The Asante Market Women (Ghana Culture - Full Documentary) | TRACKS – Transcript

00:05Ghana West Africa nearly 200 miles north from the coast lies Kumasi the capital of the Asante region Sita one of the most powerful kingdoms of West Africa the Asante have survived years of colonization by the British and incorporation into the modern Ghanaian state Kumasi Central Market one of the

00:30largest in Africa is at the heart of the Asante economy every day up to 70,000 people come here to trade in everything from tomatoes to talcum powder the market is dominated by women it is they who decide what is sold who sells it and at what price the only men in the wholesale market today are employed by the women as labourers and secretaries the women have organized themselves into tightly run produce associations and

00:57each Association has an elected leader known as the Queen Mother who with a committee of elders takes all important decisions Amma is the tomato Queen

01:07Mother libera that could be mine National Union Sunnyvale matron watching me aback I'm going to say to me about trivia mouth now the onion kumquat fog was sent to me through cramming tomorrow

01:34mate or my own brother from me to my brother for men to many from our tribe Ukranian a buyer mental yesterday didn't enjoy maybe funny Cromartie Aramis to an arbitrary large median I never pay now the chignon TSE pollution Anthea maybe I reconcile

02:02next door to the tomato section is the yam wholesale area this is one of the most important sections of the market as yams provide much of the Assante a staple diet amis eywa is the Queen Mother she is the most powerful woman in the

02:16market and the final arbiter of all

02:18disputes yeah yeah yeah well you're

03:08paying in here the plantain section of the market is expanding fast it took the plantain sellers years of lobbying to get themselves a permanent patch to trade on they only won this area after they had appealed to local politicians to kick out the resident Nigerian traders a produce Queen Mother's authority depends largely on how she got her position in the first place uber was never elected she got to the

03:34top by courting members of the assembly royal family and local politicians Luciana what were you aware were two men impending funnyman wedding you know an Iranian wah you'd be prayer pray my dear Papa Jemima Olivia why were too thirsty aquaeden tomorrow and the question is

04:02why he mazzaglia what'd you do I am a Numidian Oh I was shot to them something in my eye watch so much of them yo and everything me well that's you Minu Kumasi heard of mine whadya market trading is a family business it's rare to find a woman trading alone invariably there's a sister or daughter nearby in the tomato section family influence is very strong

04:28Amma that tomato queen mother has two daughters who are both tomato retailers and they constantly complained to their mother about the high prices and the difficulties they have in making a profit is the youngest daughter and her mother's strongest

05:49there's enormous pressure to fix the price of tomatoes quickly a couple of hours in the scorching heat and they begin to perish the tomato Queen Mother delegates price fixing two members of her committee of elders it is they who negotiate the price with the women who bring the produce from the rural areas Kumasi is not a tomato growing area so the price is usually high and bargaining fierce the woman on the right has

06:14brought a lorry load of tomatoes from a craft the three women arguing with her

08:02it took an hour to knock down the Accra Woman's price to 160 CDs it's only when the price is fixed that the retailers who've been waiting around patiently can buy the tomatoes and hire laborers to carry them away to the retail market the plantain section unlike the yam and to Martin Queen mothers who were elected by their members and so have popular support for their IANA Luna Ober the plantain Queen

08:28Mother has a permanent struggle to maintain order five plantain sellers who accused her of taking more than her fair share of the profits recently tried to overthrow her but she used her political influence and held on to her job she's now finding it difficult to settle one of the many fights and disputes that break out in her section

09:12the dispute has broken out because the woman white has been accused of selling rotten plantain feelings are running high and most of the sellers have ganged up against her in support of the woman in green who has refused to pay the price she originally negotiated the case has been reported to Oba she has to maintain order and settle the dispute

09:32which is as much about her authority as it is about rotten clam teams across permeable lawmakers I'm a gua

09:56madana-mohana Adhamiya Papa misawa and what I in today I'm every officer my Peruvian Air Force on the economy they are per year and yeah anyway we are deploying by autumn you listen baby our

10:19opinion is somebody's I mean nucleon remove me I'll say murder and see what our minds vanadium it is it's your proper weapon

10:42yeah Bob we have Rihanna for Ariana one on every route and there's a massive nemetrix Anthony he's a Canadian insanity

11:01Hughes I don't know yet about family

11:04nothing the majority clearly agree with

11:40Oba but the woman in white has powerful support although dissatisfied with overs judgment the woman grudgingly pays her farm Ober has just managed to restore order among her women who constantly challenged her Authority miss Amelia ban Sammy Sammy Hagar mine dr. Belman anyone know so maybe I come

12:06Emma Daniel Guardians it yawn yawn you hear me I've built since then we are one goodbye unsurmountable you grunt oh yeah it's all aboard yeah Batman gone bad mojo Bernard what I'm hearing you say say yeah yeah I do my thing yeah I never whine young man adds not a doctor's the okra Brenda what

12:36a Santi society is matrilineal this means that the king inherits not from his father's side but from his mother's relatives a British educated barrister king of pouco war ii ii was elected according to a Santy traditional one of the most important factors in his election was the support given to him by the 'santa Queen Mother the most powerful woman in the kingdom all members of the royal family are related

13:04to the Queen Mother and where a king dies it is the Queen Mother who nominates his successor to the committee of elders who make the final decision unlike our society sons do not inherit property from their fathers instead wealth passes from a man to his sisters sons this should mean that the sister has considerable authority and that women in a Santy have more status and wield more power than elsewhere in practice for the ordinary woman it can

13:32mean great hardship because if her husband dies his property goes not to her and her children but to his sister's children and she is left with the task of supporting her family this gathering is part of the fuel celebration of a member of the royal family the palace is still at the heart of a sandy politics and uber the plantain Queen mother and her colleague from the yam section are misawa represent all the market women at

13:59the funeral they make the most of such an occasion and make both business and political contacts as well as enjoying the dancing just as the Queen Mother is crucial to the appointment of the king the same pattern usually applies at lower levels of the political system in every village there's a queen mother who

14:27nominates the village chief but this unusual power that women have constitutionally is unrelated to their domestic role which is one of subservience to men most women have little power and can only earn status with childbearing and age mailing us auntie Mary polygamous Lee sometimes as many as five or six wives Akua is the senior or first wife a Santa