Fan Weaving in Bunkpurugu, Ghana

My good friend's father wanted me to film him weaving a fan out of a rafia palm leaf. They typically use this fan to stoke their fires for cooking. The entire time for him to weave it was 13 min and 41 sec. They have such skill at this as you can see. It was a great privilege to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in this village. During that time I got to see and experience so many things that few outside get to see.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Bunkpurugu
• Ollerman
• fan
• weaving
• Ghana
• africa

[RosebudliasCabochons]

I am very impressed! Thank you for making the film.

[ryanollerman]

@RosebudliasCabochons Thanks for commenting

[WakingRoom]

That was so beautiful to witness... he did it with graceful swiftness. Thank you for sharing!

[ryanollerman]

@WakingRoom :)

[sephiroth87932]

at 0:33 is that plaiting?

[ryanollerman]

Yes, done on both sides, to create a rigid spine for the fan.

[joycealiful]

@Jamesbamba

is called kanpintu

[Jamesbamba]

Great video. This is the first time I've seen anything of a woven/plaited nature from this region outside of the commonplace coiled basketry seen here in the US. I myself am a weaver from the island of Guam and this style suprisingly is very similar to our 'guehan guafi' or fire fan. What is this called in their language, do you happen to know?

[sephiroth87932]

thank you =)

[ryanollerman]

Thank you everyone for your nice comments and personal messages. And yes it was amazing to see this man work in REAL life.  It was a great privilege for me, but you can have it too. Just step on a plane and head over to Ghana. I have learned how to make these fans, but I cannot do it as his level of speed, maybe if I had more palm trees here in the NW of USA. Thanks again everyone.