter's plane.
And then the inevitable question.
What about me?
Well, I am hoping it is not going to be for a very long time yet, but having worked in radio for more years than I care to remember, I think it will just have to be a microphone.
that carries you off
Its the coffin
they carries you off in.
Wonder why Tupperware doesn't make coffins.
They're having trouble getting a snap-tight lid that "burps" in a resfectful manner.
Sorry, that's "respectful."
In another showroom, a polished uterus waits to be picked up by a gynaecologist.
We are actually thinking of publishing a promotional guide targeting gullible American tourists, then affixing Alex Haley's to the front cover. Of course, it would be better if Mr. Haley had not been deceased for the past thirteen years, but really, who will be the wiser? You are gullible American tourists, who will flock to our country despite the tenuous historical connections to brilliant American writers. Please, come to Gambia, you ignorant American tourists. I assure you, you will not regret the decision.
I ordered two handbags from the same company that distributes the coffins internationally. The products are unique. I rather buy a coffin in the shape of a computer than some twenty thousand dollar piece of shiny crap.
I don't know if it would ease the burden of choosing a coffin for a departed loved one, though.
Judging by my father's description-when his parents passed away-it sounded like a very creepy process.
Almost as if you were walking into a show room, but, instead of choosing a new car you were buying a casket.
How do you get those things into the hearse?
Very easy when the hearse is a Toyota pick up.
Makes me wonder what the carpenters would make for a dimocRAT?
A wacky coffin, a Jazz Marching Band and a cocktail party after.
SO9
I want to be buried in a giant suppository!!!
So9
And your choice of resting place would be?
anybody bold enough and large enough to insert a coffin sized suppository, can have my coffin! As long as my body is in a suppository, I can move on peacefully! :D
are the small ones in the front urns?
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