elusiveworld

They ran from the village with the coffin on shoulders. Twice during the frenzy the body fell out.

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, funerals are profoundly important rituals — creative, colorful affairs that affirm the continent’s most powerful traditions and beliefs.

At funerals, children of the deceased are bestowed new parents and mourners hold long, passionate conversations with the dead. The poorest and most divided of families usually scratch together enough funds to provide a decent ceremony even if it buries them in debt.

It is not unusual for an African to attend more than one funeral over a weekend. Yet despite the pervasiveness of death — or perhaps because of it — funerals are anything but ordinary on this continent. Far from being morbid, funerals are seen as a celebration in many cultures.

Ghana is no exception. As I photographed the scene on a small Lomo, I was in the heart of a frenzy. Wild people necked spirits at dawn then danced through the jungle tracks towards the burial site – a crude cemetery outside the village of Jankufa.  Here, beside a small wooden cross, the spirit was strong.  Older women flicked the air with acacia branches, wailing and muttering in a local dialect. Youth, brother’s and friends of the boy fought and drank and danced and cried.

After he was buried.  The party in the village lasted for three days.   Speakers were rigged in the village and the dj mixed off two cassette decks. Afro funk, beats, hip hop, reggae.  We danced ourselves into the earth and drank til the sun of the day forced us to the floor again.  Taking passage with the dead to the other side.