Greetings my Hivers, I hope we all doing great. @whatamidoing thanks for this opportunity to show more qualities about our cultural lifestyle. Visiting a favorite local shop is a great way to portray some unique qualities about the shop. I would like to share some reasons why I love to visit my favorite local shop.
Well, I'm in school at the moment so I couldn't get the chance to visit a wood carving shop to take pictures but pardon me to use some pictures from the internet.
To begin with, I am an African, a Ghanaian to be precise. The shop I love to visit is a wood carving shop. I really loved to visit a wood carving shop because I love art a lot and also there was this particular man at a specific shop who mostly told me a historic background about their art work.
Culture goes a further step to define our thoughts. Carving something out of imagination is a unique ability in Ghanaian society. In ancient times in Ghana, trees have been known to be the dwelling space of spirit. so before these trees could be used, there are some rites performed to the deities.
Wood carving has been a source of art in my Ghanaian culture because it has and currently making an impact in the lives of Ghanaians.
Our forefathers believed in art and craft because they believed it was a special gift from the deities to the men. Traditional wood carving has been an ancient industry. Wood carving has been one of the oldest pieces of art in my culture. It is believed to contain a certain spirit or powers. So they never joked with it. It was mostly assigned to some specific people in the community. Not everyone is entitled to that.
Some attributes of the wood carving were;
- It was believed to be a symbol of fertility and womanhood or motherhood.
- It was also believed to invoke spirits and used it as their form of deity.
But currently, some benefits we derive from wood carving are;
- It has helped to bring out the creativity in our young Ghanaians.
- It has also created employment in the art industry today in my society.
- It has been a source of tourist attraction. this because foreigners love to see this creativity done to portray our culture.
Wood carving would still exist in our culture and forever exist. I got to learn of this history about the art and craftwork in my society. I would love to visit more of the craft shop if I get the chance because it makes me see the beautiful culture we have about art.
Woah, those are some amazing sculptures. Those are from the same shop you are talking about?
I don't think we need to choose between keeping all the old traditions or throwing them all away. We can adapt them to our own lifestyles, and maybe they will reawaken some connection to our ancestry or to our own spiritual exploration.
A really good example of this is the band Heilung from Scandanvian/Germany. They tried to recreate some old singing and clothing and decorations from their ancestors and changed it to fit their taste, and their performances are kind of a meditation and shared ritual for them and the audience. I'm not sure how it looks to someone from Africa...hopefully not like something evil lol (my first reaction as an American was that it might be something sinister, but from their lyrics and interviews I don't feel that at all).
It's really nice to meet someone from Ghana here. We have a lot of Nigerians and I really really like some of them, but I hope we can connect to countries all over Africa.
Wow I'm really enthused about how you still like something about the old tradition. It's still the same old cultural things that we rebranded it today. Our old traditions have been the foundation of today lifestyle. Tradition givs use more details about nature. Thank you soo much @whatamidoing. I really appreciate your love for old tradition too. I will try to watch more videos on heilung. At least I've learnt something too. Heilung means healing in German
Ah another cool example is Leenalchi in Korea! They mix traditional singing with rock and funk.
It's cool to see how different cultures mix. I would love to connect more African and European artists with the scenes in Japan and other parts of Asia that I'm familiar with.
that's nice to hear.
What a nice publication, to know more about the culture is great and that it is something true and real, because it is not written by a visitor who went to make a documentary or a book, it comes from someone who knows it because it is his roots.
Awww thank you very much @actioncats .
This is a very fabulous publication and l like the fact that your people are still holding unto these wood carving.
The YouTube video l watched yesterday made me to realize that Ghana is really well occupied by foreigners and this seems to be one of this things that is attracting them to the place.
Well Done Bro β
Nicely Done
Aww thanks bro. You know there are beautiful things in the African culture
Wood carving is awesome. I carve as kind of meditation... it inspires my mind.
Yeah. I was told it's a great way of meditating too
Hi friend @johnasu
I love this type of art that you show on your blog. I really enjoy looking at masks and African art in general.
Sorry you only uploaded two images. I would have liked to see more.
A hug
awww thanks.
Thank you for educating us in your culture. Looking forward to reading more about it π