Monday, September 13, 2010

Kumasi this weekend!

On Thursday my group is leaving early in the morning to head to Kumasi, the country's second largest city located in the center of Ghana.  I'm very excited because, as Mercy (our Ghanaian group leader) recently informed us, the largest market in Western Africa is in Kumasi!  Kumasi is considered to be the modern capital of the Ashanti people, one of Ghana's prominent tribal groups.  While we're in Kumasi we're going to a market, a local elementary school, a small neighboring town where the traditional "kente" cloth is woven, and a butterfly sanctuary.  I took a ton of pictures on my trip to Cape Coast but my camera card mysteriously fried midway through the trip and I lost over 200 photos :( Hopefully the new one my mom sent me will get here before we leave for Kumasi!

The image below is an example of an Adinkra symbol (also produced in Kumasi) that represent different Ghanaian proverbs.  There are over 50 symbols, each with its own meaning.  This one is the "Aya" or fern and it represents endurance and resourcefulness because the fern can grow in difficult places.

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