Abebuu adekai chez les Ga du Ghana. Un regard anthropologique sur l’image.

Abebuu adekai – literally, “receptacles of proverbs” are known worldwide as fantasy coffins – constitute a widespread leitmotif in contemporary African art. These artefacts have rapidly achieved popularity abroad by being presented as ready-made artworks in international exhibitions, and have consequently caught the interest of the mass media. The life of the object calls to mind the processes of translation, whereby objects move from one “regime of value” to another. It also calls to mind the echo effects that such movements bear on the use of fantasy coffins among the Ga people, and at the same time it reveals the limits of a biography of things (Appadurai, Kopytoff, 1986). The emphasis placed on observing the practices of production has made it possible to examine the methods in which the image is created and disseminated among the Ga people. Thus, the focus has been shifted from the object/artefact to the object/image, and more significance has been given to elements such as vision, prestige, memory, and action. In this way, the final product emerges as a joint process carried out by the adeka and its consumers (Baxandall, 1972).