Pottery-Making in Bonakire, Ghana

Abstract

| african arts SPRING 2007 B onakire is a predominantly Mo-speaking village located approximately 17km (101⁄2 miles) northwest of the ancient archaeological site of Begho in the Brong-Ahafo region of north-central Ghana.1 In 1979 I conducted a brief ethnographic study of Bonakire’s pottery industry as part of a three-month archaeological fi eld school directed by Dr. Merrick Posnansky at the site of Begho B2.2 Th is study, along with others preceding it, was undertaken to explore how mid to late twentieth century pottery-making compared with the ceramic data collected at Begho (see Crossland 1973, 1989; Goody 1963; Wilks 1961). Th is brief research note does not off er such an analysis but rather describes the distinctive method of making pottery I observed in Bonakire as well as the role of women in the cash economy of this small rural village. Pottery production was the fulltime occupation of nearly all Bonakire women, and daughters typically learned from their mothers and grandmothers by observation and apprenticeship. Pottery-making was also taught in the village school (fig. 1). Every female past the age of about 15 was actively producing pottery during my visit, and each potter was responsible for the production and sale of her own wares. Other than basic household duties, such as fetching water, preparing food, washing utensils and clothing, and caring for children, women spent much of the day engaged in pottery-making and its associated tasks.3 Th ey worked in two, 3–4 hour sessions, one in the morning starting about 9:00–10:00 am and lasting until the preparation of the noon-time meal and a second longer session lasting all aft ernoon until the preparation of the evening meal. Th ree days in the six-day Mo temporal cycle (days 2, 5, and 6) were reserved for the collection of clay and the fi ring of vessels. Male relatives dug the clay from large pits located only about 60m (651⁄2 Pottery-Making in Bonakire, Ghana