Friday, January 14, 2011

Spend eternity in an Airstream coffin!

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. Click here for more information.

4 Comments:

At January 15, 2011 at 2:32 AM , Blogger Jean-Michel said...

for details about Kane KWei and his successors, go to http://www.ghanacoffin.com and Wikipedia article "Kane Kwei Carpentry Workshop"

 
At January 15, 2011 at 7:50 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not really a good reproduction of an Airstream. From the body shape and some of the details, it appears more like an Avion (a discontinued brand that had nothing to do with Airstream).

 
At January 15, 2011 at 10:59 AM , Blogger Lyrx said...

There was a gimmick about 20 years ago to get people to buy coffins that could be used as a coffee table. Then there were the cryogenics people who wanted their heads frozen if they couldn't afford to have their whole body iced.

An outfit in New York will put you in cement and then dump you in the sea to make reefs. Isn't that what coral is supposed to do?

Another group of "sensitive" guys will cremate you and send your ashes in a space urn into space. Ann Landers told of one guy who wanted his ashes mixed in paint and then painted on the bedroom ceiling for his wife. I will take the Air Stream over that one.

 
At January 22, 2012 at 6:46 PM , Blogger Jfree Green Span said...

Last week we bought a cardboard box for my brother to be cremated in. It cost $1950.00 I'm just saying...

 

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment. It will appear shortly: we look at each one before making it live to keep away the spammers.

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home