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Articles

Vol. 12 (2000)

The Krobo and Bodom

  • Kirk Stanfield
Submitted
January 24, 2025
Published
2000-01-01

Abstract

Certain relatively large beads, almost always found in Ghana, have come to be called "bodom" by bead traders, collectors, and researchers. Most students of this bead believe it is the product of the Krobo powder-glass industry proliferating today in southeastern Ghana. Upon closer inspection, however, there appear to be two distinct groups of bodom that we may, for convenience, call "old" and "new." While the new bodom are definitely made in Ghana today, using techniques that have been observed and documented, the old bodom are substantially different in enough ways to suggest that they were made elsewhere by other methods. This study examines the origins and methods of manufacture of bodom and tests the hypothesis that the Krobo made oldbodom.