The Northern Trip

Being a participant of the AFS organization, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be a part of the AFS trip to the North.  This trip allowed us to have the opportunity to travel to Kumasi and Tamale and learn more about Ghanaian history and be exposed to more Ghanaian culture.  Although it is only the fourth day of the trip I have learned a lot about the Ghanaian people in Kumasi and realized how different the Accra life is from some places in Kumasi

On the first day of the trip we left Accra around two o’clock in the afternoon and arrived in Kumasi around seven in the evening.  We stayed at the Champion International Hotel for the night.  The following morning we headed out to go to Ntonso and Ahwia, which are two locations where Kente is made in Kente Village.  Kente is a colorful cloth made in Ghana.  It can be woven as a single stitch, double stitch, or triple stitch.  The process for making Kente is very tedious and the weavers can sometimes work on making Kente cloth for days at a time. 

The first stop we made in Ntonso was at the trademark village, Bonwire, and is the traditional home of Kente.  History says that the man who started weaving Kente cloth had learned how to do so by watching a spider weave its web.  At Bonwire we were shown how Kente is woven on the loom after which I was given the opportunity to weave Kente cloth.  Under directions from a weaver, I sat in his loom and he showed me how to continue weaving a strip of Kente. The process was simple; first you have to put these two strings in between your big toe and the toe next to it on your right and left feet respectively.  Next, you put the string wrapped around a wooden handle through the Kente attached to the loom.  Lastly, you pound the string that you just wove with a vertically lined block to ensure that the stitches are compact.  During this process you alternate pulling your right foot down and then your left foot like your pedaling, which makes the loom actually weave the string you are feeding it. 

Also at Bonwire we had the opportunity to buy Kente cloth and different souvenirs.  Once everyone was done with their purchases we gathered outside the building and waited for the group before getting on the bus.  We were greeted by little children who wanted to hug the “obronis” (that means foreigners in twi, one of the local languages in Ghana).  The little kids were so adorable and I loved being able to interact with them and see their faces brighten when I would say hello.  Once everyone was ready we got on the AFS bus and headed to the wood-carving place in Ahwia.  Here we were shown how Kente dye is made.  It takes about two weeks to get just a pot of black Kente dye.  The process involves getting “bade3” bark from a tree in the North and soaking it for about three days, then pounding the bark, boiling the bark, and extracting the color out of the bark.  We also were shown Adinkra symbols.  These are blocks of wood that have Ghanaian symbols carved into them.  Each participant picked a symbol and dipped it into the Kente dye and stamped it on a strip of kente cloth for AFS.  I also bought my own strip of Kente and made my own design with the symbols meaning: go back to your roots, the power of God, and love.

That concluded our Kente portion of the day and then we moved onto having a tour of the Manhyia palace museum where we learned about the Asante hene (which is the Asante regions chief).  It was cool to find out the history of the Asante chiefs and see how the traditional system of chieftaincy is still engrained in the Asante people even though Ghana is under a democratic rule of John Dramani Mahama.  The Asante region is honestly like its own little part of Ghana—it even has it’s own flag.

The following day we visited Kintampo Falls which is a gorgeous waterfall in Ghana.  We got to learn the history of the three parts of the Falls and we got to go into the waterfall.  It was a beautiful sight where lots of Ghanaians just came to have fun and play in the water.

On the fourth day of our trip we went to Mole National Park.  Although we didn’t get to see any elephants, we hiked through the park and got to see baboons, monkeys, bush pigs, kobs, and wild deer.  The land was beautiful and I felt as though I was one with nature as I was able to walk alongside the animals.  Preceding the hike we headed out to Tamale and stopped in a small Muslim village of about 4000 people.  Here we were shown the oldest Mosque in Ghana.  It was so amazing to see this mosque still standing and in use after all these years.  I got a sneak peak into the inside of the mosque was actually pretty spacious inside even though it looks quite small from the outside.