This is a shoe shaped (Nike sneaker) coffin from Ghana.
For the Ga tribe in coastal Ghana, funerals are a time of mourning, but also of celebration. The Ga people believe that when their loved ones die, they move on into another life — and the Ga make sure they do so in style. They honor their dead with brightly colored coffins that celebrate the way they lived.
The coffins are designed to represent an aspect of the dead person’s life such as a car if they were a driver, a fish if their livelihood was the sea or a shoe for a shoemaker.
This shoe is originally from the collection of the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. It was part of the exhibithion ‘Ik R.I.P.’ in Amsterdam in 2009.
