The True Story Behind Ghana’s Viral Coffin Dancers

Ghana’s dancing pallbearers are iconic, wearing black suits, sunglasses, and cool expressions as they bounce a coffin up and down with an almost joyful detachment. But what might strike some as an insensitive act has also shifted how some people worldwide view grief. Is grief mourning who we lost, celebrating who we had, or a mix of the two?

The world-famous dancing pallbearers are led by Benjamin Aidoo, who started the Nana Otafrija Pallbearing and Waiting Service in 2003. Initially, his company provided more traditional funeral services and later added choreography to their offerings.

Their best-known clip is from a BBC video in 2017, but the group truly exploded a few years later in early 2020. That’s when social media users started editing clips of the dancing pallbearers at the end of their videos, acting as punchlines for when someone crashed or failed and typically using the EDM song “Astronomia” as a soundtrack. 

In 2020, VICE met with Aidoo and others, including grief experts and the editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme, to learn the history of the coffin dance and why it caught on so hard when it did.

Aidoo said he didn’t intend to go viral. In fact, he pursued the business to support his family in Ghana, as money had been tight. His group’s comical yet heartwarming dancing, he said, was the natural expression of his work.

“Our way of saying goodbye to the dead gives them morale, boosts their morale,” he said. “Bring out a dance, and people stop crying and then start cheering us. That is why I brought out this dance.”

According to Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme, the pallbearers’ surge in popularity on social media coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. “The clips of the Ghanaian Pallbearers are so striking and charming,” he said. “This kind of morbid humor may have been seen as refreshing to people who were experiencing a time of global crisis.”

Many people struggled to feel connected, trapped indoors and isolated from society. The dancing pallbearers showed a lighter, more human side to grief in an otherwise dark time—and they revealed a celebration of life in stark contrast to many people’s usual grieving process.

“Ghanaian relationship with death is part of the daily living,” said Evelyn Efua Xeflide, a professor with expertise in Ghanaian funeral culture. “That is why a funeral is a process. It is not an event that is held in a day and that is it. It is a process that continues because you want to make sure that we maintain that relationship.”

She said that this alternative outlook on both life and death could reshape the way people viewed grief altogether. “Seeing Benjamin and the entertainment that he adds to it, even though we are grieving, we should also make room for the living to smile,” said Xeflide.

David Kessler, the author of Finding Meaning and the founder of grief.com, spoke about the importance of coping with grief in an individualized manner rather than attempting to fit our sorrow into a neat box.

“When I saw the dancing pallbearers meme had gone viral during this pandemic, it didn’t surprise me at all,” he said. “There’s no one model for grief, and there’s no right way to do grief. When we talk about meaning, meaning isn’t in the death. Meaning isn’t us. It’s what we do after.”

Aidoo was only 8 years old when his father died right in front of his very eyes. In the aftermath of the loss, he witnessed his mother and other loved ones face the devastating grief left in his dad’s wake. 

He chose to carry on his father’s legacy. “I know wherever I go, my father is with me,” he said.

Aidoo’s mission to add levity to grief was a saving grace during COVID not just for grieving those who lost their lives but for grieving life as we knew it pre-pandemic.

“Grief occurs, of course, when someone dies,” said Kessler. “It’s also just the grief of the world we knew months ago. That world is gone forever. People don’t realize that the discomfort you’re feeling is grief.”

“When death is in the air, we need a way to release it,” he continued. “And people don’t understand laughter is sometimes the way we deal with uncomfortable emotions.”

“I always want to be remembered,” said Aidoo. “I wanna enjoy life,” which is something he achieves through his part in the Ghanaian Pallbearers.

With the pandemic raging on at the time of his interview, Aidoo ended with a reminder to everyone to stay safe from COVID-19.

“Otherwise we are dead, and you’re going to be dancing with me,” he quipped.