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Authentic African black soap is handmade from raw, organic, plant-based ingredients: cocoa pods, coconut oil, palm tree leaf derivatives, including palm kernel oil and palm oil, plantain bark, which contains iron, as well as vitamins A and E and shea butter. Using shea butter in African black soap production dates back to the 14th century. Black soap is a traditional soap commonly associated with Ghana, but is actually made in many parts of West Africa. Authentic African soap does not contain dyes, parabens, preservatives or other additives. Unlike many commercial soaps that contain harsh chemicals African black soap cleanses without...

Ghanaian recycled glass beads are made out of discarded glass bottles, jars and broken window panes. These beads are called Krobo beads because it is the Krobo people in Ghana that make them. Krobos are part of an ethnic group from the south-eastern part of Ghana. They are highly regarded for their artisanal skills and have several micro and medium production plants in Krobo towns, villages and hamlets. The entire Krobo bead-making process is hand made and labour intensive. Many people in this area learn bead making skills from childhood from family members engaged in the trade and some proceed...

My recent trip to my beloved Ghana moved me to start thinking about other vehicles through which I can showcase this beautiful land: adornments. I came across cowrie shells. “Cowrie” is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails. The cowrie was the shell most widely used worldwide as shell money. For a long time, the cowrie coexisted with many other forms of currency across West Africa: silver coins, gold dust, salt bars, brass and copper rods and horse-shoe shaped manillas, cloth currencies, and beads. By the 18th century, the cowrie had become the currency of...

Global Unity in all its forms is seldom achieved, but Music is the sweet force that gently disarms all sides to lay down their guard and simply ..listen and dance. As a middle-aged man, a Ghanaian Canadian music enthusiast, and a singer, a visit to Ghana was the healing tonic I needed. An escape from the wintery, very unmusical, and discordant snowstorm-filled wails back in Canada to sunshine, heat, and the throbbing polyrhythms of Mother Africa!My daughter traveling with me to Ghana alerted me to the FREE Black Star Line Festival, hosted by Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa, with...

Institutional Memory: One Woman's Path to Bringing the World to Africa—and Africa to the World Oforiatta-Ayim says that her idea for ANO was born when she visited the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she studied Russian culture in the early 2000s. I went to the museum as often as possible with my free student pass. The Hermitage is an encyclopedic museum covering the world's cultures, past and present. What struck me first that day—and then again and again—was the lack of context around displays of historical African masks and sculptures and the exclusion of Africa among the Western and Eastern...