A little over a month ago, the Acumen leadership team embarked on a ladies-only weekend to Sirigu. Sirigu is a small town that’s a 4-hour ride, including a fun, yet smushed tro tro ride to Bolga, followed by a scenic (albeit bumpy) taxi ride to our destination. Our destination was the Sirigu Women Organization of Pottery and Art (SWOPA).
We had finally reached the concluding labs for our Acumen Fund Leadership course that I blogged about a few posts ago. Equipped with multiple internet sticks, laptops, chart paper, markers, pre-downloaded video clips, and boxes of sangria (Suj needed something to do while we worked!), we were ready to go.
Just for fun, we watched clips of Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela to illustrate methods of adaptive leadership. We also discussed an excerpt from a book titled “The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World”, which I have attached here for your reference. It’s a long read, but if it’s something you are interested in, definitely worth checking out!
Since 1997, more than 150 women of Sirigu have formed an organization for pottery and art. Sirigu village is well known for its traditional architecture, basketry, pottery and wall designing. When faced with declining yields from farming, the women revived the traditional arts to leverage it as an important source of income for the upkeep of their families. Many children owe their education and healthcare to income generated from the handicrafts and traditional arts produced by the women of Sirigu.
Take a look at these beautifully painted wall decorations – these symbols represent both the male and the female. Now the unfortunate part is that, the male symbol is the vertical design because men stand up straight and are the leaders of the household. The female symbol is horizontal since women are traditionally represented as “lying down”.
In between our Labs 5 and 6, we took some amazingly awesome pottery lessons from the experts at Sirigu.
To top off the perfection of the weekend, we all slept outdoors on the roof under the stars. Beds are for chumps. It felt like a scene out of The Lion King as Simba, Pumba & Timon slept outdoors looking at the stars (and Mufasa). We created a protective shield of deet so that no mosquito would have a chance of attacking: deet on the mats, on our “pillows” (aka chart paper), and all over our bodies.
If you ever find yourself in the Upper East region of Ghana, this is definitely a weekend trip that is worth taking!! For more information on the Sirigu Women Organization of Pottery and Art, take a look at their website: http://www.swopa.org/.
Be the change 