If you want to go where you want to go then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do!!!!

To all friends and family following my African adventure on this blog know that I am doing well and having fun.  Also, anything stated here is my own opinion or interpretation of what I’ve heard and not, necessarily, fact!! 

St. Francis seems to keep popping up in my life. 

I am falling in love with Ghana; the wonderful people, the rich culture, the breathtaking landscapes.  However, all things here are not “sunshine and flowers” (although there is quite a bit of sunshine!!); there is extreme poverty and I see very young children hard at work, the air in the cities can be toxic, there is open sewage and the stench can be overwhelming, recycling and pubic garbage cans are not common but litter is, and traffic is horrible. 

Typical amounts of litter.

 If I choose to see only the negative, as some folk might be inclined to do, I would miss an opportunity to open my eyes and explore this wonderfully rich culture that is thousands of years older than my own and has so much to offer.  I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Beauty found in less than beautiful environment.

  

Last weekend my classmates and I decided to “spread our wings” and went for a weekend trip to the Volta Region in Eastern Ghana.  We took a tro-tro to a city called Ho (the Ho tro-tro!).

Tro-tro Station

This leg of the journey took nearly three hours; that much time on a tro-tro can be a butt numbing experience.  During that time we crossed the Volta River, which is dammed further north and forms Lake Volta --the largest man-made lake in the world, on the Adome Bridge. 

Adome Bridge

We traveled through some really beautiful countryside.  It was amazing to see so much greenery after being surrounded by red dust for over a week.

Green At Last!!!

 Actually, I need to stop for a minute and put a plug in for Ghanaian tro-tro system.  You can get anywhere in Ghana for relatively cheap if you just stand at the side of the road long enough and catch a tro-tro.  Amazing!!!  That said, my classmates and I have already decided to rent a car and driver (they come together here) for our next foray ;-)

Another aside, when I posted my first blog I mentioned that this trip was a bit different.  Being a social work student at Portland State University I would have the opportunity to view this trip through a social work lens.  I really do understand that even considering renting a car and driver is a privilege.  For most of the people who live in Ghana, where the annual average income is about $1,200 per year (and many live on less than $1 per day!), the idea of renting a car would not even come into question.  

Back to the trip, we caught the Hohoe tro-tro from Ho and got off 5 km from our destination, a village called Tafi Atome.  At this time we found that the only transportation for that last 5 km was either foot or “motorcycle taxi”.

You got to do what you got to do!!  This is where I hopped on the motorcycle!

Old bikes, no helmets, a 17 year old “driver”, and a narrow dusty road full of pot holes??!!?!?!!  Well, my philosophy for travel, “If you want to go where you want to go then you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do”!   The ride was exhilarating and I’d, handily, rented my “driver” for the next two days. 

My taxi driver and taxi!!

 

Our rooms at the guest house where not quite ready so we hopped back on the bikes to visit Tafi Abuife.  Many of the names of small villages in this area start with “Tafi”.  I am told that this word means “unity” and that all people of the “Tafi” villages come from the same tribe.  Tafi Abuife is the largest Kente weaving village in Ghana.  Kente weaving is an ancient art, its roots dating back as far as 3000 B.C. 

Our tour guide, Wisdom, told us about the history of Kente weaving.

Kente cloth

Lisa, Tim, Kari, and Katy listening to Wisdom tell about Kente

  It was inspired by intricate spider webs in the ancient forests of Ghana. Legend says that two hunters found an exceptional web, and studied its designs and patterns for two days. Afterwards, they returned to their village to recreate what they had seen. 

Kente was known as the “cloth of kings” due to the cost and time required to weave it. Even with modern technology it is still woven by hand. Each strip is classified and priced by the number of weaves used to make it. A single weave takes five hours to complete, a double weave takes seven hours, and a triple weave takes a whopping nine hours.

Kente in process!

Everything about Kente weaving is symbolic; the colors, the symbols, and the geometric designs.   It is truly beautiful.

Every child in Tafi Abuife is taught the art of weaving Kente when they reach the age of seven.  This is a birthright, responsibility, and means of making money. Every person in the village knows the art of weaving but not all become “master weavers”.   When a person reaches the stage of master weaver they are given a “sacred” weaving name, as was our guide, Wisdom.   

The Kente House

Kente Looms

Part of the tour was getting to see the weaving houses. These buildings were constructed to ensure that Kente could still be produced during the rainy season.  There is a bit of “high pressure” sales going on in the weaving house.  

Shuttles for the Weft strings

Tony who, in addition to being a Kente weaver, wants to be an auto mechanic.

Amazingly long warp

You actually meet individual weavers and have opportunity to purchase cloth woven by the person telling their story.  Since the proceeds go to such worthy causes, education for the children, libraries, health care, support for each weaver and their family, and such, it is hard to say no.

The satchel on the far left is now mine!!

I did wind up buying a “satchel” and a couple of strips of cloth (made by Tony, Lucky, and Wise). 

As the tour wound down Wisdom stopped by his sister’s house to introduce us and say hello to his sister and baby niece.  They sat under this amazing tree.  Wisdom told us that his family often sits under this tree to escape the heat of the day.  I had visions of his ancestors, generation after generation, finding relief from the heat under this very tree. 

Wisdom's family tree

The next morning we awoke early to tour the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary.

Into the forest at Tafi Atome

Monkey’s don’t laze around in bed just because it is Sunday so neither could we.  The tour, led by Angel, started promptly, which seems unusual in Ghana, at 6am.  Stragglers were left behind.  In 1993 the land around the village was set aside as a sanctuary for the Mona Monkey population that lives in the forest.  

The story is that when the people of the Tafi villages migrated from Nigeria many years ago the people were given a sign by the monkey that this was the place they were to live.  There were fetish beliefs that revolved around the tortoise and the monkey.  The monkeys spoke for the slower, quiet, and wise tortoise.  The monkeys were seen as sacred and were worshiped.  When Europeans came, bringing Christianity to the area, the monkeys were largely wiped out in an effort to rid the people of their native religious symbols and beliefs. 

Mona monkey family

Mona monkey.  Yes, I took this picture.

By the 1980s the populations of monkeys had declined to around 100 individuals. After the formation of the sanctuary the population began to return and now numbers over 450 individuals and is home to at least 10 different troops.   It is now illegal to either kill a monkey or cut down a tree in this sanctuary and consequences for doing so are severe.  

Mona monkey eating banana

Some troops are more habituated than others.  Four of these troops live side by side with the villagers and will accept bananas from the hands of tourists.  These smart little monkeys are actually ensuring their survival.  By their behavior they keep the tourists coming thus guaranteeing revenue for the protection of the forest in which they live.  Like in Tafi Abuife, the proceeds from this sanctuary also help to support the people of the village.  They just completed a computer lab and are in the process of building a library.

The village of Tafi Atome also offered the opportunity to hear from a storyteller.  I wish I could tell you his name but it was so long that I actually wonder how he manages remember it!!  He told two stories, each of which contained a “lesson”.  One was about a monkey and a fish (don’t make hasty decisions) and the other about a snake and a bat (do unto others as you would have them do unto

Libations for the ancestors.

you).  At the end of the storytelling it is traditional to offer tribute and homage in the form of libation –in this case, Gin—to ancestors then to partake yourself. Although I did give tribute and thanks to the ancestors I declined the invitation to join in the libation.  

A truly amazing thing about this storyteller is that he was there with his grandson and great-grandsons.  They are learning to take on the role of storyteller for the village when the current storyteller passes on.  This particular family has been the keeper of the stories, through oral tradition, for this tribe for centuries.  Amazing!  In the United States we are often hard pressed to even say what our grandfathers did for a living.

A family of storytellers

Oral tradition relies upon people living in close proximity in close-knit extended family systems.  Without a centralized audience oral storytelling fails completely.  Due to factors such as urbanization and westernization and accessibility to new technologies like mobile phones and the internet the current generation of storytellers is left with little or no audience.   A majority of these storytellers are old and of a dying generation. Sooner or later, there will be no one to tell the stories and, as a result, no stories to tell. 

There is an organization called Yenkassa (Let Us Speak) whose mission is to collect personal stories from Ghanaians (and eventually all of Africa) and to create a Media Library and Archives (MLA) that provides online access to unique and historically important content.  They search out personal stories, fiction and non-fiction, from this older generation.  Happy to say, Tafi Atome’s storyteller is a part of this project. 

There is a theme to all of my reflections in this post.  Wisdom’s family has been weaving Kente in Tafi Abuife for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and for many generations they have sat under the same tree to find relief from the African sun.  Angel’s family has lived in Tafi Atome for generations and they are united in an effort to preserve the forest and the sacred monkey of their ancestors.  The storyteller’s family, for generation after generation, has taken on the role of passing the personal stories, myths, legends, and proverbs down to the next generation.  

Coming from a culture where going back three generations is unusual and four generations almost unheard of I find this connection to ones ancestors baffling, intriguing, and appealing.  

Random Pictures

I like signs.  I found this one, well, interesting.

Mona monkey and bamboo

Bamboo and Mona monkey

Mona Monkey 

Centipede, swear this was at least 8 inches long!

The cycle of life.