“Today is not market day…”

The hustle and bustle of the African marketplace must be experienced to be understood. The colours. The sounds. The beeping cars. The laughter. And, of course, the negotiations – endless bartering between local experts of supply, demand and price.

Our local buyer based in Accra, Ghana’s capital, made the 12-hour trek to the North by bus. First, she went to Tamale and had a driver take her to Bolgatanga (a 4-hour drive). Once she arrived she was told “today is not market day”. As she does not speak the local language, her driver also became her translator and negotiator.

The spontaneity of the African market experience never ceases to surprise us. As Shakespeare famously wrote: “all’s well that end’s well”; our buyer called the driver her “angel”, without whom she would have never been able to find the elderly woman artisan who has been weaving her entire life, from whom we sourced these beautiful Bolga fans….

Afua, our Bolga fan weaver, sends her warm greetings, and artistic woven fans, from her home cities: Tamale and Bolgatanga, Ghana, West Africa.