Buried in Style: Inside Ghana’s Wildly Artistic and Secretive Funerals

Ghana’s elaborate funerals blend tradition, performance, and art—and Swiss anthropologist Regula Tschumi has spent over two decades capturing their vibrant essence. Her new photo book, Buried in Style, showcases dazzling figurative coffins and rare rituals among several Ghanaian communities, particularly the Ga people. From lion-shaped coffins to dramatic “laying out” ceremonies where the deceased are posed as if alive, these events are part mourning, part spectacle. Tschumi’s work, often aided by the now-famous coffin dancer Benjamin Aidoo, offers rare access to this secretive world. Despite colonial-era suppression, Ghana’s funerary traditions continue to evolve—at times surreal, always deeply symbolic, and increasingly global in their appeal.

CNN