Last weekend I attended Funeral Day with a colleague, Gyimah, at his hometown of Twenedurase. I’m still in the process of editing all the video and pictures – I took 7 GB worth – and once I do, I’ll post many of them to my shutterfly site and tell stories of my time right here on the blog.
In the meantime, here are some images of the experience:
The street (yes, there’s only one) of Twenedurase lined with funeral-goers.
Palm fruit and palm oil is grown and sold across this region
This structure was built in 1931. The tropical climate causes exposed stone and wood to age very quickly.
The town’s chief (third from the right, in the front row, sitting under the umbrella) presides over the funeral activities and is greeted by each of the visitors.
A picture of one of the deceased sits before a box accepting donations to the family
The man holding the golden-topped staff is the chief’s linguist. In formal interactions, the chief does not speak directly to a tribal member, nor does the tribesman speak directly to the chief. They speak through the linguist. The gold statue atop the staff shows two people sharing a bowl of food, symbolic of friendship.
Members of Gyimah’s family.
We stopped in a nearby town to visit a shrine to a cherished missionary. While waiting for the chief to greet us we made friends with this woman (who was washing dishes) and her nieces (the one in the foreground was playing with what looked like a leather or string thong tied to a small rock at the end. Once or twice, she struck her sister who was working hard washing clothes. Her sister cried out in pain, but never yelled or struck back).
Washing in the customary fashion after my meal of yams and fish stew.
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2 comments:
These pictures are so interesting! So the palm kernels are the ones that make that palm oil that's used in stews and lots of other ghanaian food?
Hurry up and get your pictures posted! I have questions about certain pictures here, but there's no way to ask about them individually. For example, it looks like many of the men are wearing "cloths" - is that an accurate representation of village funeral clothing? Also, the fabric of the women's dresses looks like a nylon or non-breathing material. Do you know what kind of material they're made from?
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