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It is now clear that the battle against expensive funerals in the Ashanti Region, particularly Kumasi the capital is lost. Traditional authorities and some churches who tried to use certain rules and guidelines to check the practice, are now helpless and they appear to have fizzled out. Today, commercialisation and, to some extent, merry making, has taken centre stage, thereby taking out the solemnity associated with the traditional ceremony. In May 2011, the Kumasi Catholic Archdiocese came out with sweeping regulations on funerals for church members. The idea behind the move was to infuse Catholicism and Christian principles into the funerals and to restore the true Akan meanings of the traditional ceremony. As part of the regulations, preparing food to serve local members of the community was banned. Only mourners from outside the community were to be fed. Drinks were not to be served during the one-week observations. The practice known as adekyeredee, where women form long queues carrying various items to show to the mourners, was also banned. They were laudable initiatives but I have witnessed funerals of many Catholics in Kumasi where lavish spending prevailed. Omanhene of Tepa, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem, depicted the tight corner chiefs find themselves in the development saying, �Our hands are tied.� First of all, he said, there was the need for people to understand that it was difficult to control high spending on funerals. This is because the types of funerals performed for a deceased demonstrates the sort of life the person lived. �If you live worthy of it, your relatives, particularly children will want to demonstrate it for others to learn from it by raising the funeral to a higher level.� �It is also difficult for chiefs to prevent commercialisation of funerals because doing that will mean attempting to scuttle the business of other people.� Sharing his thoughts on expensive funerals with me in Kumasi, the Omanhene said much as it was important for bereaved families to weigh their financial background when planning funerals of departed ones, nothing stops those who have the financial wherewithal from spending to give a deceased relative a fitting farewell. From expensive coffins to dinners, funerals in Kumasi have completely turned into lavish affairs, providing lucrative opportunities for people and organisations in search of business. For the rich, funeral provides the opportunity to portray that they have arrived financially. The problem, however, is with poor families who out of fear of being castigated by the public, follow suit in the face of financial difficulties. A friend recently lost a relative in Kumasi. The deceased, while alive, was virtually nobody in the family. The family house was not in the best of shape at the time of his death and two days after his death, teams of masons and painters were dispatched by the abusuapanin (head of family) to prepare the house for the funeral. The relatives kept the remains in the mortuary for three months at a significant cost while arrangements were made to prepare the family house for the grand funeral. I attended the funeral where the remains of the deceased gorgeously lay in state. I was told the one who prepared the body alone charged GH�3,000. That was just a tip of the iceberg. One notable aspect of the commercial dimension is the rapidity with which funeral parlours are springing up in the city. The parlours take over arrangements of the funeral right from the burial to the final funeral, thanksgiving service to the funeral reception for a fee. Indeed, it has now become an entrenched practice in Kumasi for people to break bank for a funeral. As it happens at weddings, souvenirs including handkerchiefs, cups, key holders etc embossed with pictures of the deceased are shared to guests at such funerals. On the day of the event, the body lies in state, requiem brochures are printed at heavy costs. The type of brochure determines the importance of the deceased while alive. Giant billboards, announcing the death of people, are the order of the day. The cost of erecting a billboard could be as high as GH�10,000 and advertising companies are cashing in on it. Today, feeding multitudes attending funeral rites has left many families in poverty, as some have to borrow money for the purpose. Come to think of it, the one-week observance of the dead has assumed expensive positions. Different kinds of food from fufuo, ampesie, banku, omotuo, tuo-zaafi, konkonte, among others are served during the one-week observation, which traditionally is reserved for the announcement of dates for the final funeral rites. Caterers are contracted to prepare and serve the meals. Mourners also make monetary donations, sometimes much bigger than what is donated at the day of the final funeral rites. Previously, if a family loses one of its own, family members will not cook for weeks. Neighbours, friends and extended family will bring food and other things to make it easier for the bereaved family to mourn the departed. But today, when someone dies, people start strolling into the house from all over expecting to be fed. It is funny these days to attend funerals in the Ashanti Region, particularly in Kumasi and you see people scampering for food and drinks. It has become common for people to choose which funerals to attend based on the type of food to be cooked at a particular funeral. The practice has become so pervasive to the extent that bereaved families who are unable to meet up with the expectations are most often treated with scorn. No known study has been conducted on the cost of funerals in Ghana, particularly in the Ashanti Region but conservative figures by players in the industry put the average cost at about GH�20,000. On the day the corpse is put in the mortuary to the last day when the mortal remains are buried, family members stretch their finances, most of the time, to unseemly ends. In a city where dignified funerals are regarded as signs of prosperity and prestige, the future of the funeral business is bright. There is always a uniform- the mourning cloth- which every member of the family (or anyone with a certain degree of relationship with the deceased) must wear. The fashionable appearance that people, especially women, often make with mourning cloths leaves one wondering if they are mourning. Now, the coffin used to bury the dead has also become competitive among families. It has to be the costliest in order to gain recognition among mourners. A recent survey I conducted in Kumasi revealed astonishing cost for coffins, yet people buy no matter the financial standing of the bereaved families. At one of the coffin shops at Fante New Town, wooden coffins cost between Gh�2,000 and GH� 6,000. With the increasing cost of funerals, it is not surprising that micro finance companies, rural banks and insurance companies have put in place funeral facilities for needy bereaved families.