A plowed field at the base of the Banda hills near Ahenkro remains unplanted. Other previously plowed but now fallow fields are visible as light green areas against a background of savanna woodland. These clear-cut, tractor-plowed fields were first opened up in the 1980s and 1990s when many farmers took up commercial tobacco production, later banned by the Traditional Council. Looking eastward, the hills near Fawoman are visible in the background. Two photos. Northwest of Ahenkro, June, 2009.
Work in progress at the Bui Dam site by Sinohydro, a state-owned Chinese hydropower and engineering company. Here the river channel has been diverted and the base of the dam is under construction. View from the south bank, looking northwest. Two photos. Bui Dam site, 7 July, 2009.
Sinohydro, the state-owned Chinese hydropower engineering and construction company, began constructing the Bui Hydroelectric Dam in 2008. Here on the north bank of the Black Volta River at the base of the mountain is the cleared site of an Ewe fishing village, Agbegikrom (two views). The village was leveled after its inhabitants were resettled. Bui Dam site, 7 July, 2009.
Devin Tepleski, University of Victoria undergraduate student in visual anthropology, plays back film footage on a video camera to children from Bui Village. The children carry headpans as they make their way to the river to fetch water. Acting on a request by Bui people, Tepleski visited Bui as part of the Banda Research Project to video-document the village and its people prior to their mandatory relocation due to the Bui Hydroelectric Dam project. His short film "Mango Driftwood" was posted on YouTube on 20 November, 2010 at the link below. Bui Village, May, 2009.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Bui
Subjects:
Headpans; Mango Driftwood; Team photo; Bui; Fetching water; Children's work
Archaeological team member Enoch Mesah (left, white shirt) explains what archaeologists have been learning through excavation of Mound 7 at Ngre Kataa. He addresses Tolɛɛ Gbankama, chief of Nyire (standing, center, white shirt) and accompanying Nyire elders during a site visit. Archaeological team member Kofi Nsia pauses excavation during the conversation, the short-handled hoe with which he is working resting on the ground in front of him. Ngre Kataa, 6 July, 2009.
A light-colored slurry plaster marks the outlines of earthen walls exposed through excavations at Mound 7, Ngre Kataa. View looking westward. The T-shaped juncture where two walls intersect is visible (center, top). The interior and exterior of the walls were coated with a thin plaster, appearing as a light-colored thin line exposed by archaeologists as they dug down. A two-meter scale appears (right) by a photo board. To the left and outside the building is a cluster of stones, some perhaps used in food processing activities. Ngre Kataa, 6 June, 2009.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution--NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Provenance:
Ngre Kataa, Mound 7, Units 12N 24E and 12N 26E, 80 cm below datum
Dzobo Sebastian, an Ewe fishermen from Akayakrom, works part time as a guide for tourists visiting Bui National Park. He paddles a boat carrying tourists up river to view the park's resident hippo population. Thick riparian forest lines the north bank of the Black Volta River. Akanyakrom and these upstream areas were flooded by Bui Lake as water levels rose behind Bui Dam after 2012. Hippos were driven upstream by flooding and locally made canoes could no longer be used to ferry tourists because of the lake's winds and waves. Akanyakrom, 12 June, 2009.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Akanyakrom
Subjects:
Bui Lake; Bui National Park
Subjects Facet:
Bui Dam (Ghana); Hippopotamus; Canoes; Riparian forests; Black Volta River; Ewe (African people); Tourism
Interior of the Banda rockshelter (sdekpͻͻ in Nafaanra). Its floor is covered with large boulders which sheared from the shelter's roof over time. 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." Pictured here are members of the Banda Research Project. Front L-R: Enoch Mensah, Yaw Frimpong, Kofi Photo, David Adjartey Tei-Mensah. Center: Ann Stahl. Back L-R: Devin Tepleski, Amanda Logan, Andy Gurstelle, Lamini. Banda hills, June/July, 2009.
The town of Ahenkro as seen from the Banda hills, view to the southeast. The first of the town's cellular phone towers is visible on the south side of town. The eastern range of Banda hills is visible in the distance. At the photo's bottom left, the angular edges of a tractor-plowed field are visible. Clear-cut fields like these were first established when Banda area farmers took up commercial tobacco farming during the 1980s and 1990s. Since tobacco farming was banned by the Banda Traditional Council in the early 2000s, these fields have been put to other types of cash cropping. Banda, June, 2009.
Ahenkro (left) and Kabruno/Kanka (right) as seen from the Banda hills, view to the southeast. Two of the early (red-and-white) cellular phone towers in the area are visible. The eastern range of Banda hills is visible in the distance. Banda, June, 2009.