A short visit today to Nkwabrim, a cocoa-growing village near Nsuta. Some additional homes there are getting VIP latrines, construction starting now.
The home in the images above belongs to settler farmers – most rural communities I’ve seen have a small sub-community of settlers, living in an area colloquially known as a Zongo. Their homes are less permanent looking than many of the regular houses in a village that may be made of plastered mud blocks or concrete bricks; they’re usually mud huts. Settlers are generally from the north of Ghana, Muslims, and physically can differ in appearance a great deal from southern Ghanaians, as well as other conspicuous differences in language and culture. Northern and southern Ghana may as well be two different countries depending on who you listen to. The Zongos in villages are generally fairly small, tucked away to the side, but the Kumasi Zongo is an entire town within a town.
Construction of a latrine starts with forming a circle of concrete like a giant doughnut in the ground – while a dome of concrete is also formed over a mound of sand, with holes for the ventilation pipe and the toilet formed using wooden templates. The household then dig a pit into the ground through the doughnut around 3 metres deep. The dome will then be placed over the ring with mortar for glue, and the latrine building constructed on top of the whole shebang.
You see, this blog is good value. Social anthropology and toilet engineering all in one post.