NANA OPUKO
Although this visit was not yet part of our formal project, Nana’s time in Daboya proved influential in shaping our later work.
Daboya is a semi-urban locality in the Gonja area in the Savannah Region, about 60 km west of Tamale. It is one of the last remaining places in Ghana renowned for its indigo dyeing tradition, a practise historically linked with hand-spun cotton and local weaving.
We learned that Mariam, a skilled cotton spinner central to our project, and her brother Karimo, a weaver who introduced us to Mariam, both originate from Daboya. Even at this early stage, the trip highlighted how multiple textile traditions—spinning, dyeing, weaving—intersect in regions where they have long been a source of local identity and pride.