Inside Accra: The Craze For Fanciful Coffins

Accra is a land of many things, ranging from incredible festivals, to a complex cosmopolitan lifestyle and wonderful people. New trends ranging from fashion to arts and even food spring up all the time in the city and within no time spread to the other parts of the city like wildfire.

What then is this new craze in town?

Well we can’t exactly call it a new craze as it has been in the system for a while now and had people engaged in it over the two decades. However walking through the streets of Accra one can’t help but notice it has taken centre stage in the city.

We are talking about the ever growing fanciful coffins which line up the streets of Accra these days. Decades ago, carpenters and coffin makers used to make simple and modest coffins for the departed souls to be buried in. This has however changed drastically over the course of the decades, with the art of coffin making becoming some sort of competition among carpenters.

Instead of the normal triangular-shaped coffins, carpenters now make incredible designer coffins, designed in many unique forms; some to looks like microphones, some in the form of vehicles and so forth depending on the occupation of the deceased who is going to be buried in the coffin.

For instance it is now a common sight to see a deceased driver being buried in a coffin designed in the form of a vehicle and a preacher being buried in a coffin designed to look like a bible.

Make no mistake these customized designer coffins come at a higher cost due to the tedious work and time that go into making them. In the early days when the craze for these coffins began, they were made upon the request of families, meaning carpenters did not make them until a request come in. This has however changed as demand for them continues to sour and families visit coffin shops to purchase while on display.

The trend is not only common to Accra these days with the craze crossing boundaries and seeing other regions getting caught in the craze. Today, you are most likely to see some of these fancy coffins when you attend funerals in other regions in Ghana.

From all indication, the new trend is not one that will go away anytime soon, and that is if it ever would. If you ever find yourself in Accra, take a tour of the city and visit some coffin shops and admire the beauty and artwork that goes into making these beautiful coffins tasked with taking the departed to their final destination.