The new Ahenkro market building was built on the site where a majestic kapok tree shading the outdoor marketplace formerly stood. The tree was downed in a severe storm in 1999/2000, after which the weekly market was moved to a nearby village. The new building houses commercial kiosks and storefronts for rent. View of the market's south and east sides. Two photos. Ahenkro, June, 2016.
Large, shallow blackened clay bowls with interior striations are used in cooking and for eating. They are used together with a small double-sided wooden pestle to grind pepper and vegetables like "garden eggs" (small eggplants) when making soups. These bowls may also be used as men's eating bowls (pԑԑ in Nafaanra). Though archaeological sites occasionally have potsherds with striated interiors, this particular blackened bowl form was not common until the 20th century when it was introduced from areas to the south. Potters in the region began to produce the bowls for sale both locally and at regional markets. By the 1980s and 1990s, this was one of the most popular pots made for market sale. Ahenkro, 1986.
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.
In June 2011, Banda Research Project team member Amanda Logan collaborated with local artist Kwame K.B. 2 to develop paintings for the Banda Cultural Centre's courtyard doors. The paintings illustrate crafts practiced in the area for which we have archaeological evidence. This image shows a woman headloading pottery on her way to market. Pottery making and marketing has been practiced in the Banda area for thousands of years. Scientific studies of pottery from archaeological sites across the region show that pottery was made in different locations over time and was widely traded within and beyond the region. Banda Cultural Centre, Ahenkro, June, 2016.
In June 2011, Banda Research Project team member Amanda Logan collaborated with local artist Kwame K.B. 2 to develop paintings for the Banda Cultural Centre's courtyard doors. The paintings illustrate crafts practiced in the area for which we have archaeological evidence. This image shows a woman spinning cotton thread (right) and a man wearing a locally made blue-and-white strip-woven cloth (left). Archaeologists find spindle whorls used to make thread on late 18th-and early 19th-century archaeological sites. This shows that households produced their own cloth during recent centuries. Before the 17th century, cotton cloth seems to have been less common and was probably acquired through trade from market centers. Banda Cultural Centre, Ahenkro, June, 2016.
The new Ahenkro market building was built on the site where a majestic kapok tree shading the outdoor marketplace formerly stood. The tree was downed in a severe storm in 1999/2000, after which the weekly market was moved to a nearby village. The new building houses commercial kiosks and storefronts for rent. View of the market's south side. Ahenkro, June, 2016.