Radio Adars

Community radio is the most important media in Kintampo. There are high rates of illiteracy and newspapers are only able to be understood by those educated to read English. TV is also beyond most people's budget and in any case many houses in the district are without electricity. But the radio is ubiquitous, transmitting music, news and debate in Twi, the local language. This makes radio an ideal medium for communicating health messages. Adars is the local radio station in Kintampo. Mohammed, a journalist for the station showed me round the studio, where a local DJ, 'Mighty Ocean' was taking to the airwaves with popular 'hiplife' tunes.

Soft drinks

Headloading soft drinks for sale - a delicious mixture of lemons and spices. People pass along the streets of Kintampo headloading goods for sale, particularly on market days - yards of cloth, ground nuts, bananas, plastic ware.

Goats in the hold

Food is generally cheaper in Kintampo and many trade by taking foodstuffs and livestock south to sell for a profit. Among the many things that are transported on the night bus to Accra are these unfortunate goats who are packed into the hold, along with other prized foodstuffs. Goat meat is popular for soups and barbecues. It will be a hot and bumpy 8-10 hour ride to the capital.

Kintampo breakfast

Tea and eggs Kintampo style. Most of these stalls are set up in the evening and the stallholders work through until morning to meet the night trade of truck drivers and overnight passengers who pass through Kintampo from the northern parts of Ghana or from the landlocked countries of West Africa such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Lipton tea, Nescafe or 'Milo' served sweet with evaporated milk, and a freshly fried omelette with onions, tomatoes and peppers slid into a chunk of 'tea bread', a savoury floury loaf - delicious!

Marriage Blessing, Blood of Jesus Healing Church 12th August 2007

Pastor Danis and his wife, Juliet, have three children and are married under traditional practice. But as Christians they decided to hold a marriage ceremony in the compound of their church, a simple concrete building in a neatly swept compound, shaded with mango and plantain trees. The church has several people sleeping on mats in the church, others sleep outdoors under simple thatched shelters. They have come to the church to seek healing, some for mental illness.
The wedding ceremony involved the trappings of European wedding customs, the frothy white dress, the bridesmaids in matching outfits, the exchange of rings, and the signing of the register. But after the ceremony events took a distinctively Ghanaian turn - the entertainment consisted of various innovative ways to extract money from the guests. The wedding invitation itself consisted of a specially printed envelope - in which you are expected to put your donation, and of course there was a church 'collection' accompanied by joyful singing and dancing.


Then the methods became more unconventional. Guests were first asked to approach an enterprising pastor to touch the bride's bouquet of silk flowers and receive a prayer in return for a donation. The flowers were then auctioned to the highest bidder, with much rivalry and excitement as the women guests tried to outbid each other. Next the women were invited to bring their children to the pastor who asked them to say aloud their ambitions for the future career of their sons and daughters. As they offered their 2,000 cedi (about 10 pence), the pastor said aloud the position which they hoped for, whilst bursting a balloon with a pin. What careers came top? - doctors, nurses, teachers and soldiers were the almost unanimous choices. I wondered how many of the children brought by their hopeful mothers, mostly farmers and traders, will get that far.

Apostles Continuation Church Women's Convention

Conventions, crusades and conferences are a big part of the social and spiritual calender for the many churches in Ghana. Nearly every week there is some form of convention or crusade in Kintampo and the town is regularly festooned with banners advertising 'festivals of prayer', 'miracles crusades' and other revivalist themes. There are conventions for men, women, the youth and students, usually lasting two or three days. Often they have a healing theme. I was invited to join this convention by some friends who are members of the church. Women dressed in their church cloth and headscarves decorated with the church logo began the proceedings with enthusiastic singing and dancing.



The pastors of the church, all men, then lead the women in fervent prayers, urging the women to 'pray hard'. Women are acknowledged by men to be more earnest in their prayers and as they prayed they became more and more transported. The women pray aloud, often repeating over and over 'Jesus, Jesus!' Sometimes they pray in tongues. The pastors move among them also praying and 'laying on hands' with a forceful authority. The women spin and stagger under their touch, eventually falling to the ground to roll in the dust. And what do they pray for? My friend explained why his wife needed to pray so hard - she has only one child, and she prays desperately for another, sinking on her knees to the dust of Kintampo.

Lake Bosomtwi

Katrina came out to Ghana in August for a holiday with her friend, Patrick, and I went down to Kumasi to meet her. We took a trip out to this beautiful lake, surrounded by wooded hills. Fishermen drifted on the lake on wooden canoes, casting their nets into the water. The anthropologist, Rattray, took photos of the lake in the 1920s and it looks little different from the grainy photos which were published in his ethnographies of the Ashanti.