(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

Women in Ghana support their families and contribute to society in many different ways. Ghanaian photographer Geoffrey Buta has documented their work.

‘A time to plant’

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

The planting season is crucial to households in Ghana’s rural communities. When the rains come, women tend to their farms for a timely and abundant harvest. With little help from men, most women often work on the farms with the help of their next of kin.

Wheels of fortune

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

Once a male-dominated occupation, women in Ghana have taken up bigger challenges, among them driving passenger buses. It is no longer considered a taboo nowadays to see a woman behind the wheel in Ghana. Throughout the world, women are considered to be more careful drivers than their male counterparts.

Performing the goose march

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

Ghana’s police march through Tamale with women at the forefront to showcase that they are security-conscious and can play a better role in community policing. It is only in recent years that more women have joined the police force.

Firewood for fuel

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

Due to the lack of affordable energy for cooking, women in rural Ghana often trek long distances to collect firewood for preparing meals for their families. However, this has also led to a drastic cutting down of trees and shrubs for fuel.

Drying shea nuts

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

For better results from the crops grown, much effort is put into getting clean shea nuts that will eventually be roasted to extract butter for both home use and sale at the market. So that is the first phase. Drying the shea nuts is the second phase in the process of making of shea butter. The work is done manually by the women, who always have to keep watch over the clouds lest the rains interrupt the drying.

Roasting for better results

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

Roasting the shea nuts is part of the process of extracting shea butter from the nuts. Shea butter processing is solely done by women in northern Ghana, mainly to support their families.

Celebrating the harvest

(Copyright: Geoffrey Buta)

At the end of the rainy season, yams are the first crops to be harvested. And for that reason, the ‘Yam festival’ is held to celebrate the harvest, which is often in abundant enough to feed individual families and sell the surplus at the market.

Author: Geoffrey Buta

Editor: Marjory Linardy

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