Field Notes, Day 8

Volta Region

We spent long hours in the car today traveling to the Volta region. We visited the Agomanyo beat market, Cedi’s bead factory, Agotime-Kpetoe kente weavers, and enjoyed lunch overlooking Aksombo Dam. At the Agomanyo bead market, we marched through lines of stalls selling miscellaneous items from brooms to shirts to food, until we were lead into an enclave filled with stalls selling beads. We learned from Dr. Hart that beads were once used as a form of currency in Ghana. Beads were handmade by skilled locals, but beads from Venice and China were also circulated by foreign visitors. Beads were - and still are - very valuable, and there are meanings behind their designs as well. Older beads cost more than newly-made beads because of the history behind them, as well as the variety of their origins. At one stall, a woman held up a long strand of old beads from venice that cost 1000 cedis, while small bracelets with new beads were only 2 for 4 cedis. I stocked up on necklaces that ranged from 15 cedis to 20 cedis. After leaving the market with my bundles, we drove to a bead factory run by a man incidentally named: Cedi. Cedi’s bead factory actually felt more like “Cedi’s bead village.” There were many white buildings that Dr. Hart told us were not there when she last visited. Cedi confirmed that he began renovating and turning the place into a tourist destination seven years ago. We watched Cedi demonstrate the different ways to create different types of beads from raw materials. The experience provided greater context or the beads I had bought earlier, and I am now able to look at the beads around my neck and around my wrists and understand how it was made and where it came from. We watched Cedi take broken glass bottles and powder, and place his creations in modes. He explained how cassava stems, sticks, and wooden tools (discernible by tops shaped like a cross, a tilapia fish, a star, etc.) were used to poke holes in the beats for their strands as well as create their shape. We saw the structures, the dirt bounds, and the wood that had been build up into kilns to fire the beats. A long spatula was used the push and pull the molds carrying the beats into the fire, and the temperature of the kiln can be controlled by the amount of dry or wet wood placed inside. Cedi then showed us how the beat were made to cool and later polished on a stone with water and dirt. We ended by seeing final products in Cedi’s shop. The beads were more expensive than at the Agomanyo Market, but Cedi’s designs carried his mark. They are more careful and his colors more vibrant. It was interesting to see that there really is a connection between the beads and their maker. You could see Cedi in his beads, but then again we had just spent some time learning his story and watching him create. It made me wonder about the stories of the madams who sold me the beads in Agomanyo. Every crevice and imperfection still present in the beads is evident of the human hands that made them, I wondered about the hands and the people that did not own a bead village, and the work Cedi does to maintain his - once all the tourists leave. Afterwards, we traveled to see the Agotime-Kpetoe Ewe kente weavers. As we entered their space, we saw long stretches of colored thread attached to looms, and weavers both young and old working quickly, but meticulously on the Ewe kente designed. The weaving of threat attached to chunky wooden spools made a rhythmic, yet calming clinching noise, almost like the drumming of congos or the rattling of bones. A weaver noticed us observing him and reached into a box beside his loom to give us scraps of unfinished kente. I also bought a full-length, finished stretch of cloth that featured yellow, red, and green. We then drove back to Akosombo to have lunch overlooking the Akosombo Dam. We learned from Dr. Hart that the dam was actually build as a result of a partnership between Ghanaians and Americans. The United States funded the project because they wanted to use the electricity produced by the dam to power an aluminum factory that would also utilized Ghana’s stock of bauxite. However, the factor didn’t take off and the dam - improperly maintained - has lost optimum functionality. Only two of the locks on the dam work correctly. At its prime, the dam produced enough electricity to efficiently power the whole country. Today, Ghana still sells electricity to other Gold Coast countries, but electricity is something that the country struggles with. I am reminded of the temporary power outages that occurred at President Rawling’s home in Accra while we interviewed him. Rawlings is coincidentally from the Volta Region. Except, after a long day, the one thing we didn’t do is go to his private compound and ride his jet skis.