Much of what Ghana makes by hand is made in particular towns, often by particular families, and has been for generations. A journey that includes them is a journey through workshops: a loom under a shade tree, a kiln behind a house, a courtyard where cloth dries in the sun.
Here are the places we return to, and how we visit.
Around Kumasi: cloth and wood
Bonwire is the best known of the kente-weaving towns. Weavers work narrow strips on horizontal looms, and the strips are sewn together into cloth. Patterns carry names and meanings, and a good weaver will tell you some of them. At Ntonso, adinkra cloth is stamped by hand with carved calabash stamps dipped in a dye boiled from bark. At Ahwiaa, carvers make stools, figures and combs.
The Krobo towns: glass beads
In the hills north-east of Accra, Krobo bead-makers crush old bottles to powder, pack it into clay moulds and fire it. The beads come out of the kiln glowing, and are then washed, polished and strung. Workshops welcome visitors and will show you every stage.
The far north: earth and straw
At Sirigu, women paint the walls of their houses in red, black and white earth, and their cooperative sells pottery and paintings from its own gallery. Around Bolgatanga, weavers make the straw baskets you may have seen in shops far from Ghana.
We introduce you as a guest, not a customer.
How we visit
We go to workshops, not showrooms, and we arrange visits ahead so makers are expecting you. Our guides introduce you as a guest. You can buy, and buying directly from makers is good for them, but there is no obligation and no commission-driven stop at the end of the day.
Some designs carry meanings that matter. Kente patterns and adinkra symbols are explained with care by the people who make them, and Sirigu's murals are the women's own art. We do not use any of them as decoration on this site, and we ask travellers not to photograph patterns for reuse.
See the makers' circuit and beads and cocoa, or start planning.
