Venturing Through Kumasi: July 13, 2013

Molly & Shaye

After arrving in Kumasi last evening, this morning jetted the team into a quick start with a visit to the Asante King’s Palace and to the King Prempe Palace Museum.  We learned the importance of the matriarchal lineage practiced by the Asante people and the reason that a king is still the royal authority today.  Everyone on the team got a little nervous when the tour guide at the palace told us that if we sat in any chair the king once sat in, we would not be able to return to the United States. Hopefully he was kidding, but we're not really sure.  As we left the palace we were able to see a few of the beautiful peacocks that roam the palace grounds and capture these amazing birds in our  photographs.

After learning about the history of the Asante people, we decided to try our hand at bargaining with Kumasi craftsmen and women.  Our Sun Seekers bus took us to Ahwiaa, a wood carving village on the outskirts of Kumasi. Every craftsman we met told us they would give us the special “student price.”  Although that was not always the low price we were hoping for, everyone on the team left with at least one unique wood carving (and several of us with a few more than one).

Following our bargaining adventure, we explored the process of making Adinkra inks and stamps at Ntonso Adinkra Village. Adinkra is one of the two oldest types of cloth produced in Ghana. Prof’s good friend, Peter, demonstrated the process of pounding special shredded bark from a tree grown only in northern Ghana.  The people from the village must travel there by commercial bus to obtain the bark, then return to Ntonso, soak the bark in water for three days, then pound it until it is shredded. The bark is then continuously boiled over a wood fire for a week until it reaches the correct black color and thickness for ink. 

Each member of our team got to try pounding wood in a huge mortar made from a hollowed-out tree trunk.  The "pestles" were 6-foot long branches weighing about 10 pounds and the process reqires two people pounding the bark in alternating fashion. We quickly discovered that this was a much harder job than it appeared to be when Peter and a friend did it. 

After learning how Adinkra dye is made, some members of the team decided to make their own Adinkra cloth. We selected two or three of the many Adinkra symbol stamps that Peter and his fellow craftsmen had carved from calabash gourds.  Peter or another craftsman would dip the selected stamps into the black dye pot, shake the excess dye off the stamp, and then hand it to us to stamp own cloth.  Several of us made beautiful strips which we are looking forward to showing our family and friends when we return home.  

We finished the day with a fun dinner together at the Friends Garden Restaurant.  Then we laughed and sang to the songs playing on the bus radio all the way back to the Noda Hotel, our Kumasi home this weekend.  Everyone was pretty exhausted from the constant busy-ness, so we were eager to get to our rooms and get some rest to refuel for tomorrow when we will leave Kumasi.

On the way home to Cape Coast, we'll stop at Bonwire, the village that makes Ghana's famous Kente Cloth - the other type of traditional Ghanaian cloth. Then, we'll stop at Lake Bosomtwi, a crater lake that is the largest fresh water body in the entire country of Ghana.  

Can't wait for tomorrow!