West African Gold: Out of the Ordinary
The inventive goldwork and royal regalia of Ghana's Akan people on display in a new exhibition are drawn, strikingly, from daily life
- By Doug Stewart
- Smithsonian magazine, December 2005, Subscribe
(Page 2 of 2)
The Akan’s inventive goldwork can convey boasts, insults, jokes and especially proverbs. A parading chief who raises one hand and languidly turns his wrist to call attention to an enormous gold ring in the form of a fish may be reminding his audience of the Akan proverb: “A fish out of water dies; a king without followers ceases to exist.” The finial atop an ornate wooden staff created around 1940 by the celebrated Ghanaian woodcarver Osei Bonsu depicts a man holding an egg (p. 4) and evokes the proverb: “To be ruler is like holding an egg in the hand; if it is pressed too hard it breaks; but if not held tightly enough it may slip and smash on the ground.” Both proverbs testify to the limits of chiefly power.
Indeed, an Akan chief’s golden paraphernalia, most of it between 8 and 12 carats, is usually seen as the property of the traditional state. (During wars, the gold would sometimes be melted down to raise funds.) A ruler who drapes himself and his entourage in gold jewelry for all to see demonstrates that the communal treasure is intact. “In fact, a new chief is often expected to add items of regalia to the treasury,” says Ross.
This demand for new pieces is one reason Akan goldsmithing has always had an innovative flair. Cannons and powder kegs became popular motifs following the Europeans’ arrival. With European influence growing in the late 19th century, the lion—uncommon in Ghana—became popular in Akan art. (It was not, however, an African lion, but a stylized, Rule-Britannia sort of beast.) “The Dutch, the Danish and the British all had lions on their royal arms and on their ships,” says Ross. By the turn of the century, Akan finery also included meticulous copies in gold of extravagant Victorian brooches and necklaces. Today, chiefs and other dignitaries often sport gold bracelets intricately fashioned to look like high-end wristwatches.
The more than 900 objects at the Houston Museum were acquired over the years by oil-and-gas entrepreneur Alfred C. Glassell, who donated the collection in 2001. “A community will sell off some of its regalia thuat is old or damaged and will make new pieces,” says Houston curator Frances Marzio, who organized the current exhibition. “There’s no stigma attached to doing that, because most of these are not sacred objects.”
Though they remain locally influential, Akan chiefs these days have more social prestige than real political power. “The chiefs I know are bankers and lawyers with college degrees, and their English is excellent,” says Ross. And if a chief wearing a gold facsimile wristwatch wants to know the time, he’ll likely glance at a conventional watch on the opposite wrist.
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