PI: Ann B. Stahl | Community Collaborators: Enoch Mensah and Sampson Attah
Research Assistants: Zonke Dedei Guddah, Allison Jean Balabuch, and Patrick Mensah
Project ID: 2020LG05 | Location of Research: Banda District, Ghana
Host Institution: University of Victoria
Until recent decades, daily life in the multi-ethnic Banda area of Ghana was based in the production of useable things made from local fibre, wood and clay resources that sustained family and community well-being. These earthen and organic technologies included: basketry fish traps fashioned from bamboo and vine rope and used by Ewe fishermen to harvest fish from the Black Volta River; woven raffia mats on which Nafana people slept and in which they and neighbouring peoples were wrapped for burial; the earthen-walled and thatch houses that sheltered people living across the region and the doors they crafted for their houses.
The practices and knowledge systems associated with these technologies are now endangered, due in part to changes ushered in by recent construction of a hydroelectric dam in the area and a growing perception that things and technologies from elsewhere are necessary improvements and pathways to modern life. “Inexpensive” plastics and other industrially manufactured commodities are rapidly eroding the earthen and organic materials technologies that long sustained local life in this rural area.
The project team worked to document these endangered technologies and associated knowledge systems with knowledge holders in Akanyakrom (basketry fish trap making), Sabiye (raffia mat weaving, traditional door weaving, thatch roofing) and Gbao, Banda-Ahenkro and Nyire (earth-wall building construction). Primary documentation took place during July 2022 for two sub-projects (basketry fish trap making and raffia mat weaving). Work on the other two sub-projects took place in November 2022 (collecting grass for thatch) and from January to April 2023 (building two earth-wall thatched structures and traditional door weaving). The team used video and audio recording and photography to record making sessions and conversations with knowledge holders.
Background
The Banda Traditional Area in west central Ghana is situated in a region of low mountains through which the Black Volta River makes its way before constricting in a narrow gorge along Banda’s northern margins. From here the river runs a course through low rolling hills under wooded savannah. Formerly, wooded savannah gave way to semi-deciduous tropical forest about 40 km to the south in areas now denuded of tall trees through clear-cutting. Banda’s transitional setting between forest and savanna woodland shaped its history as a cultural crossroads settled by people speaking diverse languages and pursuing varied economic strategies (agriculture, stock keeping, fishing and inter-regional trade). Archaeological and historical research by the Banda Research Project (1982-2012) has illuminated how shifting global connections over the last 1000 years shaped the daily lives and knowledge systems of Banda peoples as reflected in crafting practices, foodways and social life.
While global connections have long been a factor in local life, accelerated influences in recent decades have undermined long-standing material knowledge systems and practices. At the turn of the current millennium, Banda was still considered a “one-way” destination within Ghana. Roads from the south led to the area but dead-ended at the banks of the Black Volta River. Few people had motorized vehicles, electrification happened only through concerted community effort in the first decade of the new millennium, and the area had few government services. The building of Bui Hydroelectric Dam at Bui Gorge by SinoHydro in partnership with the Government of Ghana (2008-2012) ushered in rapid change. Banda- Ahenkro, the traditional seat of the Banda Paramount Chieftaincy, grew from a large village to a district centre when it was designated seat of a newly formed Banda District in 2012. Administrative complexes and new roads brought people and services to the area, now connected to northern transportation infrastructure by a bridge that spans the Black Volta River downstream of the new dam. Over recent decades, industrially produced goods became ubiquitous, as has a pervasive discourse that valorizes innovations from elsewhere over technologies with long emplaced histories (e.g., potting, weaving and house building with locally available materials). Agricultural production for market has shifted from growing locally valued foodstuffs (yams) to products destined for export (cashew). Flooding behind the dam inundated fishing and farming communities, forcing their relocation and creating a large lake that requires new tools and different techniques for fishing than those long used to harvest river-dwelling fish. Reduction of downstream river flow similarly diminished livelihood opportunities of Ewe-speaking riverine fishermen. For these and other reasons, knowledge systems and technologies that were once vital to social life and livelihoods have become imperiled for their perceived irrelevance to “modern” life and in the face of a market flooded with cheap industrial materials and products (particularly plastics).
Methodology
The team approached the four knowledge practices as sub-projects, two of which were focused on in July 2022. That period’s work focused on basketry fish trap making with knowledge holders in the resettled Akanyakrom community (Ewe fishermen Maxwell Gbadago, Dzobo Sebastian and Dzobo Reuben) and raffia mat weaving with a Nafana master weaver in the village of Sabiye (Alexander Owusu). Principal investigator Ann Stahl directed these projects. University of Victoria PhD student Zonke Guddah directed the sub-projects focused on earth-wall building construction and raffia door making, with documentation taking place in November 2022 and January-April 2023. This sub-project followed construction of two buildings, one made using a coursed earth atakpame technique and the other through a wattle and daub technology, together with the weaving of a traditional raffia doors.
For more information on the project methodology, see the 2020LG05 Guide to the Dataset.
Selected Assets
The following provide an overview of the sub-projects.
Fish Trap Making
Mat Weaving
Earth-wall Building Construction
Coursed Earth Atakpame
Wattle Frame & Daub
Door Weaving
Acknowledgements
Grateful appreciation is extended to the many knowledge holders with whom the project team worked in the Banda area. Thanks also to the many traditional authorities—chiefs and elders—who enthusiastically supported the project and raised its visibility within their communities. Last but not least, this project would not have been possible without the expertise of research assistants Zonke Dedei Guddah and Allison Jean Balabuch, and members of the Banda Heritage Initiative, including community researchers and translators Enoch Mensah and Sampson Attah, and photographer Patrick Mensah.