Paa Joe

Paa Joe is a master craftsman and the Grandfather of the fantasy coffin trade. Since sixteen he has been crafting beautiful coffins that represent the lives of the people for whom they are made - a Coca Cola bottle for a street vendor or a lion for the head of a family. He has produced thousands of coffins, the majority of which lie deep under the ground. In 2008 Paa Joe was forced from his workshop located in the centre of Accra to his storage hut two hours away. His Ghanaian customers didn't follow and the tourists stopped passing by. But as his coffin making business is floundering, there is one last hope, a UK exhibition in celebration of his work. A handful of Paa Joe's works have already exhibited internationally as examples of the Ga culture - from the British Museum in London to Brooklyn Museum in New York - but this is not enough for him. Paa Joe wants his work, and his name, to be seen and recognized the world over.