Ghana-Net.com · Ashanti Region · Craft Villages
A row of workshops on the Kumasi–Mampong road, the sound of adzes, and the smell of fresh-cut wood. Ahwiaa is where Asante stools, drums and akuaba figures are carved — and where a great many "antiques" are made each week. It is one of the best places in Ghana to understand Asante carving, and one of the easiest to get it wrong. Here is how to tell the difference.
Ahwiaa lies just north of Kumasi, so close that the city has almost reached it. Carvers have worked here for generations, and like Bonwire's weavers they once served the Asante court. Today the village lives largely from visitors and from traders who buy in bulk for markets in Accra and abroad.
Walk past the shop fronts and into the yards behind, and you will find men carving with adzes and knives much as their grandfathers did. That is what to come for.
If you understand one object in Ahwiaa, make it the stool.
An Akan stool is carved from a single block of wood: a curved seat, a central support, and a flat base. The central support can take many forms — a column, an elephant, a leopard, an adinkra symbol — and each design carries meaning, often tied to the owner's status or clan.
A person's stool was personal: it was believed to hold something of its owner's soul, and when not in use it was tipped on its side so that no stray spirit could sit on it. A chief's stool stands for his office; at the top of this system stands the Golden Stool, which no one sits on at all.
Buying a stool is buying a piece of that system. A good one is heavy, carved from one piece, and finished by hand. Ask the carver what the central design means — he should know.
The small figure with the flat round head is an akuaba. By tradition it was carried by women hoping to conceive, and cared for like a child. The story behind it is of a woman called Akua, told by a priest to carry such a figure. It has become the most copied Asante image of all.
From small hand drums to large talking drums that reproduce the tones of Twi speech, Ahwiaa carvers make the bodies. A real talking drum is an instrument, not decoration — ask to hear it played.
The two-row game of pits and seeds played across Ghana. A carved oware board is one of the most useful things you can take home: you will actually use it.
Combs, spoons, bowls and walking sticks — less glamorous than masks and often better made, because carvers make them for Ghanaian buyers too.
You will see rows of masks in Ahwiaa. Most of them have nothing to do with Asante.
The Asante tradition of carving is centred on stools, figures, drums and regalia — not masks. Many masks on sale copy styles from elsewhere in Africa, made because buyers expect "African masks". They can be well carved, and there is nothing wrong with buying one you like. Just do not buy one believing it is an Asante ritual object — it is not.
The same goes for "antiques". Wood can be darkened with polish, soot or earth, and cracked or worn in days. A carving "found in a village" and offered cheaply is almost always new. If you want an old piece, buy from a reputable dealer — and ask about export rules, since genuinely old cultural objects may need an export permit from the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board.
Ask to see the workshop. A carver who can show you the piece in progress is the best guarantee that you are buying craft, not stock.
Heavy, dense wood carved from one piece is better than light wood glued in sections. Look under the base and at the joints.
First prices for visitors are high, and bargaining is expected. But a stool that took days to carve is not worth the price of a lunch. Pay what the work is worth.
Wood can crack in a dry climate. Ask how it was dried, and keep it away from direct heat once you are home. Check your own country's rules on importing wood.
North on the Kumasi–Mampong road, only around 8 to 10 kilometres from the centre. It is the easiest of the three craft villages to reach.
Any trotro heading north towards Mampong passes through. Ask to be dropped at Ahwiaa; the workshops line the road.
Weekday mornings, when carvers are at work rather than just selling.
Ask before photographing carvers at work. A purchase or a tip is the fair way to say thanks.
A day that works: Bonwire for kente, Ntonso for adinkra, and Ahwiaa on the way back into Kumasi. Hotels on ghanahotels.biz.
Kumasi craft-village tours usually include Ahwiaa with Bonwire and Ntonso. Ask whether workshop visits are included, not just shops.
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The stool no one sits on — the top of the system every Ahwiaa stool belongs to.
Ghana's other great carving tradition — coffins shaped like fish, cars and cocoa pods.
Carved and moulded shrine houses — Asante craft in architecture.
Base yourself in Kumasi.
Ahwiaa is the most commercial of the three craft villages, and the easiest to visit badly: a quick walk along the shop fronts, a mask that isn't Asante, an "antique" that isn't old. Go into the yards instead, watch a stool being carved from one block of wood, and buy something a carver can explain to you. That is the Ahwiaa worth the trip.
Verified: 26 September 2026. The meaning and making of Akan stools, the akuaba tradition and the observations on masks and artificial ageing follow standard accounts of Asante carving. Export rules for old cultural objects should be checked with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board before purchase. Travel distances are approximate. Corrections welcome and will be published in full.
