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The Guardian

Fish, teapots and a pineapple! Ghana's most stylish coffins

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 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 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 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 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 The family presents this fisher and traditional priest with a coffin that reflects to the blue teapot he used for his ritual ablutions Relatives carry the coffin of a pineapple seller to her grave 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 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 (Coffin: Eric Kpakpo) Relatives bid farewell to a fisher in his night before the burial, a vigil is held at traditional funerals and often at Christian funerals, too. This takes place either in a room in the house of the bereaved family or in a tent rented out by the funeral director. Depending on the status, religious affiliation and preferences of the family, funeral rooms can look very different and the deceased can be laid out in very different ways 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