Calabash Symbols
Akan: symbol shows sharing one stomach yet they fight over food; the lower left means only God
Akan: symbol is jealousy
Akan: lower symbol means human relations; the one on the top is hope
Akan: symbol means Go back to your roots
Akan: symbol means Place of worship
Akan: Symbol of hope and the cowrie shells on the handle represent currency (shells were currency in ancient times). In Ghana the currency is Cedi which means shells.
Ethiopian - Hamer women — symbols of their fields, their houses and rivers
Hamer woman's measuring calabash; beaded and singed to reflect their peaked roofs.
Malian measuring calabash; dried bracts of the cotton boles.
Highly decorative measuring spoons from famous calabash market in Bobodoulasso, Burkina Faso
