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.
Young men prepare calabash (gourd; chrԑ in Nafaanra) ladles for market. The calabash is split, its pulpy interior removed, and the gourd's interior surface scraped clean before drying. Banda, July, 1982.
The New Yam Festival (Finjie Lie in Nafaanra) marks the day when people can begin to eat the new crop of yams (finyjie in Nafaanra). Here women gather round a wooden mortar to pound cooked yam tubers to make fufu. Women pound with heavy, round-ended pestles. Working together, they use their pestles to pound and turn the fufu. Pestles hit the mortar's edge as they pound, creating a rhythmic accompaniment to their work. The musical sound of women and their helpers pounding fufu or grain was an integral part of the soundscape of village life in the earlier times. To the rear (right) calabashes (gourds, chrԑ in Nafaanra) wrapped in netting are ready to be sent to market. To the front sits a pottery grinding bowl (left), a calabash (center) and metal cooking pots (right). Ahenkro, 30 August, 1982.
Women in the central courtyard of a house compound in Ahenkro prepare the evening meal. A woman seated in the foreground readies dishes while women in the background cook over clustered hearths. A number of low stools are placed amidst a variety of metal, plastic and fired clay containers including buckets and pots. Calabash bowls (chrԑgbͻͻ in Nafaanra) are among the containers being used. A repurposed metal drum (center, back) holds water for household purposes. A raised platform is stacked with firewood brought by the women from farm and stored until needed. Thatch- and metal-roofed rooms surround the courtyard. Ahenkro, July-August, 1986.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Ahenkro
Subjects:
Metal pots; Plastic containers; Water barrels; Women's work
A man operates a diesel-powered corn mill in a roofed shed while another adjusts a grain bag nearby. He grinds grain into a plastic container resting in a headpan. Another headpan filled with maize (corn, bledju in Nafaanra) sits in front with a calabash used as a scoop sitting on top. Other plastic and metal containers sit nearby. Diesel-powered grinding mills first began to be set up in Ahenkro in the 1980s. They have become more common over the years, reducing the need for maize and other dried foodstuffs to be pounded by hand in wooden mortars. At the same time, they have expanded the need for cash income as grinding has become part and parcel of household budgets. Ahenkro, 2009.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Ahenkro
Subjects:
Diesel engine; Automation; Headpans; Plastic containers; Men's work
Young boys (Kofi and Isaac, sons of James Anane) pound calabash seeds in preparation for making calabash seed soup (fnumu chiin in Nafaanra). They use a deep wooden mortar and pestles rounded at the base. A metal roof shelters the hearth in the background. A chicken searches for food as the boys work. Ahenkro, July-August, 1986.
Hearths in a Dorbour household. One of three visible hearths is in use, a metal cooking pot suspended over a fire fueled by firewood. A wooden mortar and several pestles are at ready in the background. In the foreground (right) a clay cooking pot rests on top of a metal basin that has been re-purposed as a pot stand. A large metal pot, a calabash bowl (chrԑgbͻͻ in Nafaanra) and a plastic cup sit behind the clay pot. Dorbour, 1994.
A woman carries a load of calabashes (chrԑ in Nafaanra) en route to Kabruno from Ahenkro during the dry season. View looking south from the south edge of Ahenkro on the old road that led directly into Kabruno. December, 1982.
Ma Fiԑn of Gbao (left) and Abena Wusu of Dompofie (right) spin cotton thread. Their spindles (gԑndԑ in Nafaanra) are weighted by fired clay spindle whorls (gԑndԑ kaan in Nafaanra) which help the spindle to maintain an even spin. Ma Fiԑn uses a calabash bowl as a spinning surface. Abena Wusu uses an enamel-ware bowl placed on a basket. They use their right hand to guide thread onto the spindle as it spins. In their left hand they hold the raw cotton from which the thread is being spun. They control the tension and flow of the cotton by alternately pulling back and easing their left hands. Thread forms as the spindle spins, with the finished product building up in layers toward the spindle's lower end, near the whorl. The baskets on top of which they spin used to store spinning equipment when not in use. Until recent decades, spinning was a routine household activity for women who then gave thread to men skilled in weaving to make cloth for the household. Spindle whorls found on archaeological sites dating to the late 18th and 19th centuries tell us that spinning was also a household activity during those centuries. In the photo's background harvested foods are drying (groundnut, cassava, chili pepper). A large basket and other containers (including a plastic tub) sit next to dried calabash ready to be sent to market. To the right, a clay water pot (chͻkoo in Nafaanra) rests on a metal basin and in the top right is a metal water barrel. Four photos. Gbao, September, 1982.