Eric Adjetey Anang is a sculptor. He directs the Kane Kwei workshop, which was created by his grandfather.

This tradition began with my grandfather. A traditional chief had him build a palanquin (a chair that is carried) in the shape of a cocoa pod and when he died, he was buried in this palanquin. This incident left a deep impression on my grandfather, Kane Kwei, who is a sculptor. So when his grandmother died, he made her a coffin in the shape of a plane, a means of transport that she would have liked to take when she had been alive. In the months that followed, people ran up to my grandfather and asked him to make coffins in all kinds of shapes.

Today, the company is going well. I have eight apprentices. When they finish their training they'll open their own workshops. There are already three in the Teshie region.

It’s the family who decides the shape of the coffin. I make a lot of fish-shaped coffins. But when people come to see me to discuss the shape and style of the coffin, I try to convince them to choose something original because I like trying new things. I managed to persuade a family to choose a xylophone for a musician who had died, because a piano or a guitar would have been much too classical. Each time it should be a challenge. Someone even asked me to do a Hummer. I see my work as a means of making the coffin an object of nobility. In the past, we didn’t respect it, a coffin was simply a piece of wood and the deceased person inside was virtually nothing.

Several museums have exposed my work, such as the Quai Branly in Paris. I have also established an artists’ residence, and an American came and spent two months in my studio in 2009. At the moment I’m in talks with several designers regarding the possibility of making furniture."

A coffin in the shape of a Bible.