- This article is was first published by The Guardian
Under the mantra ‘celebrate death as we celebrate life’, funerals in Ghana can be colourful affairs filled with dancers and personalised coffins – as Regula Tschumi’s stunning photos attest.
Central Region, 2024 (Coffin: Kwaku Hanson)
For more than 20 years, Regula Tschumi has researched and photographed Ghanaian funeral culture. Her astonishing, vibrantly colourful images depict Christian and traditional funeral ceremonies, as well as spectacular trends in figural coffin design over the past two decades. In this image, a professional builder known as ‘Crab’ is buried in a fitting coffin. As the credo of the Ghanaian ethnic group Ga-Adangbe goes: “Celebrate death as we celebrate life.” Buried in Style: Artistic Coffins and Funerary Culture in Ghana is published by Kehrer Verlag
Eastern Region, 2024 (Coffin: Kudjoe Affutu)
Perfectly choreographed dances transform funerals into colourful and energetic celebrations. This tomato coffin is a big surprise for the inhabitants of this remote village. But the even bigger surprise is the performance by Nana Otafritsa, who has travelled from faraway Accra with his coffin dancers. The performance is so successful that the mourners dance to the sounds of the brass band on the way back.
Greater Accra, 2017 (Coffin: Douglas Tagoe, former apprentice of Kudjoe Affutu)
At the funeral of the head of their family, who worked as a Bedford truck driver, the family surprises their guests with a Bedford coffin and a performance by the coffin dancers. They not only dance with the truck, but also carry it to the cemetery, accompanied by a brass band.
Greater Accra, 2024 (Coffin: Eric Kpakpo)
The eldest member of the family, a fishmonger, is honoured by her relatives with a fish coffin. On the day of the funeral, Otafritsa and his coffin dancers perform with the coffin before carrying it to the cemetery. Because the fish is too long for the prepared grave, the tail fin has to be sawn off.
Central Region, 2015 (Coffin: Kudjoe Affutu)
In southern Ghana, particular attention is paid to burials, especially among the Ga. For this ethnic group, funerals are among the most significant social and spiritual rites of passage. The ceremonies, often spanning several days, are grand public events designed not only to honour the dead but also to uphold a family’s reputation and secure the goodwill of future ancestors. Here a driver is buried in a coffin in the shape of his Bedford truck.
Central Region, 2009 (Coffin: Kudjoe Affutu)
The family presents this fisher and traditional priest with a coffin that reflects to the blue teapot he used for his ritual ablutions.
Greater Accra, 2019 (Coffin: Eric Kpakpo)
Relatives carry the coffin of a pineapple seller to her grave.
Central Region, 2023 (Coffin: Daniel Mensah)
For employees of the Ghana Railway Company it is customary to honour a deceased colleague in a coffin in the shape and colour of a Ghana Railway locomotive.
Greater Accra, 2024 (Coffin: Tawiah)
The family of the chief of the fishers honours him with a whale shark. This is considered to be the largest and strongest of the sharks, so such a coffin also symbolises the high status of the deceased.
Greater Accra, 2022
The Coffin Dancers in their costume ‘Scottish red’. Tschumi, who holds a doctorate in ethnology, photographed the Ghanaian undertaker and pallbearer Benjamin Aidoo, who has become known to an international audience as Ghana’s coffin dancer. He is a professional undertaker and room decorator, but also dances with the coffins at funerals together with a group of young people who he has trained. His performances include dark humour, in an attempt to distract mourners. They should not weep but rather rejoice and even laugh.
