Crafts and Curios


Overview

Ghana produces a great number of goods that are easily available for you to purchase to take back home. Most crafts in Ghana are quite beautiful and serve a functional purpose.

An enormous amount of purchases can be made from the comfort of your car. Street vendors are everywhere, and anytime your car stops, you are instantly surrounded by a convenience store selling food, beverages, toilet paper, clothing, phone credits and just about anything else you can imagine.

Ghana is famous for her open-air markets. Kejetia market in Kumasi claims to be West Africa's largest outdoor market. Makola market in Accra and Takoradi's Market Circle are also famous open-air markets, while Techiman's food market is reportedly the largest food market in West Africa.

At the other end of the spectrum is the Accra Mall, an air-conditioned shopping mall that would be familiar to any Western shopper. In all large cities there are many upscale boutiques for crafts, clothing and art.

Finally, in today's Internet world, it should be mentioned that there are some local Ghanaian craftsmen selling their goods online at Novica.com, a site that gives craftspeople from around the world access to a Western market.

Paintings and Contemporary Art

For professional art and painting, there are a number of exclusive galleries in Accra.


Music and Musical Instruments

Many visitors enjoy returning home with the sounds of Ghana. See our section on Music, Dance & Ceremony for a description of the music in Ghana.

Cloth and Clothing

For men or women, your top is referred to as a 'dress'.

Beads, Gold and Jewelry

Beads are worn by many people in Ghana. Every shape, size and color imaginable will be seen around wrists, necks, waists and ankles. The Ghanaian bead making process uses bauxite, iron, shell, clay, bone and recycled glass. Made by men, it takes several years of apprenticeship to be able to form some of the intricate patterns associated with African beads.

A set of bead factories and bead markets are in close proximity to each other, These include the following:

Gold and other jewelry can also be found throughout Ghana. But exercise caution when approached by anyone offering to sell you gold or diamonds. Keep your purchases of these items to an accredited retailer.

The Anglogold Ashanti mining company operates the world's richest single gold mine by output at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, 85 km south of Kumasi. After South Africa, Ghana is now the second largest gold producer in Africa. Tours of the mine can be arranged and gold fashions and accessories are plentiful here to purchase.


Carvings and Masks

From household good to decorative figurines, many things are created by craftsmen using Ghana's most abundant resource: wood. While the set of products cannot be fully detailed here, these are some of the major items of wood you may find in Ghana.

Leather

Ghana has a distinctive leather tradition, producing many items from this durable and versatile material in a range of colors, textures and finishes. Leather is crafted into all types of products, including belts, shoes and bags, as well as cushions, rugs, jewelry boxes and a myriad more objects. These products can be found throughout Ghana, but it is in the north where the main tanneries, and hence better prices, are located.

People of the north have a nomadic tradition, so an animal skin is viewed as a versatile and invaluable possession. The skin serves as the chief's throne, equivalent to the stool in the south. The number of skins a chief sits upon is not an indication of status, but instead it is the type of skin. The more fierce the animal, the more powerful the chief.

In Tamale, the Zongo Leather Factory is an excellent place to see the leather making process and to make outstanding purchases with little hassle.

Pottery

Traditional pottery in Ghana is simple and functional. It is one of the few crafts that is traditionally produced by women, but many men are contemporary potters using design departures from the women's traditional pots.

Glaze is not common on traditional pottery and the color of the pot depends largely on the type of clay used, although some pots are black from the smoke created during firing. Pots are still used to prepare, cook, and store food.

Perhaps the most functional is the grinding bowl which is shallow with ridges on the inside. Food is ground with a small wooden pestle.

Pots are low fired, and therefore fragile. They are inexpensive and for sale in every market and often on the roadside.

In the Volta Region there are superb potters in the Kpando area, including the Fesi Shed of Kpando Potters.
093 650 413 or 020 817 5596
kpandopottery@hotmail.com

The Upper East Region boasts two significant pottery villages:
The Village of Pottery Art and Culture (VOPAC) is 8km west of Bolgatanga on the main road to Navrango.
024 467 1562

The Sirigu Women's Organization for Pottery and Art (SWOPA) at Sirigu, also off the main road to Navrongo.
SWOPA website


Weaving

Whether it be tiny baskets, entire rooms of furniture, or anything in between, the weaving industry produces some outstanding crafts.

Traditional baskets are woven by men of the FraFra tribe in the northern city of Bolgatanga. Known as Bolga baskets, these baskets are exceptionally beautiful. Modern versions of baskets reflect the tastes of tourists and the creativity of the basket makers who are no longer bound by tradition. Some women have been organized into basket making cooperatives so that they can supplement their seasonal farming.

Food and Beverage

There are a number of food and beverages that you may wish to bring home from Ghana. While palm wine does not keep more than a couple days, akpeteshie does travel well. Akpeteshie is distilled palm wine and has a good shelf life of about 3 months after opening.

For alcoholic beverages produced in a controlled setting, the Kasapreko beverage company produces a number of unique and exotic bitters which are easily transportable.

Chocolate may be the best known food from Ghana. Although most is shipped from Ghana in its unprocessed form as cocoa, there are the locally produced Kingsbite chocolate, ’57 chocolate and Omama Royal chocolate. Ghana's first cocoa farm, as well as a cocoa research institute, may be visited in Mampong in the Eastern Region.

Personal Care Products

Shea butter is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer and an emollient. It is a slightly yellowish or ivory-colored natural fat obtained by crushing and boiling the fruit of the Shea tree. Shea butter is the best moisturizer for dried skin and lips and can be most easily and cheaply be purchased at in the three northern regions.

Shea trees occurs over almost the entire area of Northern Ghana, with Eastern Gonja having the densest stands. Shea butter is also edible, used as a cooking oil in West Africa, as well as sometimes being used in the chocolate industry as a substitute for cocoa butter.

A natural Black Soap is also produced in Ghana using Shea butter and honey. Hand-made in Ghana, and coming in a liquid and a solid form, this soap claims to improve skin tone, moisturize, and heal scars or stretch marks.

The Ele Agbe company produces many Shea products.
024 415 2263  or  020 816 5933
www.eleagbe.com

Invite friends & family:

Some Traditional Crafts from Ghana



Want to go shopping?

Accra Shopping Day Trip





(Note: There are no paid recommendations on this page. We link businesses on our site because of their unique offerings - not because they provide any incentives to Easy Track Ghana or our staff.)


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