Making batik

Ghanaians wear beautiful cloth custom made into outifts, most often the 'kaba and slit', a long skirt and a top in a variety of designs. Cloth is sold by the yard in a variety of colourful designs in wax print, tie dye and batik. Esther makes tie dye and batiks at her home which she sells at her shop in town. When Katie, my niece, was here in September we went to see Esther at work. Esther has a collection of wooden stamps which she uses to apply the wax to the cloth. They depict designs such as the Adinkra symbols which each have a special meaning, the most popular being 'Gye Nyame', seen everywhere on plastic chairs, taxis, and most recently in the designs for the celebrations of Ghana's 50th anniversary. It's meaning 'except God', reminds everyone that without God, nothing can be achieved. Esther carefully dips the stamps in the hot wax and applies it to the cloth. The cloth is then dyed and dried in the sunshine. It will be sewn into outfits, and also in my case bedsheets, curtains and chair covers. Thanks to Katie and her artist's eye for the beautiful shots.

Akonwa nie - a chair is here

This is the house I rent in Nwoase, one of the many little communities of Kintampo. Here live a mixed bunch, representing many of the different communities in Kintampo, a meeting place of migrants. My landlady, sister Agatha, is from Ashanti region, but married and moved to Kintampo. Now a widow, she has her hands full raising six sons, plus two 'adopted' children. Most families have this kind of inbuilt flexibility - incorporating children of sisters, or poorer relatives, and often children who not related at all. They are brought up as part of the family, although sometimes, perhaps often, they retain some lesser status, and often take responsibility for many of the household chores. The system can work as an effective form of 'social security' but also provides a possible avenue for abuse.

Sister Agatha has built this new house which will eventually be her own home, an upgrade from her smaller house across the compound. The house is in the usual village style, made from concrete with a corrugated steel roof, and slatted windows. It is also built with the usual haste - walls, doors, windows even electric sockets askew, and rudimentary plumbing which springs frequent leaks. The waste water flows out around the house where the hens pick at the food scraps. Sewage is stored in an underground concrete-lined pit which will be emptied once it is full. Not the most pleasant of tasks I imagine.


Whenever you visit a house people hurry around to find you some form of seating - usually a plastic chair if they are better off, often a simple wooden bench or stool. As they do saw they invite you to sit - 'Aknowa nie', a chair is here. My living room, definately at the luxury end of the scale in Kintampo, features a dining table and chairs made by one of the many local carpenters, who also made the wardrobe and desk. Ready made furniture is not the norm in Kintampo - but the carpenters do a busy trade in wardrobes, beds, and sofas, as well as chicken coops, shoe racks, tables for traders to display their wares, and the ubiquitous little stools which are used to squat on for cooking, doing the laundry, eating or entertaining. The cane sofas are not common here, but made in Accra or Kumasi, again to order and by hand.



This is my landlady's compound next to my house. The wooden benches positioned in compound yards, or under the shade of mango trees, are used for entertaining visitors, and in my case for interviews. They also serve as church pews in the poorer churches or double up as beds for an afternoon or evening snooze. Sister Agatha uses her benches for her weekly Jehovah's Witness Bible study meetings which are held in her compound. The boys also gather on them to play Oware, a local game. And most evenings after eating her daily bowl of fufu, I find sister Agatha balanced with apparent ease on her side on one of the narrow benches, eyes closed, her head pillowed on one arm, lost in dreams.


On my verandah is another form of local seating, these chairs, ingeniously woven from slender sticks of wood bound together with strips of old rubber tyres. A couple of cushions and they make a nice chair for lounging in. The old men next door position them under the trees to while away the day gossiping, greeting me with a warm 'Akwaaba' - welcome- when I return.

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.