If you want the ultimate African curio, take the coastal road east from Accra and at Teshie, look for Paa Joe's shop. His late uncle, Seth Kane Kwei, set up the business over forty-five years ago - ironically to honour his own uncle. Ask nicely and Paa Joe (Joseph Tetteh Ashong) will carve you something to die for. Before starting, however, he'll need to size up both you and your pocket and make your business his business. Only then can he, Seth's son Ben and their team get down to creating your own personalised coffin.

Customised coffins are in great demand among the Ga people of southern Ghana. Although many are committed Christians, they still adhere to traditional doctrines, believing in the Supreme Being, life after death and the protective role of their ancestors. They therefore go to some trouble to ensure that their dearly departed have a fitting send-off. Conventional coffins of brown wood are far too impersonal for the journey to the afterlife: an ideal coffin should reflect the status and profession of its occupant during his earthly life.

Therefore a fisherman may be buried in a model of his boat or, Jonah-like, in a large sculpted fish. The farmer is borne within an icon of his beloved bull, the politician powers off in his mahogany Merc, and the frequent flyer wings his way to heaven in a balsawood 747. You can have whatever you and Paa Joe think best reflects your business or takes your fancy - except powerful birds, which are reserved for royalty and prominent leaders.

Before it is placed in its "fantasy coffin" a corpse is bathed and preserved using traditional techniques, for it may have to lie in wait for a month or so for Paa Joe to finish. When the coffin is ready the body is perfumed, dressed, decorated with painted patterns, wrapped in a specially made shroud and displayed in the open cask. During the wake, family and friends place gifts such as soap and towels in the coffin, to make the onward journey more comfortable. On an appointed day, determined by the deceased's occupation, the coffin is portered through the streets, the cortege carrying photos of the departed and led by professional mourners. Periodic halts may be called for anointing the body with ritualistic blood and a tot of the hard stuff. At the graveside the cask is sealed before burial.

It may be a classy exit but it's an expensive one, costing what the average Ghanaian earns in a year. For many, it requires a lifetime of saving. Paa Joe will need to know whether to fashion a fantasy coffin from Waa-waa or Mvuli. The former, known elsewhere as African whitewood (Enantia Chlorantha), is a relatively easily grown softwood, whereas Mvuli (African Mahogany), a member of the genus Khaya, is a slow-growing hardwood.

Mvuli costs significantly more, but has a warm rosy glow, a handsome grain and takes a fine polish. These qualities, however, are relatively unimportant to most Ghanaians. Not only is the cost prohibitive, but as the coffins will be painted and elaborately decorated, the appearance of the wood itself is not that important. But Mvuli has one other advantage: being so hard, and borer and termite resistant, it is slow to rot. Mvuli fish, fast car and cattle coffins will take their occupants much further into the afterlife.

Published in Travel Africa Edition Sixteen: Summer 2001 Text is subject to Worldwide Copyright (c)