Young women carry headpans loaded with blackened clay bowls as they head to market. One girl has secured her load with rope netting. Standing right is the daughter of Yao Mosi. Adadiem, 1994.
Adwoa Fodjoa, a Nafana potter, sits on a wooden stool as she thins the inside walls of a clay water pot (chͻkoo in Nafaanra). The pot has been formed and set aside to dry before the potter thins its walls. The round-based pot rests on a cloth as she works. Other water pots on which she is working sit near her, turned upside down. A metal plate that she uses as a palette (kpankpa in Nafaanra) on which to form pots sits by her foot. The clay jar in front of the pot on which she is working contains the water she uses to moisten the pot as needed. A tray with lumps of clay and two enamel ware pots sit nearby. Dorbour, 1994.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Dorbour
Subjects:
Forming; Women's work; Potting; Dorbour; Water pots (chokoo)
A field planted with tobacco near the Banda hills northwest of Ahenkro. Banda area farmers began to go into commercial tobacco farming in the 1980s. In preparation to grow tobacco, fields were clear cut and plowed by tractor. Tobacco seedlings were transplanted into the mono-cropped fields. Farmers used commercial fertilizers supplied by tobacco buyers who advanced money on cured leaves. These large cleared fields rapidly lost soil fertility. After tobacco farming was banned by the Traditional Council in the early 2000s, these open fields were often planted with other cash crops, like cashew. Northwest of Ahenkro, 1994.
In order to transport clay pots by motor vehicle, they must be carefully packed and padded. Here, blackened clay grinding bowls packed in grass have arrived in Techiman market from potting villages in Banda. Techiman, 1994.
By 1994, many Banda farmers had gone into tobacco farming. Money was advanced to farmers by tobacco companies to purchase the cement and iron sheets needed to build drying barns. The buyers also advanced commercial fertilizer needed to grow the cash crop. A tractor supplied by the company was used to prepare fields for the seedlings and to transport firewood from surrounding areas to the barns. Large amounts of wood were used to stoke fires in the drying barns. South side of Ahenkro, June-July, 1994.
View from the mountain gap in the Banda hills west of Ahenkro, looking southeast toward the range of hills near Boase. A clear-cut tractor-plowed field (foreground) awaits planting of tobacco seedlings. Tobacco was grown as a cash crop in Banda from the mid-1980s through the 1990s until its cultivation was banned by the Banda Traditional Council. Beyond the field are houses in Gbao and savanna woodland extending to the Boase range. Outskirts of Ahenkro, 1994.
Enoch Mensah climbs down the steep slope below the Banda rockshelter, headed southward. He moves towards what elders described as the water source used by people who took refuge in the cave when Asante attacked Banda. Oral histories describe hardships in getting food and water while people hid in the cave. This attack may relate to Asantehene Osei Kwadwo's campaign against Banda during the dry season of 1773-74 when many Banda people were taken captive and sold by Asante to the Dutch at Elmina Castle. Banda hills, 30 July, 1994.
Interior of the Banda rockshelter (sdekpͻͻ in Nafaanra). Its floor is covered with large boulders which sheared from the shelter's roof over time. Enoch Mensah and Doris Millah sit in the foreground. Banda oral histories refer to this as the cave in which people hid during Asante's attacks on Banda in the 1700s. These stories may relate to Asantehene Osei Kwadwo's campaign against Banda during the dry season of 1773-74. After this, in February 1774, Dutch officials at Elmina Castle reported purchasing captives from Asante's war against "Benda." Banda hills, 30 July, 1994.
The cliff face of the of the Banda rockshelter (upper right) gives way to a rocky slope below which is partially covered in low-growing grass. View to the north. Banda hills, 30 July, 1994.