Laid to rest in a tortoise

When you depart this earth, would you make your final journey in a giant chicken, fish, tortoise or hammer?
Enough people would choose them which makes novelty-coffin maker Eric Adjetey Anang and his apprentices very busy men.

Anang is the third generation of his family to run Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop, making novelty coffins in just about any shapeu00a0-- from cars to pigs to snails to pianos.

Their coffins have become so popular that Anang says he has made between 200 and 300 so far this yearu00a0-- for Ghanaians, for export to countries including the United States, Canada, Belgium, Spain and South Korea.

Anang said the business was started by his grandfather Seth Kane Kwei in the 1950s, almost by accident. He made palanquins, that were used to carry tribal chiefs at traditional festivals. One chief, who had ordered a palanquin shaped as a cocoa pod, died unexpectedly before the festival, so he was buried in the palanquin instead.

Anang said, "Soon after that my great grandmother died. She was always dreaming of travel, but she never got a chance to do it, so my grandfather made her an airplane [coffin] so she could travel after death."

Describing the stories behind some of the coffins, Anang said, "Some of the designs are very symbolic, such as a chief or lawyer might have a tortoise or snail because they move slowly but always get to their destination."


Other coffins Anang has made include a gas pump, a pen and notebook for a teacher and an eagle for a tribal chief.u00a0

300
The number of coffins that Anang has created this year alone