Photo Essay from Ghana

Ghana is famous for its cultural festivals, ceremonies and durbars (parades and processions of chiefs). The country’s modern government is assisted at the community level by chiefs entrusted with authority over social, family, and land-related matters. These pictures were taken at the

Ayikese (final funeral rites) of Chief Oyeeman Wereko Ampem II, who led the people of Akuapem in Eastern Ghana from 1975 till his death in 2005. The ayikese was held on 27 November 2010 as a final farewell to send his soul - represented by a life size papier mâché effigy that uncannily resembled the late chief - to the after world. There was a big procession through the streets of his hometown of Amankrom, with muscular young men carrying the effigy on a palanquin as royal guards fired muskets in his honour. Nearly everyone at the ceremony wore red and black kente cloth.

Photos by Newsfromafrica Special Correspondent Philip Emase.