Coffin in the shape of a fish

The practice of burying people in coffins has taken on a surprising, new form of expression in southern Ghana. In the 1950s, the carpenter and woodworker Samuel Kane Kwei began to make figurative, lifelike, painted coffins in the seaport town of Teshi near the capital of Accra. The form chosen for a particular coffin was generally a reflection of the deceased’s occupation: a fisherman would make a coffin in the form of a fish, a cocoa farmer would have a cocoa bean. This very local new tradition garnered international attention in magazines and, in the end, in the 1970s, it led to exhibitions (i.e. the famous ‘Les Magiciens de la terre’ in Paris, 1989) and international commissions. Kane Kwei, who died in 1992, was succeeded by his nephew Paa Joe and other assistants who started their own businesses. Teshi is still the centre of this remarkable industry.

108 x 325 x 92cm (42 1/2 x 127 15/16 x 36 1/4in.)

Source: collectie.tropenmuseum.nl