The Asante empire was founded in the early 17th century under the rule of the first king, Osei Tutu. According to legend, a golden stool descended from heaven and into the lap of Osei Tutu. The stoll is believed to house the spirit of the Asante people just as it is believed that an individuals stool houses his spirit after death.
The Asante are situated in Southern Ghana, numbering about one and a half million people. The Asante were a dominant power in Ghana, and their early economic structure of the Asante was based on trade of gold and slaves to the Mande and Hausa traders as well as the Europeans in the coastal regions. Acting as middlemen in the slave trade, the Asante were given guns and luxury goods strengthening them as a group.
Asante society, inheritance was through maternal line. The essential role of an Asante woman was to bear children, preferably girls. The Asante fertility, akua’ba, and mother-and-child figures Esi Mansa, were very popular and widely carved due to the importance of maternity and child bearing. The akua’ba figures have disc like heads which embodied the Asante concept of beauty, and were carried by woman wishing to become pregnant and be blessed with the birth of a beautiful child. The akua’ba figures had a secondary purpose too, it was believed the if a child went missing, by placing a akua’ba doll at the edge of the forest with food and silver coins, it would attract the malevolent spirit responsible for the disappearance. The spirit would replace the akua’ba figure with the child, taking the food and silver coins.
The Esi Mansa mother-and-child figures were housed in royal and commoner shrines, emphasizing the importance of family and lineage. They express the Asante ideas about nurturing, family and the continuity of matrilineage through a daughter or of the state through a son.
The Asante are also well known for their ceremonial stool carvings, an curved u-shaped seat, over a base, referring to a proverb or a symbol of wisdom. The Asante are famous for their ceremonial stools carved with an arched sit set over a foot, referring to a proverb or a symbol of wisdom. They are usually made for a chief when he takes office and are adorned with beads or copper nails and sheets. In rare cases, when the chief is sufficiently important, the stool is placed in a special room following his death to commemorate his memory. Ashanti chairs are based on 17 century European models and, unlike stools; do not have any spiritual function. They are used as prestige objects by important chiefs during festivities or significant gatherings.
Also are produced staffs for royal spokesmen, which, like the handles of state swords, are covered in gold foil. The success of the Ashanti Empire depended on the trade in gold not only with Europeans at the coast but also with the Muslim north. Gold dust was the currency, weighed against small brass weights that were often geometric or were representations recalling well-known proverbs. Asante weavers developed a style of weaving of great technical mastery, incorporating imported silk.
The Asante developed remarkably diverse kuduo containers cast of copper alloys. Kuduo were used in many ways. They held gold dust and other valuables, but could also be found in important political and ritual contexts. Some kuduo were buried with their owners, while others were kept in the palace shrine rooms that housed the ancestral stools of deceased state leaders. Life and the afterlife, the present and the past, were enhanced and made more meaningful by the presence of these elegant prestige vessels.
The Asante are situated in Southern Ghana, numbering about one and a half million people. The Asante were a dominant power in Ghana, and their early economic structure of the Asante was based on trade of gold and slaves to the Mande and Hausa traders as well as the Europeans in the coastal regions. Acting as middlemen in the slave trade, the Asante were given guns and luxury goods strengthening them as a group.
Asante society, inheritance was through maternal line. The essential role of an Asante woman was to bear children, preferably girls. The Asante fertility, akua’ba, and mother-and-child figures Esi Mansa, were very popular and widely carved due to the importance of maternity and child bearing. The akua’ba figures have disc like heads which embodied the Asante concept of beauty, and were carried by woman wishing to become pregnant and be blessed with the birth of a beautiful child. The akua’ba figures had a secondary purpose too, it was believed the if a child went missing, by placing a akua’ba doll at the edge of the forest with food and silver coins, it would attract the malevolent spirit responsible for the disappearance. The spirit would replace the akua’ba figure with the child, taking the food and silver coins.
The Esi Mansa mother-and-child figures were housed in royal and commoner shrines, emphasizing the importance of family and lineage. They express the Asante ideas about nurturing, family and the continuity of matrilineage through a daughter or of the state through a son.
The Asante are also well known for their ceremonial stool carvings, an curved u-shaped seat, over a base, referring to a proverb or a symbol of wisdom. The Asante are famous for their ceremonial stools carved with an arched sit set over a foot, referring to a proverb or a symbol of wisdom. They are usually made for a chief when he takes office and are adorned with beads or copper nails and sheets. In rare cases, when the chief is sufficiently important, the stool is placed in a special room following his death to commemorate his memory. Ashanti chairs are based on 17 century European models and, unlike stools; do not have any spiritual function. They are used as prestige objects by important chiefs during festivities or significant gatherings.
Also are produced staffs for royal spokesmen, which, like the handles of state swords, are covered in gold foil. The success of the Ashanti Empire depended on the trade in gold not only with Europeans at the coast but also with the Muslim north. Gold dust was the currency, weighed against small brass weights that were often geometric or were representations recalling well-known proverbs. Asante weavers developed a style of weaving of great technical mastery, incorporating imported silk.
The Asante developed remarkably diverse kuduo containers cast of copper alloys. Kuduo were used in many ways. They held gold dust and other valuables, but could also be found in important political and ritual contexts. Some kuduo were buried with their owners, while others were kept in the palace shrine rooms that housed the ancestral stools of deceased state leaders. Life and the afterlife, the present and the past, were enhanced and made more meaningful by the presence of these elegant prestige vessels.
7 comments:
Good info. I learnt a lot about the asante art and tradition. I had a site about African art and music where I had a lot of African art articles, including info on places like benin and nok art. good resource, I love art and Africa in all. I now have a site which I started and is also about Africa. Its called AfricaMars TV
Great info. If your looking for African art, check out www.africanimportart.com
This is a great place for some good information. If you are looking to purchase some great authentic African art including masks and statues check out this website.
Lotus African Masks
Very Informational! I recently checked out an African art store check out my entry http://blogs.journalism.cuny.edu/interactive2010/2009/09/20/bodegas-pubs-and-african-art/
I learned a lot through you entries mostly about the tradition and meaning of art in the African culture. Keep it Up!
This is a really informative article about the Asante people. I really enjoy learning about the different people groups in Africa because they are all so unique and incredible in their own ways. I am very much interested in African Art and I even have some of art from the asante region in my collection.
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