Joshua Tandor uses a metal blade and a mallet to split a calabash (chrԑ in Nafaanra) in half. The pulp and seeds are removed and the calabash walls scraped clean before being set aside to dry. The resulting calabash bowls (chrԑgbͻͻ) are sold at market while the seeds are a prized soup ingredient (fnumu). Farmstead on the outskirts of Banda-Ahenkro, August, 1982.
Family members work together at farm to process calabash (gourd; chrԑ in Nafaanra) grown as both a cash crop and a source of household objects and its seeds as a soup ingredient. The men use large knives to split the calabash, after which they will remove its pulpy center and scrape its interior walls. Pictured here are (left to right) Maa Afia (girl), Ama Bosin (woman), O. K. Kwabena Krah, Nduo Wulo Kwadwo and Joshua Tandor. Farm on the outskirts of Banda-Ahenkro, August, 1982.
Typical farm from the 1980s, showing intercropping of yams (finyjie in Nafaanra), cassava (dwa), calabash (chrԑ) or gourd and other crops. Banda, 1982.
Calabash (gourd) seeds (fnumu in Nafaanra) are a prized ingredient used to prepare a much-valued soup (fnumu chiin; calabash seed soup). The pulp is set aside to decay, making it easier to remove the seeds, which are then cleaned, dried, and cracked by hand to remove the seed coat. Here women on Nduo Wulo Kwadwo's farm outside Banda-Ahenkro prepare to carry seeds home for processing. Outskirts of Banda-Ahenkro, August, 1982.
Nduo Wulo Kwadwo at farm, preparing calabash (gourd) bowls (chrԑgbͻͻ in Nafaanra) for market. After removing the pulp and seeds, he scrapes the gourd's interior surface with a metal blade to clean and thin its walls before drying. Farm on the outskirts of Banda-Ahenkro, August, 1982.
View from the small hill west of Kabruno, looking southeast towards the hills near Boase. The villages of Kabruno and Gbao are visible in the foreground. Banda area, 23 July, 1982.
View to the southeast from the Banda hills above Ahenkro and Kabruno. The villages of Kabruno, Sase, Gbao, Samwa and Dompofie are visible beyond the first range of hills. The road leading south to Sabiye appears as a thin white line. In the background are the hills near Boase. Hills west of Ahenkro, 31 August, 1982.
