Adinkra Cloth Printing Business
Ntonso Craft Village

I was taken by this woman's blank stare. It was clearly a boring job, but I couldn't help wondering if the fumes from the pigment had an adverse effect on her.

Bark from the Badji tree, grown in the north of Ghana, is soaked for 24 hrs., pulverized in a giant mortar and pestle then transferred to large iron pots to be boiled in water for 48 hrs. over a wood fire. The boiled liquid is then strained and transferred to smaller to be boiled down for up to 10 days into a thick, black pigment for printing Adinkra cloth.