Prampram - 9 September 2017
1. Various of pallbearers dancing carrying the coffin at Mary Ayongo Martey's funeral
2. Close of Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service, leading the dancers during the funeral
3. Pallbearers dancing with the coffin
Accra - 10 September 2017
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"I started way back 2007 when I was in SHS (senior high school). I was doing that to, you know, earn something and then pay my school fees so at the same time I was doing the waiting services and doing pall-bearing. I saw the first people who started it and they called me to join them and work together."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
5. Various of pallbearers dancing with the coffin during the funeral
Accra - 10 September 2017
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"In Ghana here you have to be creative to move ahead, you can't be at one place. So at first people were using all black when somebody is being buried you know pallbearers do wear black. So I decided no, let me add colour."
7. Various of Aidoo laying out photographs showing him wearing different outfits for funerals
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"So I decided to add varieties, buy my own suits, buy the shoes, buy everything and then we started from there and then I call people to join me, people to train, and stuff. Right now I've got into and I'm working for my own, I'm on my own now."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
9. Various of pallbearers getting ready for the funeral
10. Various of Aidoo preparing one of the suits for the funeral
Accra - 10 September 2017
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"So that means a day before that I don't sleep, I have to make sure all the things are outside, the shoes been polished and then the suits been polished while putting (on) all the medals and everything. And then I've given them the time already, they'll get here and then they will come and wear their uniforms and I will dispatch them with the leaders where they are going."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
++NIGHT SHOTS++
12 . Various of pallbearers leaving for the funeral
Accra - 10 September 2017
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"Assuming it is a Scottish skirt (kilt), it is 800 (180 US dollars) and when it is navy, green 900 (203 US dollars) and then all white goes for a 1000, 1200 (225-270 US dollars)."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
14. Various of pallbearer getting dressed
Accra - 10 September 2017
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"I make sure I take time over my suits, how we dress to differentiate us from different pallbearers because we have competitors and they don't meet up to our standard. That doesn't mean I have to be there. There is a saying that, 'the sky is your limit but I have to push further'."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
16. Various of pallbearers dancing with the coffin during the funeral
Accra - 10 September 2017
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"We always improve on our choreography, on our dancing. We bring in more styles to suit people, for people to know that, yeah, you, these pallbearers, you are unique in your display."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
18. Pallbearers crawling with the coffin over their backs
19. Various of pallbearers lying on the road while holding the coffin
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Anabelle Namartey, grand-daughter of the deceased:
"That is the maximum respect that we can give to such a burial (buried) person. In fact it's quite impressive and we have to encourage it because you have to pay your last respects for the person who has been on this earth for quite a long time and you have to give him a befitting burial."
21. Various of pallbearers dancing with the coffin
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Gabriel Maurice Martey, nephew of the deceased:
"It doesn't have any meaning in our traditional culture, it doesn't have any meaning. Religiously they don't do this, traditionally we don't do this. So we don't know where we can fit it in but it just come to stay, more or less it just come to stay."
23. Various of pallbearers dancing with the coffin
Accra - 10 September 2017
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Benjamin Aidoo, head of Nana Otafrija pall-bearing and waiting service:
"Because, you know, they don't want to cry anymore. Some people to... whether they want to cry or not we make them cheerful, we make them happy because of what we are doing. People are cheering them up, 'oh oh yeah yeah you are doing a great thing because you people made us to laugh not to cry'."
Prampram - 9 September 2017
++MUTE++
25. Top shot of the pallbearers
They may be dressed in black, but these pallbearers are anything but solemn.
Led by Benjamin Aidoo they are bringing music and dance to the traditionally sober event.
Aidoo started working as a pallbearer as a way to pay his school fees when he was at high school ten years ago.
"I saw the first people who started it and they called me to join them and work together."
Branching out on his own, what started as an experiment has taken off and now Aidoo runs a company with more than 100 pallbearers.
Aidoo started to offer a different style of event - more choreography and generally a more upbeat atmosphere.
The style of burial is now increasingly being copied all over Ghana.
People have started to see burials more as a way to reunite with family and to celebrate the life of the deceased.
"In Ghana here you have to be creative to move ahead, you can't be at one place. So at first people were using all black, when somebody is being buried you know pallbearers do wear black. So I decided no, let me add colour."
He spreads out a number of photographs showing the array of colourful outfits he has worn to funerals in the past.
He has since expanded and taken on new people to join him.
"So I decided to add varieties, buy my own suits, buy the shoes, buy everything and then we started from there and then I call people to join me, people to train, and stuff. Right now I've got into and I'm working for my own, I'm on my own now."
His team of pallbearers get ready as Aidoo puts some finishing touches to their outfits.
He is often up all day and night before an event making sure everything is ready.
"I have to make sure all the things are outside, the shoes been polished and then the suits been polished while putting (on) all the medals and everything."
It's not unusual for him to provide services for more than five or six burials every weekend.
But the service does not come without a price.
Cost depends on the number of pallbearers and the costumes they need to wear.
"Assuming it is a Scottish skirt (kilt), it is 800 (180 US dollars) and when it is navy, green 900 (203 US dollars) and then all white goes for a 1000, 1200 (225-270 US dollars)."
Despite the prices, the demand is so high that five more companies have sprung up in Accra, copying Aidoo's style.
Some of them were established by ex-pallbearers from Aidoo's company.
"I make sure I take time over my suits, how we dress to differentiate us from different pallbearers because we have competitors and they don't meet up to our standard. That doesn't mean I have to be there. There is a saying that, 'the sky is your limit but I have to push further'."
But competing with the dance moves of Aidoo's pallbearers might be the biggest challenge for rival companies.
Balancing the coffin on their shoulders, they swing and dance to the quickening beat of the music.
"We always improve on our choreography, on our dancing. We bring in more styles to suit people, for people to know that, yeah, you, these pallbearers, you are unique in your display."
And it seems Aidoo's hard work is paying off with more and more customers using his service.
Anabelle Namartey is the grand-daughter of the deceased and she likes the display put on by the pallbearers.
"It's quite impressive and we have to encourage it because you have to pay your last respects for the person who has been on this earth for quite a long time. and you have to give him a befitting burial."
But as the pallbearers continue their routine, it seems not all the family members are happy.
"It doesn't have any meaning in our traditional culture, it doesn't have any meaning. Religiously they don't do this, traditionally we don't do this. So we don't know where we can fit it in but it just come to stay, more or less, it just come to stay," says Gabriel Maurice Martey, nephew of the deceased.
Despite some resistance to the new style of burial, Aidoo says he is merely giving the people what they want.
"They don't want to cry anymore. Some people... whether they want to cry or not we make them cheerful, we make them happy because of what we are doing."
It seems Aidoo and his dancing pallbearers are definitely here to say.
