Akan and Ancestors
http://www.scn.org/rdi/kw-anc.htm

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Being dead is not sufficient a requisite for being an ancestor. Many events and conditions of your life affect your status after death.
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The higher your status during your life, the bigger an event your funeral will be. The bigger your funeral, generally, the higher your status after death. Size of funeral depends upon your status during life.
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Inequality is a fact of life in Akan society. It may not be based directly on relations to production, because land, the key factor of agrarian production, is owned by corporate matrilineages. For an individual, status in society depends to a large extent upon the number of offspring he or she has. Within any lineage, some members may be sacred, as being possessed by their own ancestors, and called elders. Lineages, in turn, vary in status, power and wealth. The funeral of a chief is grand, extensive and elaborate. The funeral of an elder of a lesser lineage is also extensive, but not so much.
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Similarly, a person who is an ]komfo (priest or priestess) of an important tutelary deity, will have a large and elaborate funeral.
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A person may be very popular during life, generous, altruistic, dependable, a contributor to the community or to society at large. His or her funeral may be big, even when his or her status might not be so high. Similarly, persons who have non traditional (modern) professions or occupations will be highly respected –– doctor, professor, member of parliament, –– and their funerals will be larger and more elaborate.
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At the bottom of the hierarchy is an infant who dies a few days after birth (pot child). They are considered to be mischievous and vandalous spirits, and there is no funeral for them. Their parents are not permitted to cry or grieve. Instead the parents are encouraged to be happy that they are rid of that bad spirit, given a meal and told to "di" (a word that means both to eat and to have sex) –– get on with life, grow and produce more children.

Funerals
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Large funerals serve more than to mourn the deceased and to help them on the way to the land of the dead. Funerals are also times when large numbers of people return to their home town. It is therefore a time for your people to meet other young people, to strike up liaisons, and eventually to find marriage mates.

Funerals serve important social functions beyond mourning and as rites of passage. Large numbers of dispersed community members return to the home town, and this becomes a good time to meet potential marriage mates and new playtime friends. Relations between long time friends –– individuals and lineages –– are reinforced. Minor disputes are solved. Business deals are conceived and hatched.

Funeral Colours
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the cosmography of the three core colours, red, black and white. The colour white is not worn by live participants at a funeral, because it signifies joy, and is worn to celebrate a successful rite of passage. The corpse is usually dressed in white, or in bright colours which belong to the white category (eg kente), to signify a successful change in status. The body may also be covered in white powder, much like an ]komfo in preparation for possession by a god.
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Wearing a Funeral Cloth
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When you see most of the people in town wearing red or black, or sombre colours (including brown dark orange and shades of red), then you can be sure a large and important funeral is taking place.

If, while they are carrying the coffin, the pallbearers feel that there is a pull towards some direction, they follow the pull. If the coffin then moves towards a specific person, that person is suspected of having killed the corpse, usually through witchcraft.

Participation of the Ancestors
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The ancestors are not only respected, they are invited to participate in all public functions (as are also the gods). A prayer is in the form of an offering of alcohol, calling the ancestors to attend.
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Perhaps this element of traditional Akan religion should be called Ancestor Homage rather than Ancestor Worship. It is not as if the ancestors are not spirits; it is that they are not seen as holy like saints. They are respected, and they have power, just as they did as elders and chiefs when they were alive. And they are considered present and participating members of the community and lineage. The opening of any new meeting or new case by pouring a libation of alcohol is intended to call them to pay attention and participate. Both gods and ancestors can be quite capricious; they are very human.
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A libation usually begins with the mention of the Supreme Being, Onyankepon Tweduampong (The Supreme Shining One who is like a tree or plank on whom we can always be supported). "Drink Alcohol." Then Mother Nature (Earth Woman born on Thursday). "Drink Alcohol."
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Then the Gods and Ancestors are mentioned. If ancestors are called, then perhaps a few by name, and their matrilineages, or perhaps the statement "If I call one, I cll all." Similarly, if the gods are called, perhaps a few by name, then perhaps a list of rivers and mountains. Again, to shorten the list, the person pouring the libation may say "If I call one, I call all." The length of the libation is variable, and can be drawn out by listing more names, lineages or gods. In more formal and more serious situations, the libation tends to be more longer and detailed.
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Then the person pouring the libation may say a few standard statements, such as, "We hold no evil in calling you," or "You are the staff on which we can lean on and you will never fail." After that the person pouring the libation will state the reason for the case or event, to recognise a new person's identity, the settling of a dispute, the blessing of a new institution, ... whatever.


When a linguist or someone important pours the libation, it is the duty of the rest present to answer after each phrase, "Hwe" or Wjeh" (listen; look; pay attention) in a call and answer pattern. Done well it is very harmonious. Often only other elders or even only other linguists will chant the replies.
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The prayer assures the attendance, attention and participation of the gods and ancestors.


Ancestral Stools
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More important politically than funerary terracottas are ancestral stools. By a process of contagious magic, a bath stool used by an elder or chief, when he or she is living, is considered to have stored up much of the "power" of the living person. It is therefore kept and revered after death.
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When an elder or chief dies, her or his bath stool is marked with boto on its bottom
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The cloth behind this stool is adinkra, stamped with traditional Akan symbols. Adinkra stamps are made by carving soft fresh calabash fruit and allowing them to harden.
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If the fortune of the lineage rises, the ancestral stool also may undergo increases in status.
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A stool may be promoted to an ancestral stool by being blackened. Medicinal powder, called boto, is mixed with egg or egg albumen into a paste which is put onto the stool as a lacquer. The lacquer hardens and the stool is black. More about boto in Health and Fertility.
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Ancestral stools are not usually allowed to be seen in public because jealous persons and spirits may bring misfortune on them, thus on their lineages.