A lot of people have been writing/emailing me asking what exactly I do here in Ghana for the Peace Corps. This is a really difficult question for me to answer because what I do is always changing and may not be what I am actually doing 3 months from now. In order to update everyone on what exactly I do here, I will try and write an entry about this every 3 months. And since this is the first entry of what I am and will be doing in Ghana, I will include all the boring details.
My site is a town/village named Adanwomase in the Ashanti region of Ghana. It is located about 25km northeast of Kumasi, which is the 2nd largest city in Ghana. My site is a Kente weaving village of about 5000~6000 people. Almost all of the men are Kente weavers or sellers and almost all of the women are farmers or traders.
Kente is a cloth that is woven into strips by hand and then sewn together to make cloths that people usually wear on special occasions here in Ghana and other parts of West Africa. It is worn like a toga if you are a male and females wear the Kente cloth as a wrap, almost like a skirt. This probably isn’t the best description of what Kente is, but you can always Wiki or Google Kente to get a better explanation.
So what is the history of Kente? Well I’m not going to write this part out because it was written out for me already on another document by the previous Peace Corps Volunteer here so I just copied and pasted it below.
Although there are a variety of oral histories concerning the origins of Kente Cloth, historians and scholars agree that Kente Cloth production is an extension of centuries of strip-weaving in West Africa. Strip-weaving has existed in West Africa since the 11th century. While it is difficult to pinpoint its exact origins, most scholars believe that the art form was developed in present-day Mali and spread throughout West Africa through trade and migration.
In 1697, the Ashanti King, desiring hand-woven cloth, commissioned one of his sub-chiefs, the Akyimpimhene, to send people from the towns of Adanwomase, Asotwe, Bonwire, and Wonoo to study strip-weaving in Bontuku, a small village in present-day Ivory Coast. When they returned, the apprentices were given swatches of fabric with specific patterns on them that they were told to study and be able to recreate on demand. These patterns were called Sesea and are considered to be the first examples of true Ashanti Kente Cloth. The original centuries-old Sesea swatches are to this day kept in the Kente Chief’s house in Adanwomase.
Since the first apprentices returned from Bontuku, Adanwomase has consistently been the royal weaving village for the Ashanti King. The apprentices spread the art of Kente-weaving to their friends and families and in the process added their own designs and colors, creating the cloth that today is recognized worldwide as Ashanti Kente.
Like all other things, Kente Cloth has changed over time. Formerly, weavers used only black and white locally spun silk or cotton thread. Now, many weavers use colorful rayon and even metallic thread imported from Asia. Similarly, while strips were formerly sewn together only by hand, many Kente producers now use sewing machines to increase efficiency.
Still, the essence of Kente Cloth remains unchanged. Kente Cloth remains a powerful cultural symbol and source of pride, both for Ghanaians and the African Diaspora. The cloth is worn and used by royals, in worship, and for birth, marriage, and death ceremonies. Kente continues to chronicle local history and knowledge. Designs have specific names and meanings that reflect cultural values and historical events.
To this day, Adanwomase carries on the centuries-old Kente-weaving tradition. Under the guidance of the Kente Chief, Adanwomase weavers continue to weave cloths for the Ashanti King, royals, and anyone in the world who appreciates the history and cultural significance woven into Ashanti Kente.
Kente is what I will be living for, for the next 2 years of my life. My job/project will be to help improve and sustain cultural tourism relating to Kente Cloth production in Adanwomase. My host agencies are the Ghana Tourist Board, which is a government organization and Nature Conservation and Research Center (NCRC), which is a non governmental organization (NGO) started by a Canadian and based out of Ghana. I will be working with them to:
- Assist in the community sensitization process in ecotourism development.
- Continue to strengthen the Tourism Management Team (TMT) by regular follow-up visits and meetings to assess their needs and challenges.
- Continue the implementation of the medium and long-term strategic plans developed by the TMT.
- Cooperate with the Ashanti Regional Office of the Ghana Tourist Board on development of the community.
- Communicate and collaborate with NCRC to identify priority areas and new resources for the community.
This is formally what my job will be for the next two years. Essentially my main role here is going to be to help the TMT implement their medium to long term goals while I am here. Realistically, I don’t think I am going to be able to really help them with their long term goals of getting a hotel, restaurant, state of the art weaving center, thread manufacturing factory and a Kente Textile Museum. The total cost of getting their long term goals accomplished will probably be in the range of a million dollars so if anyone feels like they want to do some good and donate a million dollars, write/email/call me.
The medium term goals are things that I feel I can help to get accomplished while I am here and this is what I will be spending a majority of my time working on. Some of the things I will be helping the TMT do is to set up some guest housing, helping someone try and create a small restaurant to cater to the tastes of the tourists, expand the current Visitor’s Center, and creating public toilet facilities for tourists. What I am most excited about helping to do though is to organize a Kwabre District Craft Festival and tour circuit with nearby villages/towns. The area I am living in is known for its crafts throughout Ghana. My town and a couple of others weave Kente, Ntonso, another town in the district does Adinkra stamping/screen printing, Ahwiaa does wood carving and Pankrono makes clay pottery. I am trying to help set up the Kwabre District Craft Festival in August sometime of this year with the help of the TMT and Kwabre District Assembly. And eventually I want tourists to be able to go on a tour circuit of the 4 main craft villages in the district so that other villages/towns in the area benefit from the revenues created from tourism.
Some other things I want to work on are getting the Kente sellers and weavers to create different products other than cloths to be worn. From what I’ve seen you can basically make anything out of Kente that you can make out of any type of cloth. The most functional items to be made (in my opinion) though are things like bed spreads, table runners, table cloths, dining sets (place mats & napkins), scarves, and possibly a rug. I am currently trying to make a wallet out of some strips that I got to see if it will be worth it. Depending on the designs these strips take months and possibly even years to weave.
While I am here I will also be working on some secondary projects that I identify that the community needs. The volunteer before me did a lot in this area and renovated an unused building block that use to be the Junior Secondary School (JSS) into housing for teachers. Another project he completed was setting up a library for the JSS. And all Peace Corps Volunteers do work in HIV/AIDS education in one capacity or another. One thing I am trying to get done while I am here is to set up a computer resource center in the community for the students so that they get some hands on experience with computers so that it helps them with jobs later in life. I have a lot of ideas on what I want to do and how I want to help, but it all depends on how feasible it will be and whether or not it will be sustainable after Peace Corps Volunteers leave.
I have officially been at my site for about a month and a half now. For the first 2 months I was here in Ghana, they had us all in training sessions. During my time at site so far it doesn’t seem like I have done a lot of work. Things here just move at a slower pace and it just seems everything and everyone is so laid back. Work does get done, but just not at the speed I want or am use to. With my time here I have been meeting with the different community committees, important community members, visiting the churches (there are 11 in this town alone), visiting the schools, continuing to learn the language (for me it is Twi), and just hanging out learning more about Kente. This is all considered work for the Peace Corps volunteer supposedly because we have to “integrate” into the communities to be a more effective volunteer. The only thing I have done that I consider to be real work thus far is that I was working with NCRC in getting a proposal written and submitted to different corporations so we can get some sort of corporate funding somehow. My counterpart and I basically did the leg work for it in our town by visiting all important community organizations and members getting letters of support for the proposal.
So for now this is my role for the Peace Corps here in Ghana. I’m pretty fortunate because I actually have work to do, while other volunteers are still sitting around doing nothing for one reason or another. I’m sure in 3 months all of what I am doing or supposed to be doing will change. I welcome the change and the challenges this country presents me with everyday because of what it teaches and the experiences it gives me here on a daily basis.
