Funerals are an opportunity to go out with some style. When Josephine Baker died in France, Paris came to a standstill. Jim Henson banned people from wearing black, and had a chorus of Muppets sing the send-off. Hunter S. Thompson had his ashes shot into space, because let’s be honest: he really, really loved guns.

In Ghana, they might bury you in a giant shoe.

In a suburb outside of Accra, the fantasy coffin industry is booming. Many of these hand-crafted creations reflect the trades of those who have passed: shoes for the cobblers, hammers for the carpenters - perhaps a Coca-Cola bottle for the street salesman.

Hens are particularly popular for young mothers, to symbolize maternal love. Occasionally an unrepentant drinker will partake of one last gigantic bottle of Heineken. A gynaecologist once ordered a six-foot uterus. The idea is to leave with dignity, and pride in a life well lived.

If in doubt, a gigantic Bible remains a popular option. And Cadillacs.

This is a fairly new idea. Sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, a village chief commissioned a famous carver for a gigantic cocoa bean, then a major crop in Ghana. The chief soon died - but why let all that hard work go to waste?

And so a tradition was born.