1 of 2

Write now Article Tools

Page 3 of 5

to buy for you you'll get the best deal. Prices I paid in Koforidua were 300,000 cedis for a strand of old Carnelian beads,500,000 cedis for round Kiffa beads 40,000 cedis each for a large Chevron bead and 120,000 cedis for a strand of Venetian Feather beads. A handful of assorted beads cost 80,000 cedis. Luckily The ATM machine at Barclays bank is very close by! A tip I offer is to take dollars with you as some traders will offer a considerable discount for payment in dollars. As well as these I bought Russian Blues, Early Venetian King, Faceted Czech and Ancient Mali Granite Beads.

About 1 hour's journey from Koforidua towards the River Volta is Agomanya which has a section of the main market dedicated to beads on a Wednesday and Saturday. It opens about 9am. We stayed at Traycourt Leisure Center a laid back guest-house with a good bar and Restaurant open 24 hours in beautiful gardens. Single rooms with a fan and shower were 60,000 cedis.
It's easy to Agomanya by tro-tro or the owner will phone for a taxi. On the other side of the road from Traycourt are 2 bead shops selling a range of glass beads from 5,000 cedis.There is very little hassle to buy here so it's pleasant to browse!

Agomayna on market day is the usual African crush. To find the beads ask any of the stallholders, better still buy something from them and they'll be even more helpful!

We recognized some faces from Koforidua but there were plenty of other sellers too. Luckily we passed by the first stalls and eventually discovered a stall standing slightly apart from the rest. The beads here were being sold by a curious group of men, much more laid back than their female counterparts in fact one was laying asleep across the back of his stand! These beads were more exciting than any we'd seen so far. As well as most types of European Trade beads there were stone, shell and amber beads from across the continent. I was tempted by 3 strands of huge Adventurine beads bought from Mali it was only the $700 that held me back and when I checked with a few bead sites in the UK I found similar strands for much less. What I did buy was along strand of spectacular disk shaped beads made from amber recovered from a river in Guinea Bissau, some red and black Venetian Chevron beads and Mali Wedding beads. Packing away my beads I spotted a necklace of old white agates for 300,000. I couldn't get the seller to come down at on these but just as we were about to leave my friend tried offering dollars. It did the trick

• << previous page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Bead buying trips to Ghana?
We want to hear your view. Write now!