You can get buried in a baguette thanks to ‘fantasy’ coffin-maker
By Zachary Kussin, New York Post, November 15, 2019
Browse through the fantasy caskets that Paa Joe Coffin Works makes in Ghana.
a baguette
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| A Louis Vuitton purse |
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| Nike sneakers |
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| A Lion |
This puts the fun in funeral.
Near the west African city of Accra, Ghana, a workshop named Paa Joe Coffin Works crafts “fantasy” caskets that, instead of typical wooden boxes, resemble Nike sneakers, Louis Vuitton purses and African wildlife, among others.
The company’s 72-year-old founder, artist Paa Joe, tells The Post that his coffins may seem inappropriate to Americans who are more accustomed to somber affairs. But to him, they reflect differing traditions surrounding death in West Africa, he says.
“In Ghana, most dead are buried in these coffins to reflect their lives,” says Joe, who began designing his fantasy coffins in 1976. He adds the designs are a nod to the decedents’ passions or professions, and are meant to honor the lives they lived. “And during the funeral celebration, the coffin is paraded throughout the whole community.”
Although Joe’s 31-year-old son, Jacob, primarily runs the business these days, Joe still supervises the operations. In a 2016 Guardian story, Jacob elaborated on the traditions further, saying “People celebrate death in Ghana. At a funeral, we have a passion for the person leaving us — there are a lot of people, and a lot of noise.”
Joe’s Instagram account, @PaaJoeCoffins, which courts over 8,300 followers, shows some of the workshop’s most recent commissions. One, a baguette, is in the shape of a full loaf with brown and yellow patches stretching across the top. Another is in the form of an American football.
Although the caskets typically end up 6 feet under, they’re also used for artistic display. They’ve been on exhibit in Accra, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Depending on the level of detail (other commissions have included figures of naked women, Porsches and cameras) these coffins can take anywhere from five to 15 weeks to make — ordered while its future occupant is still alive. Fittingly, they’re also quite expensive at $15,000 to $20,000 a pop, depending on the details.
Joe got his start in 1960 as an apprentice for his uncle, Seth Kane Kwei, who was in the family’s second generation of making fantasy coffins. Joe spent 12 years learning the trade.
And he’s not the only Ghanaian who designs jaw-dropping coffins. A 2013 “CBS Sunday Morning” segment profiled a fantasy casket-maker in Accra named Eric Anang whose repertoire included a green-colored tilapia casket for a fisherman and a bright yellow cocoa pod for a farmer.
In the segment, Anang says it’s bittersweet to see one of his creations lowered into the ground because it means he’ll never see it again.
“I don’t really feel comfortable when I see them going under the ground,” he says.
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