On our trip up to Burkina Faso with Heidi’s parents we made a stop at SWOPA – the Sirigu Women’s Organization for Pottery and Art. Just outside the village of Sirigu, the arts centre offers tours, workshops and a gift shop where you can learn about this traditional art form of the Kasena people. Women from this village were commissioned to create the murals in the Navrongo Minor Basilica that I wrote about a couple months ago.
Our tour guide first took us to a nearby traditional Kasena compound and explained their architecture as well as some of their cultural practices.
Then we returned to the arts centre where we at a traditional Ghanaian meal in their canteen and bought some of the pottery created and decorated by the local women who are members of the SWOPA co-op.
Here’s a short documentary on YouTube about the process of decorating walls in Sirigu.