What can the lives of women carrying goods through the markets of Accra teach us about resilience, identity and the future of Ghana?

In this episode of Indigenous Intelligence, I sit down with anthropologist Dr Laurian Bowles, author of the newly released book Headstrong: Women Porters, Blackness and Modernity in Accra.

We begin with Laurian's own story—her childhood, how anthropology found her, and how a first visit to Ghana in the 1990s sparked a journey that would eventually lead to more than a decade of research and relationship-building in Accra.

Together, we explore the lives of the kayayei (female head porters), examining the realities of migration, labour, belonging, Blackness and modernity in contemporary Ghana. We discuss what these women taught Laurian about resilience, dignity and community, and reflect on the challenge of preserving memory in a rapidly changing society.

This conversation goes beyond anthropology. It is an exploration of what we value, whose stories get told, and what we can learn from people whose lives are often hidden in plain sight.

Topics include:

• Ghana and social change
• The lives of the kayayei
• Blackness and identity
• Migration and belonging
• Memory and preservation
• Anthropology and storytelling
• Community, resilience and human flourishing

Listen, reflect and join the conversation.

The word deficiency points you toward food. But the active form of vitamin D is a hormone — called calcitriol — and your body makes it from sunlight, not from diet. When the system fails, it's not because you haven't eaten enough oily fish. It's because something is disrupting the production pathway.

In this episode, I walk through how calcitriol is actually made, why melanin-rich skin at northern latitudes disrupts that process at the very first step, what the data shows about who is most affected in the UK — and why some of the supplements GPs are prescribing may be making things worse, not better.

This is the science behind the parliamentary question. It's the reason I asked it — and it changes how you understand your own body.

calcitriol

vitamin D

melanin

health equity

endocrine system

Black health UK

In this episode of the Indigenous Intelligence Podcast, Nii Okyne explores the journey that led him to submit a formal question to the UK Parliament regarding vitamin D guidance for people with higher melanin concentration.

Blending science, ancestral wisdom, policy, personal experience, and cultural history, this episode examines:

• why vitamin D is actually a hormone
• how melanin affects sunlight absorption at northern latitudes
• why current public health guidance may not adequately serve Black and South Asian communities
• and how Indigenous knowledge systems often understood these realities long before modern institutions acknowledged them

Nii shares the story behind Parliamentary Question 106242, the government response that followed, and how Ga ancestral practices from Ghana connect directly to modern conversations around health, grounding, wellbeing, and human biology.

This is more than a conversation about vitamin D.
It is a conversation about memory, disconnection, science, identity, and reclaiming knowledge that was never truly lost.

Topics explored:

• Melanin and sunlight
• Vitamin D and hormonal health
• Indigenous knowledge systems
• Ga traditions and Homowo
• Grounding and wellbeing
• Health equity
• Public policy
• Ancestral intelligence

Follow Indigenous Intelligence for future conversations exploring ancestral wisdom, wellbeing, culture, identity, and human potential.