By: Jacob Aggrey
Ghana is made up of many crafts and professions, each adding to the country’s growing potential to become one of the greats in the future. This progress has not come easy. Ghana is at a point in 2025 where she can boast of how far she has come, thanks to the hard work and creativity of her people.
One of such people making Ghana proud abroad is Ezekiel Martey, a Ghanaian arts student studying in the United States.
To show his creativity and commitment to his studies, Ezekiel uses his art to tell a story about Ghana, migration, and identity with a special focus on one simple but powerful material: the jute sack.
In his latest works, Ezekiel uses jute sacks that once carried cocoa and other Ghanaian goods across borders.
To him, these sacks represent movement, trade, and the lives of ordinary people whose work keeps the country going.
He begins by carefully selecting old sacks that still carry stamps and writings showing their origin marks of Ghana’s export journey.
He then stretches, folds, or reshapes them, sometimes combining them with metal or other materials like bicycle rims and wheels.
This mix of old and new objects reflects both tradition and modern life.
Each artwork becomes a story on its own about how things and people move, change, and still carry traces of where they come from.
Ezekiel says that jute sack reminds him of the Ghana’s underrated role on the Global market.
Jute also represents the strength of ordinary workers the farmers, traders, and transporters who connect Ghana to the rest of the world.
Through his art, he is showing that what some may see as simple packaging material can be turned into something valuable, something that tells stories, teaches culture, and creates opportunities. This is what he believes is the hidden power of contemporary art.
His work also carries an economic message. By promoting the creative reuse of materials like jute, he is helping draw attention to sustainable art and design, something that can create jobs and boost both Ghana’s and America’s economies.
In Ghana, it inspires young artists to look around and use what they have to create. In the U.S., it encourages people to appreciate African materials and culture while supporting environmentally friendly art. This narrative has been echoed by other contemporary arts like Ibrahim Mahama, Serge Attukwei Clottey among others.
Ezekiel’s journey shows that art is not only about beauty, it is also about identity, connection, and growth.
His story reminds us that even something as ordinary as a sack can carry the weight of a nation’s history and the promise of its future. Thus, an emblem of hope and fortune.
