Business of the living or the dead?

A fascinating article by Kofi Akosah-Sarpong titled ‘Archbishop Palmer-Buckle’s “Funeral Oration”’, published in The African Executive this week describes the growing custom among Ghanaians of spending vast amounts of money on funerals. In fact according to Akosah-Sarpong, these ‘bling’ laden funerals often leave the living in debt.

However what we found more intriguing is that the funeral business has also spurred on various related enterprises. Akosah-Sarpong writes:

“Kweku Akosah, one of the leading funeral services proprietors in Ghana, owns the Owners Funeral Services. Owners Funeral Services, driven by Ghanaians sheer obsession with the dead has grown so much that it has branches in most parts of Ghana. Akosah employs over 100 people with varied professionals – wailers, criers, dancers, praise-singers, decorators of the dead, coffin makers, musicians, tailors and seamstresses, promoters, food makers and servers among others.”

In fact death has become so commoditised in Ghana that funeral service owners like Kweku Akosah also offer further incentives to use their services such as financing.

All this in a country where the living still struggle day to day for basic living needs such as food, shelter and education.

Has death been commoditised in your country?