"JARA" dance made inTamale.

If you love energetic and well blend traditional dance, come experience "JARA" dance with the Tamale youth home cultural group. Photo By Geoffrey Buta

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY. KWORLI COMMUNITY CRIES FOR HELP

A boy assisting an Elder to cross the River Takpa with his bicycle, while some women (right) with their goods on their head.

                             The ripped off roofs, windows and doors of one JHS in the community.

                                                The ceiling of the health center peeling off.

                                    Community health assistant at the labor ward during my visit.

                                            The full view of the health center with goats in front.

Kworli Area which is quite populous of over 70, 000 people, with 65 sub villages which are made up of Dagombas and Konkombas live on a very rich land, where the communities are noted for their comparative advantage in the production of Yam and Cassava. The inhabitants of the area also produce the bulk of other foodstuffs (cereal, legumes, fruits etc) emanating from the Eastern corridor of the Northern Region.

Times Photographer Geoffrey Buta, wandering off the main road into the village, found that it ways have not advanced a little since primitive times, with this eccentric photographs of the situation of the people of Kworli.

Many natives of Kworli have not seen electricity light and tarred road because the nearest one is about 25 miles away. The Yendi municipal highway passes kworli some miles away to the north, so almost the only automobiles it sees are a dilapidated van and an old station coach for hire price few villagers can afford.

Development projects and programmes are yet to reach Kworli Area.This contributes the low standard of living in the area. For instance, the road network is very poor. Each year the area is cut off from the rest of Ghana for several months due to consistent overflow of water from river Takpa (a river that marks the boundaries between Kworli and Yelzoli Traditional Area)

 Both Zabzugu and Tatale and their surrounding villages have electricity. Kworli with its more than 63 communities has not been connected to the national grid.

In terms of Education, it is the only area with low teacher-people ratio in the District which resulted in low enrolment and retention.

Currently there is no school in Kworli that have benefited from the school feeding programme out of 30 existing beneficiary schools in the District.

In the modern world where ICT has been stressed in school curriculum, if computers are allocated to the district for distribution to schools, Kworli Area stands no chance of benefiting. Meanwhile the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates are expected to write with those in the capital cities.

One of the only two Junior High Schools has become a trite for animals. Some part of roofs and windows are ripped off for months now, so anytime it’s about to rain students are told to go home.

Six teachers take care of about 256 students, where they are forced to live in dilapidated quarters.

The only health center which serves the people is home of predictors, with holes beneath the building for snakes and scorpions and animals.

The labor room is so small that, it can accommodate only one pregnant woman, while the disease control unit with peeling ceilings and cracks on the ground and walls causes death trait to the staff.

Speaking to some staff, they outline a lot of challengers facing them, which make service delivering very difficult.

 The denial of this entire infrastructure to the people of Kworli is a perpetuation of the backwardness exposing them to further exploitation.

In the new district carved out of the current Zabzugu/Tatale has brought another woe to them, where the town which yield more revenue compared to Tatale been neglected.

In the above view, the Chiefs and the people of Kworli Area are calling on the Government to reconsider the re-location of the district capital from Tatale to Kworli for the sake of convenience, feasibility and other obvious reasons.

 In a press statement issued and signed by the chief indicates that, the distance from Kworli in the South to the district capital is 25 miles while Tatale is 12 miles.

Mr. Saaka Aminu, the 1^st runner up of 2009 National best teacher from the Nakpali village in the Kworli Area called on the Government to consider the plight of the people and come to their aid.

SHOW YOUR TALENT

Saidu an acrobatic performer try to show some of his skills on a lorry park in Accra, capital city of Ghana. He normally does this for his daily survival as well as catering for his family.

WEDDINGS

It’s magic each time we hold each other, each time we cuddle, and each time we kiss. I fell goosebumps all over again. I never want to let you go for fear of losing you, so I just hold on a little bit tighter each day, refusing to let you go. You will never know the warmth I feel inside me when I am with you. You are all I ever wanted.

                                                                                                                         Photos Geoffrey Buta

DIPO FESTIVAL IN SOMANYA.EASTERN REGION.GHANA

       Girls with calabash which contain sponge proceeding to the ‘Srendor’( name of a stream) for spiritual bath.

Jennifer, with a traditional hair cut was not left out.

    Young girls paraded under a tree for spiritual purification. This is a customary rite by the people Somenya in the Eastern part of Ghana to celebrate Dipo festival. Girls here are in their puberty rite ready to be ushered into womanhood.

SAVANNAH IMAGES

1.       Some children around a mud store which is been destroyed by rain in the Village of Kukobila in the Northern Region.

   At sunset in most villages in the Northern part of Ghana, young ladies with their mothers are seen busily preparing supper for the family, while the men gathered under tree (far left) sharing experience of the day. The photography shows some cooking pot on fire.

and brother sharing the same rock behind their family house with two bicycles belonging to elders of the community of Gushie, a village in Tamale

       A young boy spitting out peels of unripe mango fruit at Gushie, a village in Tamale, Regional capital of the North. Ghana.

  

 A young boy with siblings on bicycle coming from farm. The youngest is firmly grasped in the middle to prevent falling.

                                             Fire consumes Farmer Hope for survival.   

                             large quantity of soybeans and cow pea destroys.                                                                                                                                 

                                             

                                                ARE THESE FAMILY SAFE ON A BIKE    

                             Are our mothers safe on this means of transportation to the markets. Some seat on the food stuff and others forced to seat on the edges of the truck       

                                                                   JARA DANCE

                                     JARA dance by Tamale Youth home cultural group.

U.S AMBASSADOR VISIT TAMALE

Donald G. Teitelbaum USA Ambassador to Ghana exchanging pleasentries with Nanton Naa Sule Abdulei during his first time visit to the Northern Region.