Culture · 3 min read
Kente is a language before it is fashion
The cloth is not only something Ghana produces. It is a way knowledge moves between generations.
The Ghana Story library
Start with the story behind the place.
A growing, source-backed encyclopedia of Ghana told through people, culture, history and the places visitors can still experience today.
Browse by story world
Then narrow by lens
Culture · 3 min read
Highlife: the soundtrack that became heritage
Its instruments and styles changed as Ghanaian communities, cities and diasporas changed around them.
Culture · 3 min read
Why a people celebrate by laughing at hunger
Before the drums return, communities move through silence, preparation, gratitude and food.
Culture · 2 min read
Nyame and Asase Yaa: the Sky Father and the Earth Mother
Any Akan funeral; any farm on a Thursday, when the earth rests.
Culture · 2 min read
The Old Woman and the Pestle: why the sky moved away
Any compound at dusk, where fufu is being pounded.
Culture · 2 min read
How Death Came: the goat, the sheep, and the message that arrived wrong
Told at wakekeepings, where the moral has weight.
Culture · 2 min read
Tano and Bia: the brothers and the stolen blessing
The Tano River, rising near Techiman; the Bia River, running down through the western forest into Côte d'Ivoire.
Culture · 2 min read
How the Lesser Gods Came Down
Any shrine to a river or a mountain; any akom drumming where a priest is possessed.
Culture · 2 min read
Why the Bat Flies at Night
The straw-coloured fruit bat colony over 37 Military Hospital and the Accra ridge at dusk — thousands of them, every evening, in season.
Culture · 2 min read
Why the Sea Turtle Beats Its Breast
The turtle nesting beaches at Ada Foah, Ningo, and along the Volta estuary, roughly October to March.
Culture · 2 min read
How the Leopard Got Its Spots — and How the Antelope Kept Its Life
Mole National Park, Northern Region.
Culture · 2 min read
Where the Wild Things Were Kept: how sickness and hardship got loose
Anywhere; this is a hearth story.
Culture · 3 min read
How Ananse Bought the Sky God's Stories
Any storytelling night; the Centre for National Culture, Kumasi.
Culture · 2 min read
Why Wisdom Is Scattered Through the World
Told to children, and to adults who need it.
Culture · 2 min read
Ananse and the Famine: how he came by his wife's grain
Told in the lean season before harvest.
Culture · 2 min read
What a Stool Is
Any palace stool room; the Manhyia Palace Museum; the woodcarving village of Ahwiaa, outside Kumasi.
Culture · 2 min read
Mawu-Lisa and the Vodun
Volta Region shrines; the Ewe drumming and dance traditions of Anlo.
Culture · 2 min read
Nai: the sea that keeps Accra
Jamestown and the fishing harbour; the Ga Mashie shoreline; the Homowo season, when the Nai Wulɔmɔ's calendar governs the city.
Culture · 2 min read
Konkomba Tales: the python's blotches and the tortoise's shell
The Oti and eastern Northern Region; Konkomba market at Accra is a different thing entirely but shares the name.
Culture · 2 min read
Savannah Tales from Navrongo: the Singing Calabash, Akansaare's Pact, the Trusting Hyena
Navrongo; Paga, with its sacred crocodile ponds, half an hour up the road.
Culture · 2 min read
Akwasidae: the kingdom, still running
Every six weeks, on the Akan forty-two-day calendar
Culture · 2 min read
Asamando: the country of the ancestors
Any funeral, which in Ghana is the largest event in social life.
Culture · 3 min read
What Was in the Bag: how sickness, poverty and the wild animals got out
Told at night, when the reason for a hardship is being discussed.
Culture · 2 min read
Kundum, and the Hunter Who Watched the Dwarfs Dance
Axim, Beyin, Takoradi and the Nzema coast — the towns take it in turn, and Nzulezu sits inside this world.
Culture · 2 min read
Damba: horses, drums, and the Prophet's birthday in a Dagbamba month
Yendi and Tamale (Dagbon); Damongo (Gonja); the month of Rabi' al-Awwal.
Culture · 2 min read
The King Who Lost a War and Gave His Name to a Cloth
Ntonso, on the Kumasi–Mampong road, where the cloth is stamped by hand.
Culture · 2 min read
Two Men Watched a Spider Work
Bonwire, 18 km from Kumasi. You will hear the looms before you see them.
Culture · 2 min read
The Companies
The posuban shrines at Elmina, Anomabo, Mankessim and Kormantse; asafo flags in museums worldwide.
Culture · 2 min read
Firing the Guns at Ada
Ada Foah, where the Volta meets the sea. First weekend of August.