No doubt about it, Airstream trailers are very fashionable these days. If you agree, and you love these beautiful recreational vehicles, then peerhaps you would like to spend eternity in one.
The Airstream you see here is not a real RV, but a coffin made in Ghana, carved in wood with a fabric resting liner inside. It was made in 1995 by the Kane Kwei disciple Nii Anum. Its dimensions are 96L x 28W x 40H inches.
In Ghana, funerals are both important ritual and decadent affair. Children of the deceased are assigned new parents, and mourners spend days in heartfelt conversation with their lost loved ones. Women give the body a ritual bath and set out objects the person will need in the afterlife - a spoon for tea, a clean t-shirt, and perhaps a comb. Money, wrapped in a cloth, is waved over the face of the deceased so they will know how much friends and family have donated toward the cost of the funeral.
Kane Kwei was born in Teshi in the 1920s and began as a carpenter, making not only furniture but also coffins. A man named Ata Owoo made coffins for tribal chiefs. One of Ata Owoo's most talented young apprentices was Kane Kwei, was powerfully inspired by the chief's cocoa-pod coffin. When Kane's grandmother died in 1951, he built a coffin just for her -- shaped like an airplane. People loved that airplane coffin so much that Kane Kwei understood that he'd found his true calling. He opened his own shop and started making custom coffins symbolic of the deceased's status and worldly occupation: boats for fleet owners; fish or crabs or lobsters for fishermen; cows and bulls for breeders; lions and leopards for hunters; cocoa pods, peppers, green onions or corn cobs for farmers." Nii Anum was one of his apprentices and now has his own studio.
If you would like to buy this Airstream coffin, it can be yours for $1,750.
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