A woman prepares soup over a a coal pot. In her left had she holds a metal grinding bowl and by her right hand is a commercially made ceramic grinding bowl. The blue plastic barrel (rear) holds water for the household. Ahenkro, June, 2016.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Ahenkro
Subjects:
Metal pots; Grinding bowl; Water barrels; Ahenkro; Coal pot; Women's work; Plastic containers
View from the north edge of Ahenkro of the road leading northward to Bongase and the Bui Dam site. Newly installed electricty poles and wires are visible on the roadside. Ahenkro, June, 2008.
Newly grated and guttered road leading northward from Ahenkro toward Bongase viewed from the north edge of Ahenkro. The Banda hills are visible in the background. July, 1994
View from the north edge of Ahenkro of the road leading northward to Bongase and the Bui Dam site. Electricty poles and wires are visible on the roadside. The newly grated road of a year before has suffered erosion in the intervening rainy season. Ahenkro, June, 2009.
A youngster (Mamee) pours water from her headpan into a small white plastic barrel for storage and household use in cooking, drinking and bathing. Behind her, a light green plastic basin floats on top of the water in a full metal water barrel. Several wooden pestles are stored nearby. Fetching water for the household is typically the responsibility of older children. Depending on the size of the household, they may fetch water in the morning before going to school and again in the late afternoon. Ahenkro, July, 2008.
A youngster (Mamee) in the household carries water from a nearby borehole in a headpan. By her feet ( to the right) are the wall stubs of a cistern once fed by rainwater from the metal roof. A small white plastic barrel (center) placed by the hearth makes water conveniently available while cooking. Two coal pots are in use (behind the cat) and a small wooden mortar sits nearby. Ahenkro, July, 2008.
Large, shallow blackened clay bowls with interior striations are used in cooking and for eating. Cooks use them together with a small double-sided wooden pestle to grind pepper and cooked vegetables like "garden eggs" (small eggplants) for soups. They are also used as men's eating bowls (pԑԑ in Nafaanra). Bowls with striated interiors are occasionally found on archaeological sites in the Banda area, but this particular blackened form was not common until the 20th century when it was introduced from areas to the south. Potters in the region began to produce the bowls for sale both locally and at regional markets. During the 1980s and 1990s, this became one of the most popular pots made for market sale. Ahenkro, 1986.
The clay pottery jars (sro chͻ in Nafaanra) used to prepare food vary in size. Round-based jars like these are used to boil yams and other starchy foods. They are supported by hearth stones as they sit on the fire. Their lower surface is often textured or surface-treated with maize cob roulette (visible on the largest pot on the right) which may make them easier to handle when full of liquid and food. Ahenkro, 1986.
In the foreground are two clay pots used to prepare soup. A soup pot (chiin sinyjͻlͻ in Nafaanra) has sharp-angled (carinated) shoulders and an everted rim. They are simply decorated with grooved lines above the shoulder, but otherwise plain. The larger one on the right has been blackened, a treatment that is not commonly seen on archaeological pottery from Banda sites. Ahenkro, 1986.
