Buried in Style: Artistic Coffins and Funerary Culture in Ghana
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Tschumi's book, Buried in Style: Artistic Coffins and Funerary Culture in Ghana,
Kehrer Verlag – Stiff softcover – 22 × 28 cm – 240 pages – 283 colour illustrations – English Available
This collection showcases Ga-Adangbe traditions through vibrant photos from 2004 to 2024, offering a warm glimpse into their culture. It highlights their motto: "Celebrate death as we celebrate life." The images feature the Ga people of Greater Accra, Fante, Ewe, and Asante communities, creating a diverse picture of local traditions. The book explores Christian and traditional funerals, the lively coffin dancers, and the tradition of “laying out.” It includes an index of custom coffins crafted by local artists—shaped like animals, vehicles, and other forms reflecting the departed’s dreams. Tschumi's photos include Benjamin Aidoo, known as "Ghana’s Coffin Dancer," whose social media fame captures joyful, choreographed funeral dances.
Werner Fuchs describes how the cult of the dead and the very idea of the natural end of life have been altered by current society (The Images of Death in Modern Society, 1969) into a mix of secularisation and religious transcendence, nonetheless hostile to the beliefs and liturgies of the past.
These, on the other hand, seem to be revived in Regula Tschumi's photographic book (Buried in Style, 2025), a comprehensive research album on burials in Ghana, which surprises us Westerners with the richness of forms and colours used in the funeral rites of those African lands. The images, large and detailed, taken in different regions, all focus on the coffin of the deceased, which is shaped according to the trades and beliefs of individuals, whether they belong to Christian churches or not.
Many examples create a true totemic, naive, theatrical funerary art: so one coffin has the mane of a lion, others are a huge sewing machine, an exotic fruit that appears just plucked from the plant, a pizza grill with charcoal, a smartphone, a running shoe, a white shark, and a luxury car. The relatives and friends accompanying the final journey understand the meaning of these figurative representations.
Regula Tschumi does not hesitate to photograph them as they procession, carrying coffins with dances and ritual songs. There is a thread that ties together the dozens of photographs, a sense different from our Western way of celebrating death and mourning, with admirable grace and imagination. The last image the departed wish to deliver is not a cold memory carved in stone but the lively diversity of life, fearless. And the deceased, sometimes caught by Tschumi just after being laid in their bright coffins, still open, seem to know that this secular art not only inscribes them in the hereafter but at the same time celebrates them in the beyond.
Batsceba Hardy
A driver is buried in a coffin in the shape of his Bedford truck. – Central Region, 2015. (Coffin: Kudjoe Affutu) © Regula Tschumi
The family presents this fisherman and traditional priest with a coffin that corresponds to the blue teapot he used for his ritual ablutions.– Central Region, 2009. (Coffin: Kudjoe Affutu) © Regula Tschumi
The eldest member of the family, a fishmonger, is honoured by her relatives with a fish coffin. Nana Otafritsa takes care of the laying out and decoration of her room the evening before. On Saturday, he and his Coffin Dancers dance with the coffin to his own music before carrying it to the cemetery. Because the fish is too long for the prepared grave, the tail fin has to be sawn off. – Greater Accra, 2024. (Coffin: Eric Kpakpo) © Regula Tschumi
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, 2017. (Coffin: Douglas Tagoe, former apprentice of Kudjoe Affutu) © Regula Tschumi
The Coffin Dancers in the uniform ‘Scottish Red’. – Greater Accra, 2022. © Regula Tschumi
A professional builder known as ‘Crab’ is buried in this coffin. – Central Region, 2024. (Coffin: Kwaku Hanson) © Regula Tschumi
Relatives at the funeral service of their mother and grandmother, who is laid out in a tent next to her coffin.– Central Region, 2018. (Undertaker unknown; coffin: Kudjoe Affutu) © Regula Tschumi
Relatives bid farewell to a fisherman in his coffin. – Greater Accra, 2024. (Undertaker unknown; coffin: Eric Kpakpo) © Regula Tschumi
The family of the chief of the fishermen honours him with a whale shark. This is considered to be the largest and strongest of the sharks, so such a coffin also symbolizes the high status of the deceased. – Greater Accra, 2024. (Coffin: Tawiah) © Regula Tschumi
Among the employees of the Ghana Railway Company it is customary to honour a deceased colleague with a coffin in the shape and colour of a Ghana Railway locomotive. – Central Region, 2023. (Coffin: Daniel Mensah) © Regula Tschumi
Kudjoe Affutu, Parrot, 2013 © Regula Tschumi
Relatives carry the coffin of a pineapple seller to her grave. – Greater Accra, 2019. (Coffin: Eric Kpakpo) © Regula Tschumi
Regula Tschumi has cultivated a vibrant and multifaceted career that commenced with her tenure at Swissair, a position she held until 2002. During this period, she simultaneously pursued her academic interests in social anthropology, art history, and religious studies at the University of Bern. Her commitment to academia culminated in 2013 when she obtained her PhD in social anthropology from the esteemed University of Basel. Her doctoral research centred on the intricate cultural significance of palanquins and figurative coffins among the Ga people of Ghana. This endeavour involved extensive fieldwork, allowing her to immerse herself deeply in the cultural practices surrounding these remarkable artefacts. Regula’s scholarly contributions are numerous; she has written a plethora of articles and published striking photographs, along with two pivotal books that delve into the artistry and social contexts of Ga palanquins and coffins. Her expertise has led her to take on key roles as a co-curator, consultant, and photographer for prominent art exhibitions and projects at prestigious venues, including the Bern Art Museum and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Since embarking on her field research in 2003, Regula has developed a profound passion for photography. Drawing inspiration from her admiration for renowned photographers, she has recently delved into street photography, skillfully capturing the vibrant tapestry of culture and the myriad facets of human experience. Her lens offers a window into the everyday lives of people, revealing the beauty and complexity of ordinary moments.