Mercedes-Benz coffin

Is it a car? Is it a coffin? In fact it’s both, an amazing piece of artwork that celebrates a modern Ghanaian tradition.

Here in Scotland, we associate funerals with black clothes, sombre music and plain wooden coffins. But over in West Africa, on the coast of Ghana, funerals are often a much more colourful, noisy affair, a celebration of the life of the departed. In Ghana, people like to go out in style.

Going out in style

And what more stylish way to go than in your own custom-built coffin in the shape of a Mercedes-Benz?

This amazing object has its origins in the 1950s, when a local chief was buried in a lavish coffin shaped like a giant cocoa pod (as Ghana was the world’s biggest exporter of cocoa beans at the time) designed and built by the skilful carpenter Ata Owoo.

Since then the trade in fantasy coffins has thrived in Ata Owoo’s home town of Teshi, just outside Ghana’s capital, Accra. Here, relatives spend up to a year’s salary on elaborate, imaginative works of art that reflect the status, profession or passions of the deceased, from boats to birds, fish to flying machines, corncobs to crabs.

The ultimate symbol of prestige and wealth in Ghana, this Mercedes coffin was designed and built by Ghanaian artist Paa Joe. Carved from wood and painted white with silver, black and orange details, it comes complete with silver headlights, wing mirrors, an aerial and of course the trademark Mercedes-Benz badge.

Where will the coffin be in the new Museum?

The coffin will be displayed in the new People and Possessions gallery, which focuses on life from cradle to grave. The gallery will feature objects used by many different cultures to mark important life events and look at differences and similarities in the way we celebrate life milestones from birth to death.