'Products' of Ghana

Another love of mine, in foreign countries, is seeing how various products local to the country are produced and the process involved.  With many pictures, I present to you, the products of Ghana :)  If you are interested in any one product, I have tried to include lots of links.  And, yes, I acknowledge this is a LONG post.  So, make a cup of coffee and enjoy :)

Termite Mounds.  One of the most impressive products of Ghana.  Some of these were HUGE!

There are two kinds of cloth that are traditional in Ghana.  Kente Cloth, the making of which you will see below, is typical of the Ashanti region.  They are the tribe in the center of the country that was the richest in Ghana.  They gained their wealth from cocoa, gold, selling of slaves, and the having some of the most fertile land in Ghana. Their cloth is woven, the first part of the process is making spools of yarn/thread using the device below.
 

One of our guides makes a spool of thread

Our guide explains how they use the rebar to make a huge skein of yarn that is then used to weave.

Our guide again making his large skeins...

It is then set up on the loom (no idea how they pull that off) and stretches around 10 ft. from the loom.  It is tied to a rock and pulls toward them as they go.

This is the example one the Obruni got to practice on.  We were doing one of the most simple weaves.

To switch the threads back and forth, you use these pedals that fit between your toes.  That would be my kind of job, no shoes allowed!

And the final product, historically was made into clothe to be warn by the chiefs.  Each weave and color has a different meaning or was to be warn at a certain time.  These are my students (Rugi, So, Shannon, and Diego from Senegal, Japan, Colorado, and Mexico respectively)

For those of you who know me well, you will know, this is my personal favorite product in all of Ghana.

 

Yes, those are cocoa pods.  AKA what they use to make chocolate.  AKA my drug of choice.  My biggest fear in Ghana was the fact, I thought, I would not be able to have any chocolate.  Most of theirs is exported and many of the Ghanians I spoke with were not fans of chocolate.  To my great relief, and I think the benefit of all humanity, I was able to bring Cliff and Luna bars that were chocolate with me and have successfully not gone for a single day without chocolate since October (maybe longer but that was when I started tracking my consumption).

Our guides showed us the chief's orchard and even picked a pod so we could see the beans inside.  He broke it open by knocking it against the tree.

This is what the insides of a pod look like.  The gooey white stuff was sweet-ish and you sucked this off the seeds.

This is what a seed looks like.

If you bite into it (we were told not too because it is very bitter) you see the beautiful brown of cocoa.  YUM! :)

In Ghana, there was very little food diversity relative to the United States (this makes sense since the entire country is the size of Oregon and relatively homogenous in climate).  These were one of my favorites...

Plantain Chips!  They are like corn chips, only better.  They are thinly sliced, fried in palm oil, and salted.  You could buy these on most central and southern Ghana streets from women selling them out of big bowls balanced on their heads.

And this is how the palm oil is made.  Though, some countries are selling this for biofuel, Ghana has laws prohibiting the sale of palm oil except for consumption.  This is one of their 'environmental' protection laws in a way, though it also protects the food prices.  If it could be sold for biofuel, the price, based on demand would potentially rise a level outside what the common folks can afford.  They also may destroy all the 'natural' forests to plant palm trees as a cash crop of sorts.

These are the seeds of the palm tree used to make palm oil

Our guide explaining the machine.  Basically, once they boil and soften the seeds, they are dumped in the big funnel to grind.

The pulp drops in one of these containers and then the oil is pressed out of it.

Then the women empty the strainer barrels of the pulp, and the process starts anew.  A non-profit provided all this machinery for the people to increase their production.  However, they did not train the people on how to repair the machines.  One has broken down, slowing production significantly, so until they can afford to fix it, they are stuck.

Batik is the other kind of cloth we saw, and got to try making.  The basic process is take a piece of muslin cloth.  Use the foam stamps (that are hand made) to stamp onto the cloth.  You dip them in hot melted wax.  This protects the area you stamp from the dye and keeps it white (like making Ukrainian Eggs).  After you stamp on your pattern and the wax has cooled, you dye the fabric.  For the more advanced, multi-color patterns, you repeat this process - lightest color to darkest.  We got to try this at Global Mama's an AWESOME co-op, you can buy their stuff in the US.

First you stamp...

Getting in touch with my crafty side!

These were already died multiple times by the experts.  They were adding more colors.

Some of their example fabrics.  Mine would not have made the cut ;)

After the products are complete, they are inspected for flaws.  Yes, those are tiny baby shoes.


One of the slum communities, right outside Accra has recently started this recycling program through which they create marketable goods.  This provides the youth with jobs, vocational training, and an income for more in the community.  The other benefit is that the community is cleaned up a bit.  There is no trash/recycling program that exists throughout Ghana so trash, such as water sachets are simply discarded on the ground.  As people leave the rural areas for the cities, in hopes of finding jobs and income to support their families, overcrowding in these slums is a challenge.  Thus, you can imagine how the trash would pile up. 

This is a water sachet.  As the water is not safe to drink from the tap (if you even have running water).  Many people buy their drinking water in these 'disposable' plastic bags.  You simply cut or tear a hole in the corner and drink out the water.

This is what the build up of plastic looks like.  EVERYTHING is sold in plastic bags and with no trash and recycling programs, it quickly becomes a huge problem.

Thanks to this new initiative, youth collect and clean the water sachets to be re-purposed. In the community we visited, this was a partnership between CHF International and Trashy Bags, as well as local community leaders.  Engage Globally plans to soon support a similar program in the Teshie Community.

After the bags are collected, others in the community are hired to sew them into reusable grocery bags and other unique products.

This is one of the women we met.  The grocery bags even zip up into these lovely carrying pouches!

Drums are another of the products we saw throughout Ghana.  Though I don't have photos of them being made.  These are some of my favorite photos learning how to drum...

This is what I look like learning to drum in 100 degree weather.  :)

They decided to teach the entire class of students with whom I traveled the art of drumming.  They actually did pretty well!

One of my favorite photos.  And, a video clip of one of the basic drum rhythms.  Those students have some talent.

Shea Butter is another major product in Ghana - and one that is becoming a popular export.  Shea Butter is not only great for the skin, it is rumored to lighten the skin so in cultures where a lighter complexion is valued, more and more companies are marketing Shea Butter.  The shea nut grows in a tree.  The women harvest it from the trees to produce the butter.  Asps (snakes) also enjoy living in those trees, so it can be a risky job.  Once the harvesting is complete the nuts are ground, mixed with water, boiled, and probably a number of other steps I am forgetting to make the butter that cosmetic companies so highly value.

I believe this is one of the grinding machines.  These are some of the women and their husbands that produce shea butter in one of the communities we visited.

At multiple points in the process the ground nut is mixed with water (that may be what the gentleman in the orange hat is explaining here).  This equipment was all purchased by the community to help increase product output.

This is the process the shea butter must go through.  These women sit around all day mixing the pulp with water.  There is a specific ratio and process far outside my ability to understand.  It is then boiled again and the oils separate out. 

The area behind the women is where the product is boiled.  I believe there are two different heatings, multiple mixings, all after the grinding...

And, in the end you get this.  These are barrels of pure shea butter.  I want to say one of these buckets was sold for under $20 (or around what women in the US will pay for a tiny bottle of something containing shea butter).  There is a bit of a mark-up.  Every couple of months, the buyer of the shea butter will come and pick up these buckets of product for export.

Smoked fish is the final product of Ghana that I wanted to highlight.  Many people depend on this industry.  Unfortunately, due to overfishing and pollution, it is getting more difficult for fisherman to sustain themselves. 

This is one of the beach fronts - lined with fishing boats.

Once the men bring back the fish.  Women smoke the fish in these large smoker-canister-thingamabobs.  They are also responsible for selling them in the markets.

This woman was one of the folks smoking the fish.  I had asked if I could take a picture of the fish, as I wanted to be respectful of her livelihood and she enthusiastically agreed, but insisted she be in the photo as well.  The young boy and gentleman were other community members who wanted to be in the shot.  This whole area was surrounded with the smoker-canisters.  They were covered with the cardboard, I am guessing to hold in the smoke.  The entire community was filled with alcoves of smoke-canisters.                                                                                                                    And, that is my summary of the products of Ghana!  Thanks for reading!