Coke bottle coffins, Made In Ghana

Accra - Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari aren't the only speciality products to be branded Made In Ghana, hosts of the 2008 African Nations Cup.

Take the coast road from downtown Accra, past the plush four star hotel where first round casualties Morocco set up home, and you come to the bustling suburb of Teshie.

Here, beside the 'Opel doctor' car repair shop, is a business that it's fair to say is unique in this world.

Climb up the rickety wooden stairs of Paa Joe Works and you enter a surreal world of bespoke coffins - but not just any old coffins.

Jostling for space in this most unusual of all showrooms are elaborately decorated burial caskets in the shape of an aeroplane, lion, cucumber, tomato, lobster, shoe, snake, a World War Two gun, a white Mercedes Benz, or Coke bottle.

"We have customers from all round the world. The idea is that you order a coffin to reflect what the person has done in their life," explains manager Emmanuel Doku.

"So the lobster could be for a fisherman, the cucumber for a grocer, the aeroplane for someone who has worked in the airline industry, or perhaps who used to fly a lot for his job."

"We had an order a while ago for a football for a 19-year-old local player," added the retired 66-year-old military officer and father of ten.

"We get orders from all over the world," added Doku, who used to play in midfield for Ghana's army team.

"These coffins are only made in Ghana. The tradition started back in the 1950s, now there are five workshops in Accra."

As Doku spoke, below him in the workshop an employee was chiselling away at a whale.

Asked about the most unusual design Doku's company has been commissioned to produce Doku, without a second's hesitation, said: "That's easy, it was back in 1992. A German doctor called us and ordered the womb of a woman."

To confirm the unusual request he then opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a small cardboard box containing a plastic model of the said body part sent by the good doctor as a guide.

Explaining how it all began Doku, who believes Ghana will win the Nations Cup title, said: "It was all started by a man called Ataa Owuo. When his grandmother died he realised that the old lady had never travelled before.

"So he made an aeroplane coffin to take her to heaven." -- AFP

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