The Women Behind Baraka Black Soap: How Cooperative Production in Ghana Works

Last updated: August 2026

Baraka's African black soap is made by women at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana, within a direct relationship Wayne Dunn has maintained for over 15 years. This post is the direct answer to the question the whole black soap cluster raises: who exactly makes this soap, how, and what buying it means for them. For the complete guide to what African black soap is, see African Black Soap: The Complete Guide to What It Is, Where It Comes From, and Why It's Different. For the complete cooperative story, see The Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre: How Baraka's Cooperative Partnership Works.

A note: African black soap is a traditional plant-based cleansing ingredient. The properties described in this guide are cosmetic properties — cleansing and conditioning. They are not medical claims.

Who Makes Baraka Black Soap?

Women producers at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana, make every bar, within a direct relationship of over 15 years. One of them is Torokugu, whose own account of what this relationship has meant for her and her family is worth reading directly, in her own words rather than summarized here. For the full sourcing story, see Baraka's Social and Environmental Impact Report, and for Torokugu's own words, see Torokugu Discusses the Impact Baraka has Made for her and her Family.

How Cooperative Production Actually Works

Different women take on different stages of the work — one group prepares the ash lye, another handles the pounding and moulding, and each is paid directly by the cooperative for her part, rather than through a single lump payment split informally. The ash is burned from plantain peels and cocoa pods, dissolved into lye, and assessed by feel and weight rather than lab equipment. The lye is combined with palm kernel oil and shea butter over an open fire, stirred continuously for hours, then poured into moulds and left to cure. Payment for a batch is tied to the work each woman contributed, paid directly by the cooperative — not funneled through a single intermediary who decides how it's split. This division of labour isn't informal improvisation; it reflects who has developed the deepest skill at each stage over years of practice.

What the Work Looks Like Day to Day

On any given day, it's ash-burning, lye-testing, hours of stirring over an open fire, and hand-pounding and hand-moulding the finished mixture — done by people, not machines, using judgement built over years rather than a written recipe. This is work, not a scene — the same women often move between these stages across a production cycle, depending on what the batch needs that day. For the full step-by-step process, see How Traditional African Black Soap Is Made: The Process Behind the Bar.

The Buyer's Verification Checklist

An ethical sourcing claim is only worth what it names — and there are five things you can actually check on any brand, including ours:

• Named cooperative or community: Baraka — the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre.
• Named region: Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana.
• Named process: traditional plant-ash lye saponification with palm kernel oil and shea butter, by hand.
• Payment model: direct payment to the women who did the work, from Baraka to the cooperative, no intermediary broker.
• Chain of custody: documented from producer to finished product, available on request.

Apply this same checklist to any brand claiming "African black soap" — if a supplier can't answer all five specifically, the claim isn't verifiable, whatever the label says.

Why Generic Claims Fail

Phrases like "supports women" or "ethically sourced" can't be checked — they don't name a cooperative, a region, a process, or a payment model, so there's nothing a buyer can actually verify. Naming specifics is what makes a sourcing claim checkable rather than just stated. That's the difference this post is pointing at, not a claim about any other brand's honesty.

For Diaspora Buyers

Many readers here are buying something their own families already used, and asking a fair question: does the money reach the people who make it? For Baraka, yes — payment goes directly to the women at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre for the work they did, not through an intermediary who decides how much reaches them.

What the Documentation Shows

Production is at a named facility with an FDA Facility FEI Number (3043530454) and FDA cosmetic listing (53-035517-041600), operating under a 16-critical-control-point quality framework in place since 2023, and under Good Manufacturing Practice principles consistent with the guidelines of ISO 22716:2007 — applied as principles, not held as third-party certification, which Baraka does not claim. Technical documentation is available on request. For the tested figures and the full quality framework, see Baraka's black soap testing and standards guide.

Explore more: Black Soaps Collection · DIY Ingredients Collection

For the cultural and traditional healing context, see African Black Soap and Traditional Healing in West Africa: The Cultural Role Behind the Bar. For the real vs fake guide, see Real vs Fake Black Soap: How to Tell Traditional African Black Soap from Industrial Imitations. For the global movement context, see African Black Soap Around the World: How a West African Tradition Became a Global Skincare Movement. For the fair trade story, see Baraka's Fair Trade Story.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who makes Baraka black soap?

Women producers at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana, make every bar of Baraka's African black soap, within a direct relationship Wayne Dunn has maintained for over 15 years. Different women handle different stages of production — ash preparation, lye testing, cooking, and moulding — and each is paid directly for her part.

What should an ethical sourcing claim actually include?

Five things you can actually check: a named cooperative or community, a named region, a named process, a payment model that shows how producers are paid, and chain-of-custody documentation from producer to finished product. "Ethically sourced" on its own names none of these — a verifiable claim can be checked against all five.

About the Author

Wayne Dunn is the founder of Baraka Impact and a former Professor of Practice in Sustainability at McGill University. He holds an M.Sc. in Management from Stanford and has spent over 15 years working directly with the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Ghana's Upper West Region to source traditionally made shea butter and natural oils. He shares DIY skincare recipes and ingredient guides designed to be made at home with real ingredients — and sourced with full transparency about where they come from.