Taking a trip to Suame Magazine

After a week spent mainly in the KCCR Seminar room and the Tek Hostel, it was time to take a trip into the heart of Kumasi, where the teams will be doing much of their work over the next few weeks. The participants were thrilled to finally get to see the fabled Suame Magazine, of which they have heard so much about over the past ten days. Our destination for the day was the Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit, in the heart of the Magazine. This is the working home of Crossman, and it was clear to see how delighted he was to be showing us around the place he is happiest in, the workshop!

Imagine 100,000 men like this, all working within a 20k radius of each other

A typical Suame workshop storeroom

Crossman himself gave us an introduction into the history behind the I.T.T.U. and how the centre came into existence. He told us that we were still “on KNUST soil” and the collaboration between these ingenious artisans from Suame and eager students from the University is perhaps the defining feature of Kumasi, and a small example of how co-creation can work at a localized level. The I.T.T.U. functions as a go-between in a sense as a means of making sure that technologies and techniques developed at the University make their way into the community. We also had the chance to meet the workshop managers we will be working with in the coming weeks and of course to try out some of the machinery on offer. A quick trip into the centre of the Magazine to ask some questions was to follow before heading into downtown Kumasi to pick up some materials for the projects, and some basic food supplies for the suites!

Crossman in full flow

Amy shares a joke with Miniver and Loveness

Grabbing some lunch

They didn't even pose for this shot, they were just THAT happy to be at Suame

Downtown traffic

The participants had the rest of the weekend off to let off some steam get to know both the surrounding area and their fellow participants a little better. The group headed down to the campus pool that evening for some ice cream, music, diving and a new and exciting (if worrying barbarous) game of gutter ball. If anyone is having trouble understanding what this gutter ball consists of, simply try putting water polo and anarchy together and you should have the gist of it pretty quickly.

The next morning, battered and bruised but surprisingly refreshed, the participants had the chance to head on some excursions on Sunday morning. Our trip to the lake was scuppered by the inefficiencies of the Ghanaian transport system but thankfully this didn’t prohibit us from visiting the palace of the Ashanti king. Since the late 17^th Century the Ashanti region has had a kingship in place and the system has remained in place, even through colonialism and right up until the present day. The parliament and the kingship each have a share of authority and this system, and the history of the Ashanti region, is one of the main reasons why the region is perhaps one of the most stable in Africa. When Kwame Kkrumah led the country to independence in the late 1950’s, they had the tools ready at hand for restructuring and rebuilding their country’s political system, something which many previously tribe based countries in Africa simply didn’t have access to.

Some of our teams set off on their second village visits today, to explore further the country we have been learning so much about. One of the teams in particular, the Rice De-Stoning team, are going to get to see more of the country than any others. On their first village visit they realized that none of the villages IDDS has been working with farm rice and as such, the information they needed simply wasn’t available. In typical IDDS fashion they have simply adapted their approach and set off this morning at 8am for the Northern Region, and the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso! In the villages in the far North of the country rice is one of the most prevalent crops farmed, so hopefully they can return with the information they need, as well as a story or two!