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In many cultures throughout the world, gold
has
been
associated with status, power, prestige and
wealth.
As early
as the 15th century, European merchants
wrote
about the
richness of African gold objects used for
adornment
and
intended for public display. Gold deposits were
discovered
in all regions of Africa, and became the most
important
commodity during pre- colonial times. The
region
of the
Akan, spreading from the forest zone and
costal
areas of
Ghana to the southern shores of the Ivory
Coast, is
the
richest auriferous zone in West Africa. Several
individual
tribes make up the Akan people, the Asante
and
Baule being
among the most famous, all united by their
common
ancestry and language. The royal courts of the
Akan
people
were reportedly the most splendid in Africa.
Oral
tradition
and iconography in Akan works of art are very
closely
connected. Verbal and visual symbolism tells
stories
or
proverbs. Imagery of royal power on court
ornaments carry
out messages that helps keep the balance and
continuity
within the society.
This dramatic bracelet would once have been
worn
by a
chieftain or queen-mother from the Akan
peoples.
They are
known as benfra (benfena or berenfena)
bracelets
and are
usually worn on the left-wrist or forearm. They
are
cast in
two halves and joined by a pin. They do not
seem to
have
any specific symbolic meaning beyond a
desire for
conspicuous display of wealth. The finest, like
this
example,
have a complex spiky design with additional
incisions of
parallel lines and concentric circles. They were
hollow-cast
around a clay core and then decorated with
modelled
designs. They are also known to have been
produced in
silver or gilded wood.
Ref: T.F. Garrard, ‘Gold of Africa: Jewellery and
Ornaments
from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Senegal in
the
Collection of the Barbier-Mueller Museum,’
(Munich,
1989,
pp.70-71).
- (CK.0257)
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