Akan Gold Weights - Abrammoo

  Apremo - Canon

Past studies of the Akan gold weights have tended to focus on the history and the functions of these objects as counterbalances in the gold trade or as visual representations of rich Akan oral tradition. But gold weights had equally important use as an ideographic or pictographic script in the social and political organization, and knowledge system of the Akan. The use of gold weights as ideographic or pictographic script has been largely neglected except for the brilliant work of Niangoran-Bouah.

Sumpie - Pyramid

 
The gold weights, like other Akan art, were created and used "like spoken language, to commemorate social or historical events or entities, to express philosophical or religious views, aspirations, and dreams, or simply to ask questions, or to express displeasure" (Nitecki, 1982). Leyten (1979, p. 26) calls the gold weights "tales in bronze" and characterizes them as "indelible symbol[s] of the achievements of their owners," because they revealed how each individual perceived his own life, his position in society, his ambitions, and his achievements.

A collection of Gold weights

At the political level, for example, many of the gold weights were used to refer to the chiefs symbolically with regards "to their abuse of power, sometimes to their strength and wisdom" (Cole and Ross, 1977, p. 79). McLeod (1978, p. 307) notes that Akan art "was also used as a mnemonic for important historical or mythical events and to communicate, in the absence of [alphabeticized] writing, certain verbal expressions."

A geometric-shaped gold weight

Many of the gold weights were associated with proverbs that deal with issues as varied as social and political inequality, marriage, care and handling of children, conflict resolution, and social values.

Mpaboa - Sandals

Wonni mpaboa a, pe bi; wonni atuduro a, pe bi na me ne wo wo bi ka wo sera mu 
If you do not have sandals, find some; if you do not have gunpowder, find some for I have  a score to settle with you on the battleground.

 

      Handcuffed Person
        

The gold weights of the Akan constitute one significant medium through which the Akan encoded and transmitted their knowledge. Garrard (1973, p. 1), for example, says "young children attached to chief's treasuries were systematically taught the names of weights in current use, and other children often learned the names from their parents and grandparents." As Cole and Ross (1977, p. 81) also point out , "so common were [gold weights in every household that children must have picked up much of their associated knowledge informally." Several of these "proverb gold weights" have been catalogued by Kyerematen (1964), Ott (1968), Menzel (1968), Appiah (1976), Garrard (1971, 1972, 1973, 1984), and Niangoran-Bouah (1984). 

Puduo (container) for storing gold dust

Puduo (container) of various sizes were used to store gold dust as well as jewelry. Each puduo and its cover were designed to encode various symbols.

 The Akan gold weights served as currency for trading purposes and for paying taxes. It cannot yet be established exactly when gold weights were first used by the Akan, but they were certainly in use on the coast when Europeans first came in direct contact with the Akan. The implication for this historical fact is that the Akan economy had been monetized long before the Europeans arrived on the west coast of Africa. It also implies that Akan had more than simple subsistence economy before the arrival of the Europeans. 
        
The gold weights are made of copper, bronze or brass by the cire-perdue (lost wax) method of casting. The gold weights normally weigh from 0.02 grams upwards; the heaviest known is 1,385 grams in weight. 

Yeso atuduro a yennom taa
         

There are thousands of gold weights. The gold weights may be divided into four broad categories on the basis of their appearance: figurines that portray various human forms and human activities; fauna and floral patterns of the country; those that depict human made objects; and those of geometric, abstract, or purely ornamental designs. Each of the gold weights is encoded with a proverb, a story, an aphorism, myth or some other aspect of the extensive Akan oral literature and songs. For several examples of gold weights encoded with proverbs (click on the akodaa bo nwa image).

Akodaa bo nwa - The child breaks the snail

        The gold weights were also used as counters as well as fractions in every day accounting transactions. 

One-half            One-third      A counter (3x10)
             

  Perhaps unknown to the metal casters of the gold weights, several of their designs were fractals (Eglash).

Sumpie (pyramid) that is fractal in nature.

Akan Gold Jewelry  

   Bamfea - elbow-wear
Jewelry (agudee) forms a significant personal adornment of the Akan. The jewelry of the Akan includes neck-wear (ayannee or akomudee), wrist bands (nsakondee), elbow-wear (bamfea), knee-wear (nantuo or nananim agudee), rings (mpatea), and ankle-wear (aberemponnaasee).  These are made of wrought or repousse gold, precious beads interspersed with gold nuggets, and talismans (suman or sebe) adorned with silver or gold leaf. Men wear pins in their hat (kye) and headbands (abotire), and women wear earrings (asomudee) and hairpins in their stylized coiffures (tekuwa or puwa). 

Ohene kye-King's Crown

The jewelry of the Akan encodes several of their cultural symbols. The rings on the fingers in the picture below, for example, encode the symbol of Siamese twin crocodiles that are joined in the stomach. This symbol depicts the Akan political belief of democracy.