A woman (Yaa Nsiah Adiemu) headloads pottery that she has brought from Dorbour to the marketplace in Ahenkro, a distance of about 20 km which she has traveled on foot. She is accompanied by her niece (right). She carries in her headpan clay pots used for cooking food and making soup (sro chͻ and chiin sinyjͻlͻ in Nafaanra). She sells her clay pots at the weekly market and by going house-to-house. The load that she is carrying here is at the end of a market day, after she has sold some of her pottery. Ahenkro, July-August, 1986.
A youngster helps a woman remove a loaded headpan as she approaches the thatch-roofed veranda of a room in a compound house. A variety of metal containers used to prepare food and for other household tasks are placed about, along with several calabash bowls and low stools used in this kitchen area. A headpan containing dishes rests on a cluster of hearth stones, lower right. Makala, July, 1994.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Makala
Subjects:
Headloading; Metal pots; Headpans
Subjects Facet:
Stools; Thatched roofs; Gourd, Calabash; Courtyards; Lifting and carrying
Women headloading pottery prepare to leave Dorbour to walk to the weekly market in Bondoukou, a distance of more than 30 km. They have secured the clay pots by tying nettting or cloth around them. The women are not necessarily potters. Some women trade in clay pots but do not make them. Dorbour, 1994.
Tobacco began to be grown as a cash crop in the Banda area in the early 1980s. Here young people tie leaves to the branches from which the tobacco will be suspended while hanging in the drying barn. Visible in the background are two drying barns built of cement block and roofed with iron sheets. Tobacco companies advanced farmers the materials to build these barns against the farmer's crop. Between the drying barns is a stack of wood brought in by tractor to fuel fires in the barns. In the background of one photo, men carry headpans filled with tobacco which they have brought from farm. Two photos. South side of Ahenkro, July-August, 1986.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Ahenkro
Subjects:
Drying barns; Children's work; Wood piles; Headpans; Men's work
Subjects Facet:
Lifting and carrying; Firewood; Tobacco; Metal roofing; Agriculture; Building; Cash crops
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.
Until the late 1980s when boreholes were drilled in many villages, people in the Banda area relied on nearby springs, streams and rivers for daily water supplies. During the dry season, streams often dried up, while in drought years, even river beds became dry. Finding water was particularly difficult during the severe drought years of 1982-83. Here women from Wewa painstakingly collect water from a dry river bed west of the mountains in a process known as 'lawala' in Nafaanra. They scoop water with calabash bowls (chrԑgbͻͻ in Nafaanra). They have walked several kilometers to reach this place and were often faced with long waits before they could fill a headpan with water. Two photos. West of Wewa, December, 1982.
A woman carries harvested tobacco leaves from farm to the area where the leaves will be tied for drying. Behind her, a ladder rests against the wall of a cement block metal-roofed tobacco drying barn. Tobacco was grown as a cash crop in the Banda area from the early 1980s into the early 2000s. Farmers received materials like bags of cement and roofing sheets to build drying barns as advances on their crop. South side of Ahenkro, July-August, 1986.
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial
Publisher:
University of Victoria Libraries
Location(s) Facet:
Ahenkro
Subjects:
Headloading; Drying barns; Women's work
Subjects Facet:
Building; Tobacco; Metal roofing; Cash crops; Lifting and carrying
Yaa Yable Wo carries firewood on her return from farm. Until recent years, meals were most often prepared over hearths fueled by firewood. Women and children collected downed tree limbs and other dry wood from farmlands surrounding the villages. Wood was headloaded back home and stacked on platforms raised above the ground to be stored until needed. Cooking over charcoal in fabricated metal coalpots became more common in the late 20th-early 21st century as charcoal burners moved into the Banda area and charcoal production increased. Recently, gas cookers have begun to be used by people able to afford industrial cookers and the bottled gas need to fuel them. Ahenkro, December, 1982.
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.