Money and mourning
Elaborate busts stand mounted on a tombstone at a cemetery in Lagos, Nigeria, commemorating the women who lie beneath in distinctive style.
In various African countries, people spend heavily on honouring their dead, and the desire to hold lavish funerals has provided a lucrative opportunity for insurance companies selling cover to people daunted by the cost of ceremonies that can stretch to several months of income.
A coffin in the shape of a film projector is seen in Kane Kwei's workshop.
A craftsman uses a sheet of sandpaper as he prepares a coffin for spraying at a workshop in the Odunlami district of Lagos.
A carpenter works on a coffin outside a ramshackle row of funeral service providers in Nairobi.
A carpenter adds the finishing touches to a white wooden coffin at a roadside workshop.
A carpenter prepares a newly built wooden coffin at a workshop in Nairobi.
The owner of a funeral services and photocopying shop near the mortuary of Yopougon in Abidjan stands inside his wreath laden doorway.
A woman stands next to brand new wooden coffins at her shop.
Stanislas sits, flanked by coffins, at his desk in a shop that also sells flowers.
Young bereaved relatives wait in a shop to pick out a newly built coffin.
Robed pallbearers shoulder a coffin through a cemetery during a funeral.
Wearing co-ordinated outfits, female relatives take part in a funeral ceremony in Lagos.
Family members gather around a tomb as a man shovels earth onto a coffin during the funeral.
