Fantasy coffin

The fantasy or figurative coffins from Ghana, in Europe also called custom, fantastic, or proverbial coffins (abebuu adekai), are functional coffins made by specialized carpenters in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. These colourful objects which have developed out of the figurative palanquins are not only coffins, but considered real works of art, 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 (1922–1992) and by his former assistant Paa Joe (b.1947). Since then, these art coffins of Kane Kwei, his grandson Eric Adjetey Anang, Paa Joe, Daniel Mensah (Hello), Kudjoe Affutu and other artists have been displayed in many international art museums and galleries around the world.

The reason that mainly the southern Ghana-based Ga people use such elaborate coffins for their funerals is explained by their religious beliefs regarding the afterlife. They believe that death is not the end and that life continues in the next world in the same way it did on earth. Ancestors are also thought to be much more powerful than the living and able to influence their relatives who are still alive. This is why families do everything they can to ensure that a dead person is sympathetic towards them as early as possible. The social status of the deceased depends primarily on the importance, success and usage of an exclusive coffin during a burial.

Fantasy coffins are only seen on the day of the burial when they are buried with the deceased. They often symbolise the dead people’s professions. Certain shapes, such as a sword or stool coffin, represent regal or priestly insignia with a magical and religious function. Only people with the appropriate status are allowed to be buried in these types of coffins. Various animals, such as lions, cockerels and crabs can represent clan totems. Similarly, only the heads of the families concerned are permitted to be buried in coffins such as these. Many coffin shapes also evoke proverbs, which are interpreted in different ways by the Ga. That is why these coffins are also called proverbial coffins (abebuu adekai) or in the Ga language "okadi adekai".

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Wikipedia