Controlling the Fire: Individuation and Investment in West Africa

The two presenters on this panel—one a historian and the other an archaeologist—will discuss their role in the production of a documentary film on the deep history of the trade and production of beads in Ghana. The presenters will briefly introduce the film and screen it. In the film, bead makers, scholars, traders, and young female initiates discuss the value, meaning, historical significance, and future of glass bead making in Ghana.