Living Coffins and Death Among the Ga of Ghana

Until recently, little attention has been paid to the history of death practices in relation to their ritual objects and even less about the way such objects traverse the differentiated terrains of possession and control. Indeed, there was little analysis into the use of funerary objects such as coffins from a historical and ethnographic standpoint. The present chapter intends to explore the use and circulation of funeral sarcophagi abebu adekai, literally “receptacles of proverbs” and known worldwide as fantasy coffins. They are often constructed in various shapes and are generally painted in luminous enamel colors. These particular coffins are known for their rich and varied iconography; the decorations range from cocoa beans to images of cars, and all manner of imagery in between. Abebu adekai are used primarily by the Ga people who live in Accra, south Ghana. They began to be used on a large scale in the early 1960s, soon after Ghana became independent. What emerged most significantly, however, is how these funeral sarcophagi have largely contributed to both the continuation and re-invention of practices and beliefs surroundings death amongst the Ga. I illustrate these artefacts as a strategy carried out by individuals to achieve some specific ends, so as to grasp the manner in which people currently transform funeral practices and their objects to meet new needs, express a new imaginary horizon, and create new meanings in a contemporary context.