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Meet The Women

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George and Paulina Obeng, a husband and wife beadmaking team, learned the art from their grandmothers. Together, they boast more than 30 years of experience. George Obeng, the chairman of a newly formed beadmakers group, has become the real organizing spirit behind the artisans working with Global Mamas. As Obeng describes it, "Now Global Mamas places their orders with me. I then hand out the work to the beadmakers because I know the people and what they can do, and I know how much time it will take."

George and Paulina Obeng, a husband and wife beadmaking team, learned the art from their grandmothers. Together, they boast more than 30 years of experience. George Obeng, the chairman of a newly formed beadmakers group, has become the real organizing spirit behind the artisans working with Global Mamas. As Obeng describes it, "Now Global Mamas places their orders with me. I then hand out the work to the beadmakers because I know the people and what they can do, and I know how much time it will take."

Abompe Bead Society, Bead Maker
Bead-Making Center (Krobo)

The Bauxite Beadmakers of Abompe: A Lost Art Rediscovered
By Greg Coyle

No one is entirely sure when bauxite beadmaking came to Abompe in Ghana's Eastern Region. Over the years, a story has developed that has become, for many, an acceptable surrogate for the truth. It goes like this:

In the early 1900s a farmer turned up an old bauxite bracelet and necklace. Fascinated by his find, he took it to the village chief, only to have it dismissed as unimportant. Still, the farmer persisted, asking everyone he knew, but learning nothing. Finally, vaguely remembering having as a boy seen something similar from a nearby village, he broadened his search. He soon learned that Abompe had, like its neighbor, once produced many beads of this kind for a variety of uses before it eventually died out. 

The disappearance of the beadmaking art in Abompe is, like so many other degradations of culture, credited to the colonial powers of the time. Actively discouraged as lazy and fruitless, the practice fell out of favor and was over the ensuing decades all but forgotten.

Abompe is today the only community in Ghana producing the unusual, dusty-brown beads. Among the legion of skilled artisans working in the village many can claim to be third- and fourth-generation beadmakers.
Growth in bead sales could put some pressure on Sam Ofori. Ofori is a bauxite miner in Abompe. In fact, and incredibly, he is the only bauxite miner in Abompe. A one-time tailor in Nigeria, he returned to Ghana some years ago to farm, falling into mining as a means for augmenting his income. He now supplies the entire village with the brown rocks from which the artisans fashion their beads.

As second jobs go, bauxite mining is a rigorous one. First, you have a four-hour hike, much of it at a steep pitch uphill. Second, once on site the next four to five hours are spent in the dark, 20-feet underground, hacking out bauxite with a hand-made spade. When he can convince a partner to join him, this second person will work on the surface, hoisting up the rocks in a battered metal can attached to a line of raffia. If alone, Ofori must climb up top each time the bucket is full and pull up the rocks himself, before climbing back down to resume digging

Finally, there is the challenge of transporting the bauxite down the narrow, uneven trail and out of the jungle. After a good day, the collected rocks can weigh between 35 kilos and 50 kilos, all of which is carried on one's head. The task of moving down a steep, bumpy path in this way is truly a wonder of strength and balance.	 

In the expert hands of the Abompe beadmaker, Ofori's rather unimpressive-looking rocks are transformed into a range of striking beads for necklaces, bracelets, pendants and, perhaps most importantly, waist strands. In each case, the beads are said to grow more beautiful over time, acquiring an attractive gloss from their regular contact with the skin of the wearer.

As it happens, time has also benefited the beadmakers. After losing touch with this important local tradition for the better part of a generation, artisans are again embracing the practice. In so doing, they have reclaimed an important feature of their culture and perhaps helped ensure a brighter future for themselves, their families and the wider community.


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