I'll admitted, at 32 it's a bit weird to start thinking
of what kind of coffin I'd like to be buried in,
but when I came across the Kane Kwei Coffin shop in Accra
I discovered something unexpected
Ghana's culturally significant business in dying
Brian: It's actually really peaceful... I'll take it
Bye guys
This is TPGtv
As you get closer to Accra city center things get busier and busier and busier
and the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel is an oasis in the myths of the city bustle.
As one of Accra's more prestigious hotels the rooms are big and clean,
the restaurant's decent,
but the real shining star is the pool.
Which is a tropical oasis in the center of this concrete jungle
where the waitstaff zip around on rollerblades.
I booked it through hotels.com
and credited the nights to the welcome rewards program
which is pretty simple. For every 10 nights you pay for, you get one free
and the value of the free night is based on the average room rate of the ten nights you paid for.
This program's basically a 10% rebate, so if you're ever booking a hotel
that's not a part of a loyalty program you might want to consider hotels.com
When first exploring a new country I love to know about its quirks and Ghana has no shortage of them.
When a friend of mine mentioned the Ghanaian cultural
phenomenon of fantasy Coffins I had to check it out for myself.
Right in the heart of Accra is Kane Kwei Coffins. The city's oldest and most
well known proverbial coffin shop or a Abebuu Adekai as they're known locally.
Ernest here is the owner. His father handed down the shop to him after he passed in 1992
I arrived with my friend Jaime
Who came to Ghana with me for the PeaceJam event.
And decided to join me for my orbit tour of the coffin factory.
With the help of our translator, what I gathered from Ernest is that
these coffins take months to build up to $2,000 or more consensus
seems like a rather niche industry I was curious, who's buying them?
It became pretty clear from George and Ernest fantasy coffin industry here is
not only about paying respect your family members but also a status symbol
of the disease a gesture taken so seriously that some investors savings
on a special coffin related to their loved one's life work, take a farmer for
example or a fisherman
Throughout the tour, I got so into this I actually, considered buying one myself
but first I wanted to try it out.
But first I wanted to see just how much work does it take
to make one of these things
and then I thought maybe Ernest is onto something here.
in fact he had.
Kane Kwei coffins has long received international acclaim.
From Germany to Tokyo their coffins have been featured
as art installations globally and most prominently at the Pompidou in 1989 in Paris.
And while I admire this little hidden gem of an industry. An art form in Ghanna
I think I'll let Earnest here continue building his fantasy.
On the next TPGtv
I'm putting the gloves on, these boxes are on the rise
and as my first time in the ring I said game game on