A trend to die for

Zimbabweans are famous for being faddish. We surprise friends and relatives who come from abroad when they get home and find that we are way ahead of them with the latest fashion, gadgets and wheels. The Nigerian movies have seen us mangle our grasp of the English language as we blindly speak of being ‘pregnant for’ instead of pregnant by and use expressions like ‘borrow me’ instead of lend me.

We have also taken on the elaborate costumes for men and women that are deemed to be African attire in spite of the materials being imports from the East, especially China.

Our weddings are always a competition to see who has the latest trends from wherever we deem the place to follow. Even our religion seems to be all now about the latest as new churches rapidly fill up, albeit for a short while before the crowd moves in search of a later model preacher.

Not even our wakes and funerals have been spared. From the days when our dead were wrapped in reed mats and animal skins, while mourners sat in desolation, we have come a long way.

Now we celebrate lives and have colour-coded funerals where relatives and friends are expected to bear themselves with decorum. In other words loud wailing are to be restricted to the wake and should not be exhibited at the funeral.

Caskets have become increasingly elaborate with stuffed silk linings, golden handles and pilot lights all being employed to make them look better.

All that is left is to imitate the Ga of Ghana. Just outside the capital city of Accra, craftspeople of the Ga ethnic group are making coffins of every design and colour. The only limit is the imagination of the client.

The coffins come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from cars to Coke bottles and cell phones. Ghanaian funerals are major productions and many families wish to bury their deceased loved ones in something that reflects their life and trade.

Nicknamed “Fantasy Coffins,” as the business has come to be known, it is a relatively new tradition. It is said that about 53 years ago, one Ata Owoo was well-known for making magnificent chairs to transport the village chief on poles or the shoulders of minions.

When Owoo had finished one particularly elaborate creation, an eagle, a neighbouring chief wanted one too, this time in the shape of a cocoa pod, a major crop in Ghana.

However, the chief next door died before the bean was finished, and so it became his coffin. Thus, a tradition was born.
Today, tourists flock to the Accra suburb of Teshie to marvel at the coffin makers open-air showrooms.

Tour guides, hired in Accra, can take visitors to the coffin showrooms on request. The coffins are also on display at various museums around the world, like Houston’s National Museum of Funeral History.

We have already taken on the traditions of South Africans like car spinning for car thieves and dealers as well as the flashing of money for foreign currency dealers.

All it will take is one enterprising coffin maker to and a trendy set of the bereaved and soon we will have our own fantasy coffins flourishing.

Huffington Post/Lifestyle Editor.