A seated Nafana potter uses her hands to mold the sides of a clay pot. Beginning with a lump of clay placed on a round palette (kpankpa in Nafaanra), she has used a draw-and-drag (direct pull) technique to form the pot. Nearby are the enamel ware plates that she uses as palettes or turntables on which to form pots. Another partially shaped pot is visible at the top of the photo. Dorbour, 1994.
A potter seated on the ground starts to form a clay pot. She begins with a lump of clay resting on a metal plate (kpankpa in Nafaanra) which she can turn as she uses a draw-and-drag (direct pull) technique to shape the pot. A second lump of clay has already begun to be formed (lower left) and a clay bowl contains water that she uses to moisten the clay as needed (lower right). Lying on the metal plates to the left are tools that she will use as she forms the pot including two maize cobs, a spatula and a stone. Dorbour, 1994.
Yaa Tenabrԑ, a Nafana potter, stands as she uses a spatula-like tool to smooth and thin the walls of a large clay pot which she is molding. She has shaped the pot using a draw-and-drag (direct pull) technique, beginning with a lump of clay and using her hands to draw the clay upwards and outwards. The pot rests on a round metal plate (kpankpa in Nafaanra) that can be turned on the stump on which it sits and on which the pot can be moved and set aside as it dries. Dorbour, 1994.
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.