This more recent tradition has evolved over the last century, inspired by a single family of inventive carpenters. Today, the craft of coffin-making in Accra offers unusual scope for creativity.
For Ben Kane Kwei Sowah, coffins are the family business. He started learning from his father at 18 and picked up the hammer and chisel and stepped into the shavings upon his father’s death.
“Whether you’re a carpenter or chief, your family will gather to decide on a suitable coffin for you. They ask, ‘Such a man as this, what do you think bury him in?'”
His customers insist on going out in style. KLM was the death chariot of choice for a pilot from Togo. For a fishing fleet captain from Cameroun, his own boat was good enough. Paramount chiefs rate eagles. A green onion for a farmer, a lobster for a fisherman and for a cattle herder … there’s nothing better than his bull.