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Asante Stools and the Matrilineage
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Citation Hale, Catherine Meredith. 2013. Asante Stools and the Matrilineage.
Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.
Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11004913
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A dissertation presented by
Catherine Meredith Hale
to
The Department of History of Art and Architecture
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the subject of
History of Art and Architecture
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 2013
© 2013 Catherine Meredith Hale
All rights reserved.

Professor Suzanne P. Blier Catherine Meredith Hale
Abstract
Discussions of Asante stools in Western literature and museum records have
focused exclusively on their association with male chiefs. My research, which combines
archival and oral histories, and sets the existing literature and documentation on stools in
comparative perspective, reframes existing thinking by asserting that asese dwa (sing.
sese dwa), or conventional Asante stools, are intimately connected with women, and
especially, queen mothers. Although the stool today is known widely as a symbol of male
chieftaincy, chiefs do not sit on them in public. They use them only in very specific
private spheres. It is queen mothers who sit on stools publically as seats of authority. The
physical form of the stool, especially the mmaa dwa or “woman’s stool” is a powerful
symbol of female fecundity and the propagation of the Asante peoples.
By exploring queen mother’s archives of stools and their dynamic uses of them, I
present a more expansive history of these important cultural objects that challenges the
taxonomies established by R. S. Rattray (1927) and others during the twentieth century.
Contrary to the clearly defined hierarchies of symbolism, materials and structure that
have informed assessments of historical stools in the West, Asante queen mothers have
commissioned and used stools in an ongoing and context-dependent process of
negotiation for at least a century. In this dissertation I explore the history of Asante stools
since the late-nineteenth century through the lens of queen mothers’ perspectives.
! iii
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................v
List of Figures ............................................................................................................vii
Glossary of Key Terms ..............................................................................................x
Introduction ................................................................................................................1
Chapter 1 Re-Engendering Asante Stools..................................................................31
Chapter 2 Bodies and Stools: Ritual, Structure and Symbols....................................59
Chapter 3 The Primacy of Archives...........................................................................107
Conclusion .................................................................................................................166
Bibliography ..............................................................................................................171
! iv
Acknowledgements
I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Prof. Suzanne P. Blier, for her exceptional
guidance and thoughtful discussions. My committee members, Prof. Tom Cummins and
Prof. Cynthia Becker offered insightful commentary and suggestions for future
development of this project.
Without the generosity of numerous individuals in Ghana who shared their stories
and perspectives my dissertation research would not have been possible. I am especially
grateful to Nana Ama, Isaac, Akosua, Adowa, and Kwabena Agyeman, Nana Sarfo
Kantanka, Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, Nana Braku Yaa, Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo,
Nana Ama Konadu II, Nana Ama Agyeman, Nana Afia Serwaa, Nana Akosua Abrafi II,
Nana Birago Ababio, Nana Gyama Pensan II, Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Nana
Sika Brayie, Nana Abena Gyamfua, Nana Adwoa Agyeiwa II, Nana Darkowaa Ababio II,
Nana Frempong Boadu, Nana Brefo-Boateng, S. F. Adjei, Adom Gyamfi Richard,
Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, Millington Dofuoh, Kwaku Amoako,
Stephen Anderson, and Charity and Chris Scott.
The British Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, the Cambridge Museum
of Archaeology and Anthropology, the National Museum of Ireland, and the Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard kindly provided me with access to
their collections and archives to aid in my research.
Christopher and Lou Ellen Hale, Carla Taunton, Kristen Steele, Khadija Carroll
and many others too numerous to name here were instrumental in ushering me from the
start to finish of my doctoral degree.
! v
I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. Sean O’Harrow, Prof. Christopher
D. Roy and my colleagues at the University of Iowa Museum of Art for their ongoing
support and encouragement.
Research for this dissertation was completed with funding from the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Committee on African Studies
(Harvard University), and the Stanley-UI Foundation Support Organization (University
of Iowa).
! vi
List of Figures
Figure 1 The Golden Stool or Sika Dwa Kofi
Figure 2 Conventional Stool or Sese Dwa in the Mmaa dwa design. "Smoked" color
and metal plating indicate high status. Collection of the British Museum,
Af 1954,23.3215.
Figure 3 Underside of Sese Dwa showing concentric squares carved around

opening of hollow central core. Collection of the British Museum, Af
1954,23.3215.
Figure 4 Kotoko dwa stool belonging to the Sewuahemaa, Nana Akosua Abrafi II,
with concentric spider-web shapes carved into its underside.
Figure 5 Asipim and Akonkromfi chairs for church officials at St. Peter's Basilica,
Kumase.
Figure 6 Nana Gyama Pensan II sits on her sese dwa next to the Aboasohene’s
asipim chair.
Figure 7 Chair for the Offinsohene commissioned by the Offinsohemaa to keep in

her home.
Figure 8 Map of Ghana showing trade routes and Asante dominance in the mid-
19th century.
Figure 9 Map of Ghana showing contemporary administrative regions.
Figure 10 Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, sitting on

her Mmaa dwa stool next to her Nyansapo stool.
Figure 11 “Yaw Sapong, Asante Chief,” photographed by Frederick A. L. Ramseyer

c. 1888-1895.
Figure 12 “Juaben Hene and Ohema with stool,” photographed by R.S. Rattray c.
1921-1929.
Figure 13 Young initiates ‘enstooled’ publically as part of bragoro. Nana Darkowaa

Ababio II (far left) and other queen mothers who officiated the event stand
behind the girls. The gifts they received are pictured in front.
! vii
Figure 14 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, Offinsohemaa, feeds one of the initiates an
egg during the rehearsal of bragoro I attended at her home on 29 May
2012.
Figure 15 “All the abosom and their priests assembled in the Gyase Kesie, when the
gods took this oath to the chief through the mouths of their priests…[after
which] the shrines of the gods were each set upon his stool and the chief
passed among them,” photograph by R.S. Rattray, c. 1921-32.
Figure 16 Interior of newly built palace for the Mantia Stool that draws on the
traditional form of an open courtyard surrounded by open and closed front
rooms.
Figure 17 Basic four-part plan of traditional Asante architecture.
Figure 18 “The King’s Sleeping Room,” illustrated by T.E. Bowdich.
Figure 19 Asante stool in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art bearing
the “violin” motif in its metalwork.
Figure 20 Ceremonial cooking area at the Bawjwiasi shrine that shares a design
similar to the one found in the sleeping room of the Asantehene.
Figure 21 Visual parallels between traditional architecture and Mmaa dwa design of
Asante stools.
Figure 22 Visual parallels between the fihankra symbol and an elaborately carved
stool seat.
Figure 23 Asante Stool collected by Garnet Joseph Wolseley, c. 1874, purported to

be the “travelling war stool of the King of Ashanti King Koffee.”
Collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum, 1978.7.1.
Figure 24 Mmaa dwa or “woman’s stool” in the collection of the Peabody Museum
at Harvard University.
Figure 25 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s Pantu stool.
Figure 26 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s historical Mmaa dwa.
Figure 27 Underside of Nana Ama Serwha Nyarko’s historical Mmaa dwa showing
remnants of curvilinear consecration marks.
Figure 28 Nana Darkowaa Ababio II’s sese dwa with consecration marks on its
underside.
! viii
Figure 29 Nana Braku Yaa I’s “leisure” stool.
Figure 30 Nana Braku Yaa I’s Bathing Stool.
Figure 31 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Bathing Stool.
Figure 32 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s contemporary Mmaa dwa.
Figure 33 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Obi-te-obi-so stool.
Figure 34 Nana Birago Ababio’s contemporary Mmaa dwa.
Figure 35 Nana Birago Ababio’s Kotoko dwa.
Figure 36 Kontonkowori in the collection of the British Museum that I showed to

carvers at Ahwiaa.
Figure 37 Nana Akosua Abrafi II’s Kotoko dwa.
Figure 38 The stool the abusuapanin keeps at his residence for Nana Kwartemaa
Nyiano Ababio.
Figure 39 Example of the new stool type with Gye nyame design.
Figure 40 Seat of State of Ghana.
Figure 41 Stool-shaped chapel altar at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Kumase.
Figure 42 SG-SSB Billboard, Kumase, Ghana, June 2007.
! ix
Glossary of Key Terms
Abusua (pl. mmusua) – clan or lineage; all members of society belong to one of eight
mmusua: Agona, Aduana, Asenie, Asakyiri, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona, and Oyoko
Abusuapanin – male head of clan or lineage (abusua)
Asantehemaa – paramount queen mother/leader of the Asante peoples (female)
Asantehene –paramount chief/leader of the Asante peoples (male)
Asipim – chairs of European style that are composed of a wood frame with hide stretched
across the seat; also, generic term used to refer to all elaborately decorated men’s chairs
Mmaa dwa – “woman’s” stool; design integrates a central support column surrounded by
four supports at each corner; also, general term used by queen mothers in Asante to refer
to all asese dwa (less frequently, the term ahenanan is used interchangeable with mmaa
dwa)
Nkonnwafieso – stool house where blackened stools of ancestors are kept
Obaapanin – female head of a clan or lineage (abusua)
Obosom (pl. Abosom) – tutelary gods
Obremponhemaa (pl. Abremponhemaa) – queen mother, subordinate to the Omanhemaa
Obremponhene (pl. Abremponhene) – chief, subordinate to the Omanhene
Odikrohemaa (pl. Adikrohemaa) – queen mother, subordinate to the Ohemaa
Odikrohene (pl. Adikrohene) – chief, subordinate to the Ohene
Ohemaa (pl. Ahemaa) – queen mother, subordinate to the Obremponhemaa; also, term
used to refer generically to all queen mothers
Ohene (pl. Ahene) – chief, subordinate to the Obremponhene; also, term used to refer
generically to all chiefs
Okyeame (pl. akyeame) – linguist/orator to the chief or queen mother; wide range of
responsibilities including layer and diplomat (usually male but can be female)
Omanhemaa (pl. Amanhemaa) – paramount queen mother
! x
Omanhene (pl. Amanhene) – paramount chief
Sese dwa (pl. asese dwa) – conventional stool made from sese wood
Sika Dwa Kofi – “Golden Stool born on Friday,” the paramount political symbol of the
Asante peoples
! xi
Introduction
Discussions of Asante stools in Western literature and museum records have
focused exclusively on their association with male chiefs. My research, which combines
archival and oral histories, and sets the existing literature and documentation on stools in
comparative perspective, reframes existing thinking by asserting that asese dwa (sing.
sese dwa), or conventional Asante stools, are intimately connected with women, and
especially, queen mothers. Although the stool today is known widely as a symbol of male
chieftaincy, chiefs do not sit on them in public. They use them only in very specific
private spheres. It is queen mothers who sit on stools publically as seats of authority.
Many of the contemporary male and female leaders in Asante with whom I spoke assert
that the stool symbolizes a chief specifically because it makes reference to the queen
mother who appointed him. The physical form of the stool, especially the mmaa dwa or
“woman’s stool” is a powerful symbol of female fecundity and the propagation of the
Asante peoples.
By exploring queen mother’s archives of stools and their dynamic uses of them, I
present a more expansive history of these important cultural objects that challenges the
taxonomies established by R. S. Rattray (1927) and others during the twentieth century.
Contrary to the clearly defined hierarchies of symbolism, materials and structure that
have informed assessments of historical stools in the West, Asante queen mothers have
commissioned and used stools in an ongoing and context-dependent process of
negotiation for at least a century. While chiefs’ relationships with stools are an important
aspect of their histories, it is critical that women’s dominant association with them not be
overlooked. In this dissertation I explore the history of Asante stools since the late-
nineteenth century through the lens of queen mothers’ perspectives.
! 2
Figure 1 The Golden Stool or Sika Dwa Kofi (Image credit: McLeod, Asante, 1981, bet. 96-97)
For the Asante of Ghana, stools are integral components of social and political
life. They are vital identity markers and sacred mediums for honoring and
communicating with ancestors. Like the paramount political symbol of the Asante
peoples, the Golden Stool or Sika Dwa Kofi (“Golden Stool born on Friday”), stools are
frequently mobilized to symbolize Asante identity more broadly (see Figure 1). Every
chief and queen mother has a stool or set of stools, which both mark status and serve as
vehicles for political messages about the nature of his or her leadership. These objects are
so central to the positions of local leaders that when a chief or queen mother takes office,
he or she is said to have been “enstooled.” Many lineages also have a sese dwa that is
identified with their lineage or Stool (here, in the sense of a political division1), such as
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1
Throughout the text, I capitalize “Stool” to indicate when I am referring to a political office as opposed to
a material object.
! 3
the Silver Stool of Mampong. In some cases, this is the stool used for all enstoolment
rites performed in that group, both male and female. For example, the current Mpobihene
and Mpobihemaa2 were both publically enstooled on the same sese dwa that they use for
everyone in their lineage. It features their Aduana abusua symbol, which is a dog with
fire in its mouth.3
Conventional Stools or Asese dwa
Figure 2 Conventional stool or sese dwa in the mmaa dwa design. "Smoked" color and metal plating
indicate high status. Collection of the British Museum, Af 1954,23.3215.
(Image credit: Catherine Hale)
In these key socio-political settings stools, referenced here interchangeably as
asese dwa (sing. sese dwa), share a conventional form (see Figure 2). They have a
rectangular base with incised “steps” on either side of the central support structure (which
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2
Asante leaders’ titles begin with the name of their “Stool”(in most cases this is the name of the city or
region they oversee) followed by “hene” to indicate a chief or “hemaa” to indicate a queen mother. In this
case, the Mpobihene and Mpobihemaa are the Chief and Queen mother of the Mpobi Stool, respectively.
3
Nana Birago Ababio, Mpobihemaa, in conversation with the author, 6 June 2012.
! 4
is usually abstract but may incorporate figural representations), a curved seat with
geometric “cut outs” running linearly at the base of each curve, and a shape (usually
square, sometimes carved in concentric repetition) carved into the underside of the base
around the central opening (see Figure 3). Almost always, these stools are used in a
“raw” state (no varnishes or lacquers are added) and their custodians maintain them by
mixing sand and water that they rub onto the stool using a rough leaf (from the
nyankyerene, which is a common tree). Lime juice may be used in the cleaning and on
some occasions white clay is added to make the stool even “brighter.”4
Figure 3 Underside of sese dwa showing concentric squares carved around opening of hollow central core.
Collection of the British Museum, Af 1954,23.3215. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Historically, very extravagant stools made for high-ranking individuals were
“smoked.” These stools have a richer brown hue and, as the smoking was a form of pest
protection, they rarely show signs of infestation. Because the same smoking process,
which traditionally involves placing the stool on the roof of a dwelling over top of the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4
Nana Afia Serwaa, Aputuogyahemaa, in conversation with the author, 4 June 2012.
! 5
area where the stove or fire is located, can take months to complete, it is much more rare
in contemporary practice. Nowadays, only stools made for the Asantehene or
Asantehemaa (king and queen mother of Asante, respectively) are likely to get this kind
of treatment.5 Depending on the owner’s status and other factors that I discuss in chapter
three, the complexity of the design of each stool may be more or less elaborate and could
include such things as metal plating.
This common stool type certainly predates the confederation of the Asante
kingdom at the end of the seventeenth century and, according to most royals with whom I
spoke, is understood to have existed from the very beginnings of the lineages that now
compose the Asante peoples.6 The conventional stool type is differentiated from other
kinds of stools by the term sese dwa, which refers to the high-quality sese wood used to
make them. Raw asese dwa are frequently termed “white” stools to distinguish them from
the “black” stools of ancestors. Regular household stools made from inexpensive wood
and available at most shops are called nyame dwa.
Blackened Stools
When an extraordinary leader passes away, his or her sese dwa (traditionally, the
one used for bathing) is “blackened” and placed in the ancestral stool house or
nkonnwafieso. Most often, this process is reserved for chiefs and queen mothers but some
heads of lineages (abusuapanin and obaapanin, male and female head, respectively) and
priests and priestesses have their stools blackened, too.7 The blackening process involves
coating the stool in a mixture of soot, spider web, and egg yolk, which is then layered
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5
Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuonkonnwasenefuohene (Otumfuo Chief Carver), in conversation with the
author, 14 June 2012.
6
This information was gathered during fieldwork between 2007 and 2012.
7
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, Offinsohemaa, in conversation with the author, 29 May 2012.
! 6
over time with sacrificial offerings such as sheep’s blood. Peter Sarpong (1971) suggests
three key reasons that ancestral stools are blackened: to keep them from becoming ugly
or visually distressing when they receive sacrifices, to represent the relationship between
the living and the deceased ancestors through color symbolism (in certain contexts, black
is a sign of mourning, in others, it is frightening, which calls for respect and veneration,
both of which are appropriate for ancestral stools), and, finally, for durability – the
blackening process acts as a kind of preservation agent that helps keep the stools in good
form for successive generations.8
However, the ingredients used to blacken stools are the same as those used to
“consecrate” the underside of “white” stools destined for the court of the Asantehene.
After he was enstooled in 1995, Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, told his Chief Carver, Nana
Frempong Boadu, to restrict use of this consecration process because “it is one of our
most serious oaths.”9 The parallel use of materials in blackening and consecrating
suggests that they have significance beyond the reasons outlined by Sarpong. What the
specific meaning of the use of soot, spider web and egg yolk may be was not something I
was able to determine but it is interesting to note that at least two asese dwa I observed
(one in the collection of the British Museum and one in the possession of Nana Akosua
Abrafi II, the Sewuahemaa) had “cut-outs” on the underside of their bases in the shape of
a spider web (see Figure 4). One possibility is that the spider web as ingredient and
decorative motif in some way references Ananse, the trickster spider, who is a symbol of
wisdom, creativity, and the complexities of life – all that pertains to leadership in both the
earthly and ancestral realms. Eggs are used frequently in Asante ceremonies that involve
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8
Peter Sarpong, The Sacred Stools of the Akan (Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1971): 37-38.
9
Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, in conversation with the author, 14 June 2012.
! 7
safeguarding and fertility, such as the female puberty rite, bragoro. Since protection and
propagation of the lineage are two of the key concerns of ancestors, the inclusion of egg
yolk may have some relationship with these capacities.
Figure 4 Kotoko dwa stool belonging to the Sewuahemaa, Nana Akosua Abrafi II, with concentric spider-
web shapes carved into its underside. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
As A. Kyerematen has explained, “the black stool is believed to be inhabited by
the spirit or sunsum of the head of the lineage for whom it was consecrated, and therefore
to possess the magical quality of being able to protect the living members of the
lineage.”10 Duties that must be performed in relation to ancestral stools include making
offerings of sheep, chickens and liquor to them on a regular basis. Because ancestors are
understood to be capable of participating actively in the affairs of the living, they must be
kept happy and satiated. The Akwasidae and Awukudae festivals, which are held at six-
week intervals on Sundays and Wednesdays, respectively, are designated specifically for
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10
A. Kyerematen, “The Royal Stools of Ashanti,” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute,
vol. 39, no. 1 (Jan 1969): 1.
! 8
celebrating the ancestors, though leaders may engage with them on less official occasions
as well.
Each lineage has a special area for housing the blackened stools of ancestors and
the individuals permitted to enter it are few, even on festival days. In my experience, for
some lineages, the queen mothers’ stools are kept separate from the chiefs’ stools while
in others they are housed in the same room. It is a taboo for a menstruating woman to
enter the nkonnwafieso and some queen mothers who are pre-menopausal have akyeame
(linguists) perform their duties in the stool house, in addition to their own, on their behalf.
Generally, it is the linguist who is responsible for pouring libations to honor the
ancestors, though these responsibilities may be shared with the Kontihene or others.
When I attended the Akwasidae celebrations at Amanfrom (Mantia Stool) the okyeame
poured libations publically for the ancestors, after which only the chief, queen mother
and okyeame entered the nkonnwafieso at the palace to pay homage to the ancestral
stools. As the activities that take place inside the stool house are private, I did not ask for
details of the process. Similarly, because it is taboo for anyone beyond a restricted list of
individuals to enter the nkonnwafieso, my discussions of blackened stools, which are
addressed elsewhere in the literature, are limited in scope. My research into asese dwa
has focused primarily on the “white” stools used by royals in public spheres.
Chiefs and Asipim chairs
While queen mothers sit on asese dwa in public, generally, when a chief appears
in an official capacity, he sits on an asipim chair. It is the asipim that indicates to the
public that he has the right to rule and should be approached according to specific
protocols. Asipim is the term used to describe chairs of European style that are composed
! 9
of a wood frame with hide stretched across the seat. Like the sese dwa, the asipim chairs
belonging to higher-ranking chiefs tend to be larger and more elaborately decorated than
those of lower-ranking individuals. Brass tacks and studs placed along the legs and back
support are among the most common forms of decoration on these seats, along with
metallic finials.
Malcolm McLeod lists two other types of chairs used by high-ranking chiefs, the
akonkromfi and the hwedom. Both chairs are generally larger than asipim. The
akonkromfi features crisscrossing legs and an openwork support that resemble imported
folding chairs and hwedom are upright chairs with “flat backs and seats with legs and
stretchers copied from turned prototypes.”11 In addition to their uses by chiefs, asipim,
akonkromfi, and hwedom chairs are now employed to seat top-tier religious officials in
churches in the Kumase area. For example, I observed these chair types at St. Peter’s
Basilica in Kumase, on which bishops and other leaders of varying ranks were seated
before the congregation (see Figure 5).12 Although McLeod lists the specific types of
chairs used by chiefs by name, most individuals I encountered in the Ashanti Region used
the term asipim to refer generically to all official chairs used by men, regardless of their
particular shape or decoration.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11
M. D. MacLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd, 1981): 120.
12
The clergy in all of the Anglican and Catholic churches I visited in the Ashanti Region during my
research were male. Whether a female leader would sit on an asipim, akonkromfi, or hwedom chair if she
were in the position of being a religious leader is a question that warrants further study. As the subsequent
chapters explore in more depth, traditional Asante views hold that women who are pre-menopausal are not
permitted to sit on asipim. It is possible that this taboo has not been addressed since I am not aware of any
women who currently hold leadership positions in Anglican and Catholic churches in Kumase.
! 10
Figure 5 Asipim and Akonkromfi chairs for church officials at St. Peter's Basilica, Kumase.
Many of the queen mothers with whom I met keep asipim and other special chairs
at their homes and in their palaces to seat chiefs (as chiefs keep asese dwa in their
custody to seat queen mothers). Nana Gyama Pensan II, the Aboasohemaa, showed me
the four asipim she has at her palace. The largest and most elaborate is for the
Aboasohene (see Figure 6). It features a light-colored hide seat and chair back that are
both framed by metal plating that is studded along all its edges with tacks. Its top rail is
crested on the left and right sides by a metal finial. The support structure of the chair is
carved in a spiraling motif that is painted black with additional areas of metal plating at
its joints. The second largest chair is for the Kontihene, who is second in command to the
chief and responsible for such things as pouring libations and settling disputes. His chair
! 11
includes small squares of metal plating at its joints and along the supports running
between the seat and back support. The upper rail of the chair is lined with a row of tacks
and just below the rail’s center is a diamond motif composed of tacks. The hide covering
the back and seat of the chair is dark brown and its wood supports are painted black. The
two other asipim at Nana Gyama Pensan II’s palace are smaller than the aforementioned
chairs and include no metal plating. Their seats and backs are both covered with a light
colored hide and their wooden supports are painted black. Lower-ranking chiefs or men
who have come to visit the palace use these asipim.
Figure 6 Nana Gyama Pensan II sits on her sese dwa next to the Aboasohene’s asipim chair.
! 12
Figure 7 Chair for the Offinsohene commissioned by the Offinsohemaa to keep in her home.
Powerful queen mothers are also commissioning new seating forms for chiefs.
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, the Offinsohemaa, has a chair she designed specifically for
her chief that she keeps in her living room (see Figure 7). It features a gold frame that
boasts the adinkra symbols akofena (two crossed swords), which alludes to courage and
valor, and bese saka (“sack of cola nuts”), which suggests affluence, abundance and
unity. The arms of the chair culminate in what appear to be the heads of voracious
leopards and the plush seat and back of the chair are upholstered in a bold purple and
white patterned cloth. In addition to the luxurious chair the Offinsohemaa keeps in her
living room, she keeps several basic asipim on hand to seat chiefs and male visitors (I
have been told that while only queen mothers may sit on asese dwa in public, asipim of
basic design can be used by non-royal men). The idea that asipim chairs are reserved for
men was reinforced for me when I attended a rehearsal of the bragoro puberty rite at the
Offinsohemaa’s home. Although the compound was overflowing with queen mothers,
! 13
some of whom did not have a seat, no one sat on the available asipim chair. It remained
unoccupied for the duration of the events.
A Brief History of Royal Asante
Figure 8 Map of Ghana showing trade routes and Asante dominance in the mid-19th century.
(Credit: McLeod, The Asante, 1981, p. 8)
At its peak in the nineteenth century, the Asante kingdom extended more than 550
km from the coast into the interior forest region of what is present day Ghana (see Figure
8).13 The Asante Confederacy’s military strength was unparalleled in the area and they
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
13
Malcolm D. McLeod, Asante (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1981): 10.
! 14
were able to defeat states such as Denkyira (1701), Wankyi (1711-12), Takyiman (1722-
3) and Ankyem (1742) to become one of the most powerful empires in West Africa.14
Beginning in the late-eighteenth century, Asante’s administration was centralized in
Kumase, where high-ranking leaders were responsible for overseeing various activities
across the region. A network of roads maintained by the government linked the kingdom
with important centers of trade to the north and south and the court of the Asantehene (or
king of the Asante) was a bustling center of activity. 15 As M.D. McLeod notes, T.E.
Bowdich, the first Englishman to document a description of the king’s palace in 1817,
remarked on its exceptional luxury and splendor.16
In the second half of the nineteenth century Asante suffered from civil conflicts as
well as invasion by the British; first, during their brief occupation of Kumase in 1874,
and subsequently in a series of colonial campaigns that culminated in the Ashanti War of
1900. The area formerly controlled by the Asante, then referred to as the “Gold Coast,”
was increasingly the site of British interventions and attacks.17 In 1896, British Troops
invaded Kumase and Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh was captured and exiled, eventually
ending up in Seychelles, where he remained until he was repatriated in 1924.
Despite repeated petitions from Prempeh and his retinue, the British refused to
return them to Asante in the first decades of the twentieth century. A. Adu Boahen cites
two key reasons for the British reluctance: first, they insisted that to show devotion to the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
14
15
Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975): 1-2.
16
17
T.C. McCaskie, “Agyeman Prempeh Before Exile,” ‘The History of Ashanti Kings and the Whole
Country Itself’ and Other Writings, A. Adu Boahen, et al, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003):
15-16.
! 15
Crown, the Asante had to be willing to give up the Golden Stool, which they were not
prepared to do. Second, decisions regarding repatriation were stalled from 1914-1918
because of the First World War.18 However, the Asante’s active support and participation
in the War on Britain’s behalf, evidenced, from the administration’s perspective, their
loyalty and acceptance of colonial rule. This, in combination with the Asante’s increased
trust of the British after R.S. Rattray recommended against their pursuit of the Golden
Stool, were factors that contributed to the eventual resolution of Prempeh’s repatriation.19
Once the British were satisfied by Asante’s “progress,” measured by the erection
on European-style brick buildings, missionary and government schools, motorways and
rail links, and a thriving cocoa trade, among other things, they felt that Agyeman
Prempeh’s return no longer presented a significant threat.20 Prempeh’s conversion to
Anglicanism, which occurred during his time in Seychelles, as well as the formal
education of his family members, further assured the British that he would prove to be a
leader capable of promoting their aims in Asante. National and international pressure, as
well as the total consensus among paramount chiefs calling for the return of Prempeh,
eventually pushed the British to order for his return, which the Secretary of the State for
the Colonies did via telegram on 8 April 1924.21
Although Prempeh was returned from exile, the British stipulated that he must do
so as a private citizen, not as the Asantehene, though the Asante viewed him as such
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
18
A. Adu Boahen, “Agyeman Prempeh in the Seychelles, 1900-1924.” ‘The History of Ashanti Kings and
the Whole Country Itself’ and Other Writings, A. Adu Boahen, et al, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2003): 31-32.
19
Ibid. 35-36.
20
Ibid. 36.
21
Ibid. 37-40.
! 16
according to custom.22 The competing agendas of Prempeh, the Asante and the British
worked to reconceive the idea of “kingship” and eventually, Prempeh was recognized as
“Kumasihene” in 1926. Four years after his death in 1931, the British reinstated the office
of the Asantehene. Although colonial rule was still in place, the Asante Confederacy was
thereby constituted in “territory and political structure,” which was in line with the
indirect rule structure desired by the British.23 As Emmanuel Akyeampong notes, the
return of Prempeh represented a moment of significant change for Asante. British
colonialism was accepted as a fact of existence and Prempeh promoted western education
as an opportunity to learn and strengthen their kingdom for the future. He exemplified the
dynamism and adaptability that characterized Asante kingship, and “could thus rightly be
described as the last ‘traditional’ king of Asante and its first ‘modern’ one.”24
The mid-twentieth century brought an entirely new set of challenges for Asante
leadership. Following the Second World War, The Commission of Enquiry was
established to look into rioting that had occurred in the Gold Coast. Its leaders met with
disgruntled individuals who had been marginalized by chiefly offices in the preceding
years and, subsequently, recommended the end of Indirect Rule.25 They suggested
organizing local government structures based on the British forms and, in 1951, the first
general elections were held in the Gold Coast and Kwame Nkrumah’s Convention
Peoples’ Party (CPP) was installed. In addition to opposing colonial rule, the CPP wanted
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
22
Emmanuel Akyeampong, “Agyeman Prempeh’s Return from Exile, 1924-1931,” The History of Ashanti
Kings and the Whole Country Itself’ and Other Writings, A. Adu Boahen, et al, eds. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2003): 43.
23
Ibid. 44-48.
24
Ibid. 55.
25
Richard Rathbone, “Kwame Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Fate of ‘Natural Rulers’ Under Nationalist
Governments,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 10 (December 2000): 51.
! 17
to see the end of chiefly power in Ghana and set about circumscribing the power and
authority of chieftaincy.26 In the mid-1950s, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), a
predominantly Asante party with ambitions to restore their sovereignty, emerged. They
presented a threat to the ruling party, who responded by aligning themselves with
chieftaincies in outlying areas. This eventually resulted in the creation of a new
administrative region, Brong-Ahafo, which effectively cut Asante’s power in half (see
Figure 9).27
Leading up to Independence in 1957 and afterwards, the CPP revised their
position on chieftaincy, now claiming that it was a critical component of modern
government. In so doing, they also assigned themselves the power to appoint and dismiss
chiefs in the various regions of the new Ghana.28 As Richard Rathbone reports, “the lists
of ‘destooled’ and then de-recognised chiefs, and government-preferred and thus
recognised substitutes for the latter part of 1957 and 1958, quite literally involve
hundreds of people.”29 After a coup ousted Nkrumah’s CPP in 1966, the new military
government rejected all CPP-appointed chiefs and reinstated those who had formerly
been deposed. However, chiefs’ access to resources such as they had in the earlier part of
the century are somewhat restricted because these continue to be maintained at a national
level.30
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
26
Richard Rathbone, “Kwame Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Fate of ‘Natural Rulers’ Under Nationalist
Governments,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 10 (December 2000): 54-56.
27
Ibid. 61.
28
Ibid. 61-62.
29
Ibid. 62.
30
Ibid. 62-63.
! 18
Figure 9 Map of Ghana showing contemporary administrative regions
(Credit: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, 2007)
Despite this tumultuous history, the institution of chieftainship has remained an
important part of Asante, and more broadly, Akan culture. Although the power of chiefs
was severely restricted in matters relating to finance, trade, and politics during the
colonial era, their participation in cultural and social issues meant that chieftainship
“continued to thrive on its basic structure.”31 Even with the granting of Ghana’s
independence in 1957, and the CPP’s efforts to dismantle it, chieftainship has endured. It
continues to be a highly valued political structure as well as an extended family system
that ensures the well being of members of its lineage in contemporary Asante.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
31
Oseadeeyo Addo Dankwa III, The Institution of Chieftaincy in Ghana: The Future (Accra, Ghana:
Konrad Adenauer Foundation, 2004): 6.
! 19
Asante (and Akan) Cultural Forms
The Asante (also known by the colonial spelling, “Ashanti”) are part of the larger
Akan ethnolinguistic grouping that includes the Fante and Brong, among others. They
speak tonal languages from the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo family (often called Twi
or Akan).32 The Akan peoples make up the largest percentage (47.5%) of present-day
Ghana’s population and extend into eastern Côte d’Ivoire and parts of Togo.33 These
interrelated groups share common cultural and socio-political traditions, including the use
of stools as symbols of leadership. As M.D. McLeod notes, among the Akan peoples
“there are traces of the great matrilineal clans…the practice of naming children according
to the day of birth…and many closely similar religious ideas and rituals.”34
With the Golden Stool at its apex, Asante society is arranged hierarchically. The
king and queen mother of Asante, or Asantehene and Asantehemaa, respectively, preside
over the amanhene and amanhemaa (sing. omanhene, omanhemaa), who are the
paramount chiefs and queen mothers of their divisions, towns and villages. Under these
principal leaders are the ahene and ahemaa (sing. ohene, ohemaa), who are responsible
for different aspects of administration. Below them are the lowest-ranking chiefs and
queen mothers, the adikrohene and adikrohemaa (sing. odikrohene, odikrohemaa).35
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
32
33
Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook. /library/publications/the-world-factbook
(1 February 2013)
34
35
The terms ohene and ohemaa (pl. ahene and ahemaa) are also the generic terms used to refer to chiefs
and queen mothers at all levels of the socio-political hierarchy.
! 20
Historically, members of society whose family was not in some way associated with a
chiefly office were generally servants to these elite, powerful and wealthy groups.36
The Asante are a matrilineal culture and most Asante leadership offices pass
through the female line; however, there are some positions that are appointed patrilineally
(such as in the Kronti/Konti political division). All members of society belong to one of
eight abusua or clans: Agona, Aduana, Asenie, Asakyiri, Asona, Bretuo, Ekuona, and
Oyoko. Each abusua traces its origin to a common ancestress and members believe
themselves to share the same blood (mogya) inherited through their mothers. From their
fathers, Asante peoples receive ntoro, which is a kind of spiritual component. At one
time, ntoro groups may have had a part in military organization but their history is not
well understood.37
Like its society, Asante gods are hierarchically structured. At the highest level is
Nyame, the supreme god who was responsible for creation. Below him are his “sons” or
“children,” often represented by rivers or lakes, and Asaase, goddess of the earth.38
Underneath these deities are a multitude of tutelary gods called abosom, who, despite
being “lesser gods,” are very important because they can be petitioned directly through
specialist priests. The priests, who also provide a body that the god can possess in order
to communicate and offer advice, attend to shrines that house the gods while on earth. 39
Regular sacrifices and offerings to the abosom are necessary because they are believed to
actively influence the life and events of the community and their favor needs to be
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
36
Kwame Arhin, “Rank and Class Among the Asante and Fante in the Nineteenth Century,” Africa:
Journal of the International African Institute 53, no. 1 (1983): 9.
37
38
Michael Swithenbank, Ashanti Fetish Houses (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1969): 10.
39
Ibid. 11.
! 21
gained. 40 Although colonialist programs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
resulted in a great number of Asante converting to Christianity, many individuals still
practice traditional rituals and consult with indigenous divinities in tandem with their new
faiths.41
Divine kingship, ancestral worship and belief in an afterlife were central features
of Asante worldviews prior to colonization by the British. The Asantehene was
considered the highest mediator between the people and the gods. His sacredness was not
existent at birth, but instead, was recognized once he took up his royal office. For the
Asantehene, divine status was obtained after first being lowered three times over the stool
of his most famous predecessor, and then being lowered three times over the Golden
Stool.42 Through this ritual act he was believed to harness the power and divinity of the
royal office and his predecessors. After it occurred, the Asantehene was considered so
powerful that no part of his body was allowed to touch the ground.43
Today, scholars generally agree that something akin to divine kingship existed in
Asante prior to colonization, however, whether or not it exists presently is the subject of
debate. T.C. McCaskie argues that divine kingship ended with the mass conversion to
Christianity that occurred with colonialism, while Ivor Wilks suggests that although the
political “kingdom” persisted through colonialism, it underwent secularization that did
away with the “divine” aspect of kingship. Another scholar, Louise Muller, maintains
that contemporary Asante is still a divine kingship because the Asantehene still behaves
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
40
41
For example, see Pino Schirripa, “Dealing with Gods: Notes about Social and Family Continuity of Spirit
Possession Among the Akan of Ghana,” Chap. 7, Akan Worlds: Identity and Power in West Africa, edited
by Pierluigi Valsecchi and Fabio Vitti (Montreal, L’Harmattan Inc., 1999): 120.
42
E.G. Parrinder, “Divine Kingship in West Africa,” Numen 3, no. 2 (Apr., 1956): 112.
43
Ibid. 112.
! 22
as the highest mediator between people and the gods for indigenous, Christian and
Moslem believers.44
Scope of Thesis and Literature Review
My discussion of Asante stools focuses primarily on the period from the late-
nineteenth century through to the early twenty-first century. To support my arguments, I
also make references to historical events such as the founding of the Asante Confederacy
in the eighteenth century and oral histories of cultural origins conceived centuries before.
Because of the shared traditions that exist among the larger Akan ethnolinguistic group
mentioned above, many of my conclusions regarding the relationship between asese dwa
and queen mothers may have broader applicability. However, I am reticent to present my
research as a micro-study that represents a larger phenomenon as the testimonies of
queen mothers with whom I spoke highlighted for me the important ways in which each
scenario is negotiated and adapted with specificity. An examination of queen mothers in
areas beyond Asante and a juxtaposition of “stool cultures” in Ghana that are matrilineal
and patrilineal would prove fruitful areas for future research.
Although Asante and/or Akan stools are well known, in-depth studies of them are
rare. R.S. Rattray’s early twentieth-century works, Ashanti (1923) and Religion and Art
in Ashanti (1927), which include sections on stools, remain staples in contemporary
discussions of Asante material culture. A. Kyerematen’s 1969 essay, “The Royal Stools
of the Ashanti,” recounts the story of the Golden Stool and examines the blackened stools
of the Asantehene’s lineage. Peter Sarpong’s later text, The Sacred Stools of the Akan
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
44
See: T.C. McCaskie, State and Society in Pre-Colonial Asante (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1995); Ivor Wilks, “The Golden Stool and the Elephant Tail: An Essay on Wealth in Asante,” Research in
Economic Anthropology, vol. 2 (1979): 1-36; and Louise F. Muller, "Religious Peacekeeping and the
Persistence of 'Divine Kingship' in Ghana," AEGIS European Conference on African Studies, African
Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands, 11-14 July 2007.
! 23
(1971), provides a basic introduction to stools and their various roles in Asante culture
but draws heavily on Rattray’s taxonomies. In 1980, Sharon Patton at Northwestern
University wrote a doctoral dissertation titled “The Asante Stool.” This unpublished
study focuses on chiefs’ stools in the kronti political division. It includes valuable
information about terminology, decorative motifs, and carving techniques, but does not
delve into topics such as the kronti chiefs’ uses of the stools in their possession. Patton’s
1979 essay, “The Stool and Asante Chieftaincy,” is an excerpt from her dissertation
research. Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, a number of sources
have been published that deal with the Asante art and culture more broadly.45 Authors of
these texts often mention stools and their importance in Ghana; however, many rely
heavily on early colonial literature in their accounts, and discussions of stools are
relatively brief.
Although it focuses on the political office of the stool rather than the material
object, the Ashanti Stool Histories (vols. I and II) recorded by Joseph Agyeman-Duah,
Ivor Wilks, and others between October 1962 and December 1968 documents oral
testimonies relating to several of the key Asante lineages and their origins. In particular,
the stories reference the widely held beliefs that female ancestresses played critical roles
in the foundation of the Asante peoples.
Eva Meyerowitz (1950, 1951) conducted research in the Brong-Ahafo region
among the Bron, who are a northern Akan people. In The Sacred State of the Akan
Meyerowitz offers a discussion of the stool form and its symbolism with special
reference to queen mothers. However, her research has suffered extensive scholarly
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
45
For example, see A. Kyerematen, Panoply of Ghana (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964); Herbert
Cole and Doran Ross, The Arts of Ghana (Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Cultural History, University of
California, 1977); M.D. McLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1981).
! 24
criticism due to inaccuracies in language and chronologies as well as her failure to cite
sources for her information, among other issues.46 When I raised some of her claims
regarding symbolism (ex. The connection between moon motifs and queen mothers)
during my fieldwork in the Ashanti Region, all were summarily dismissed. Kofi Antubam
(1963), Meyerowitz’s research assistant, makes similar claims to Meyerowitz in Ghana’s
Heritage of Culture but does not offer sources here, either. For these reasons (in addition
to the broad rejection of these ideas by the queen mothers and their affiliates with whom I
spoke) I make very few references to these sources in my discussion.
Beverly Stoeltje (1995, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2009) has published extensively on the
subject of Asante queen mothers. Her research, which includes numerous articles and
book chapters, explores the role of queen mothers in Asante culture primarily in historical
and legal terms. Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng (1995) evaluate the
ideas underpinning power in Asante with particular attention to queen mothers and the
shift of power from female-centric origins to contemporary male-dominated political
configurations. Michelle Gilbert (1993) examines the function of Akan queen mothers as
well as issues of Christianity through the lens of a stool dispute from the eastern
Akuapem kingdom. Tariku Farrar (1997) considers queen mothers in West African
cultures more broadly, using Akan queen mothers as a case study for considering the
possibility of matriarchal authority in Africa. Marijke Steegstra (2009) focuses on the
role of patrilineal Krobo queen mothers of Ghana in contemporary contexts, highlighting
their activities in NGOs in combination with traditional offices.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
46
For examples of the criticisms of Meyerowitz’s work, see Dennis M. Warren, “The Use and Misuse of
Ethnohistorical Data in the Reconstruction of Techiman-Bono (Ghana) History,” Ethnohistory, vol. 23, no.
4 (Autumn 1976): 365-385 and “A Re-appraisal of Mrs. Eva Meyerowitz's Work on the Brong,” Research
Review (Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana) 7:53-76.
! 25
Suzanne Gott (1994, 2003, 2007) has addressed the topic of women and gender in
Asante in relation to material culture in three key sources. Her doctoral thesis (1994)
looked at women’s use of cloth in displays of identity, status and wealth. Gott’s 2003
article, “Golden Emblems of Maternal Benevolence: Transformations of Form and
Meaning in Akan Regalia,” delves into the use, in Akan leadership displays, of a pectoral
consisting of paired gold disks that appear to be stylized representations of breasts. In her
discussion, Gott pays particular attention to the importance of maternal nurturance in
Akan worldviews. Finally, her 2007 essay describes the status-related performances of
women in conjunction with funeral rites in Asante.
Art historical sources that address issues of gender in different African cultures
include Monni Adams’ (1986, 1988, 1991, 1993) discussions of We women’s masking
traditions, Anita Glaze’s (1981, 1986) consideration of gender in Senufo visual culture,
Ruth B. Phillip’s (1978, 1980, 1995) work with the Mende of Sierra Leone, Polly Nooter-
Robert and Allen F. Robert’s (1996) explorations of Luba art and memory and Cynthia
Becker’s (2006) investigation of Amazigh women’s arts and identity, among others.47
Methodology
My study of Asante stools took place throughout the five years between 2007 and
2012. Fieldwork, archival research and first-hand examination of museum collections
were vital components of my investigation. My fieldwork in Asante occurred over the
course of three separate visits in 2007, 2009 and 2012, each of which lasted an average of
three months. In 2007 I undertook formal training in Twi (Asante) at the University of
Ghana, Legon, engaged in archival research at the University of Ghana Institute of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
47
For an overview of key sources that address gender in African art see Lisa Aronson, “Gender and South
African Art,” African Arts, vol. 45, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 1+4-5.
! 26
African Studies and National Museum, Accra. I then traveled around the Ashanti Region,
learning about Asante arts and the techniques of their creation. In particular, I spent time
studying the process of carving asese dwa with carvers at Ahwiaa and the Centre for
National Culture – Kumase.
In 2009, I traveled through northern Ghana, Burkina Faso and Mali, examining
the intersections of Asante/Akan traditions and the wider circulation of stools in
marketplaces. Following that, I based myself in Kumase, where I commenced archival
research at Manhyia Palace and the Centre for National Culture – Kumase. During this
trip, I lived with the Rt. Rev. Edmund Kojoe Yeboah, who was the Bishop of the
Anglican Church from 1985-1998. With his assistance, I delved into the question of
Anglican and Catholic adaptations of indigenous ideas and symbolisms.
My work with queen mothers, which includes interviews with 14 women at
differing levels of the political hierarchy as well as their affiliates, consumed my final
research trip of 2012. I worked with Nana Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy Director of the Centre
for National Culture, and ministers of the different administrative areas of the Ashanti
Region, to identify a representative selection of queen mothers of different ages, statuses
and locations in order to gain the widest breadth of perspectives on stools. I engaged in
conversations sometimes in English but primarily in Twi, with the assistance of Nana
Sarfo Kantanka, who acted as translator when my language skills reached their limits.
The queen mothers with whom I spoke included Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko
(Offinsohemaa, Omanhemaa), Nana Braku Yaa (Asokorehemaa, Omanhemaa), Nana Yaa
Birago Kokodurofo (Senfi Adumasahemaa, Abremponhemaa), Nana Ama Konadu II
(Esresohemaa, Abremponhemaa), Nana Ama Agyeman (Kodiehemaa, Abremponhemaa),
! 27
Nana Afia Serwaa (Aputuogyahemaa, Abremponhemaa), Nana Akosua Abrafi II
(Sewuahemaa, Abremponhemaa), Nana Birago Ababio (Mpobihemaa, Abremponhemaa),
Nana Gyama Pensan II (Aboasohemaa, Abremponhemaa), Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano
Ababio (Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, Ohemaa/Obaapanin), Nana Sika Brayie
(Sasaamopaninbenkumhemaa, Ohemaa/Obaapanin), Nana Abena Gyamfua
(Adwafohemaa, Ohemaa/Obaapanin), Nana Adwoa Agyeiwa II (New Bomfahemaa,
Dikrohemaa), Nana Darkowaa Ababio II (Dikrohemaa under the Mantia Stool). In
addition to the queen mothers and their affiliates, I spoke with a number of other
individuals, such as Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, whose knowledge I
cite throughout the text.
My research for this project also included visiting key collections of Asante stools
at the British Museum (London), the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, The Cambridge
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the National Museum of Ireland
(Dublin), which I completed over a period of six weeks in the autumn of 2010. During
my time at Harvard, I carried out an in-depth investigation of a stool in the collections of
the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, which was the catalyst for my
research program (the case study of this stool is outlined in chapter three).
Because most museum documentation and scholarly literature have focused
largely on Asante stools’ association with male chieftaincy, the stool archives belonging
to queen mothers and their associated oral histories were critical aspects of my research.
Similarly, historical photographs from sources such as the Pitt Rivers Museum and the
Basel Mission Image Archive offered crucial insight into the ways in which women used
stools in the early twentieth century and before. Taken together, these alternative forms
! 28
of data offer a rich picture of the important links between women, specifically queen
mothers, and asese dwa in Asante culture.
Chapter Outline
Chapter 1, “Re-Engendering Asante Stools,” foregrounds the historical
relationship between women and stools and considers the ways that variations on the
story of the Golden Stool have gendered implications. I describe the primary role of
queen mothers in the acquisition of asese dwa at Ahwiaa and set this information in
comparative perspective with Euro-American literature and documentation, which makes
almost exclusive reference to male chieftaincy in relationship to Asante stools. Lastly, I
use photographs from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to illustrate that
women’s relationships with stools have endured for more than a century.
Chapter 2, “Bodies and Stools: Ritual, Structure and Symbols,” outlines the
dynamic permission system associated with queen mothers’ use of stool designs and
considers broader structural and symbolic analogies between the stool form, architecture
and the (female) body. I examine the critical connections between asese dwa and
menstruation, as evidenced in taboos associated with different forms of seating and the
female puberty rite, bragoro. I also explore the gendered character of stools in broader
contexts, including akyeame, gods, and Anglican and Catholic traditions in Asante.
Chapter 3, “The Primacy of Archives,” addresses Euro-American collecting
histories as well as the archives of stools maintained by queen mothers in Asante.
Drawing on the case study of a stool in the collection of the Peabody Museum of
Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, I demonstrate the ways that museum
records have privileged male chieftaincy and obscure or erase the histories of queen
! 29
mothers. An overview of key stools in the collections of Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko,
Nana Braku Yaa I, Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, Nana Birago Ababio, and Nana
Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, offers a counterpoint to Euro-American museum
documentation and narratives and reveals the dynamic and complex system of
negotiation associated with queen mothers’ stool customs. Finally, I explore the invention
of new stool types in the latter half of the twentieth century and their relationships with
conventional practices.
! 30
Obaa na owoo ohene. It is the woman who gave birth to the King.
(Asante proverb)48
“The stool is the symbol of a chief only insofar as it makes
reference to the queen mother who appointed him.”
---S. F. Adjei, Director of the Centre for National Culture - Kumase
Chapter 1
Re-Engendering Asante Stools
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
48
Quoted in Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, “Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante
History,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 28, no. 3 (1995): 481.
! 31
For the matrilineal Asante peoples, since their earliest histories, stools have been
intimately connected with women, and queen mothers in particular. Many of the origin
stories outlined in the Ashanti Stool Histories highlight the important roles of
ancestresses (the first queen mothers) and their relationships with stools, many of which
predate the birth of the famous Golden Stool (discussed below). For example, the
ancestress, Ankyewa Nyame, known as “the true angel of God,” is said to have come
down from the sky at a place called Asiakwa in the Akim district at some point before the
eighteenth century founding of the Asante confederacy. She brought her ancestral stool
with her and her retinue followed. Nana Ankyewa Nyame is held to be the ancestress of
both the Oyoko and Aduana mmusua (sing. abusua) lineage. The Golden Stool today is
identified with the former group.49 Another female ancestress, Asiam Nyankopon
Guahyia, foundress of the Bretuo lineage (abusua), accompanied by her relatives and
subjects, is believed to have descended from the sky on a silver chain carrying her silver
stool.50 She is remembered as having landed either at Adanse-Ahensan right away or
having arrived here following a migration from Adanse-Ayaase. She, too, is said to have
appeared prior to the confederation of Asante. In yet a third example, the Mampong stool,
second in power only to the Golden Stool, traces its lineage to another ancestress, Asiam
Nyankopon Guahyia.51 After her arrival, Asiam Nyankopon Guahyia announced that her
sister, Nyinampong, the queen mother of Denkyira and the Agona abusua, was making
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
49
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Kokofu stool history, p. 1.
50
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 2, Adubinsukese stool history, p. 1, Atasomanso stool history, p.1.
51
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 2, Adubinsukese stool history, p. 1.
! 32
her way to the same location. A short time later, Nyinampong descended from the sky
with her “bead-stool” in hand.52
These are just a few of the abusua origin stories that foreground women and their
stools. Many more individual stool histories feature key female ancestresses and their
arrival on earth with stools, a number of which date to the era prior to the Golden Stools’
descent, or somewhat later, under the reign of Asantehene Opoku Ware I (1700-1750).
Thus, Nana Yaa Asase, ancestress of the Akyawkrom stool, is said to have come up from
the ground at a hole called Ayano Bong (alt. Ayano Tokoromu) at Akyawkrom. With her
she brought her brother and the Ankyawkrom stool.53 Ampoma Tim, ancestress of the
Dadiesoaba stool, for her part, is said to have migrated from Denkyria to Kumase
carrying a miniature stool after the Asante defeated Denkyira in 1701.54 The Dadiesoaba
stool itself is said to have been created by Opoku Ware I during the first half of the
eighteenth century.
Oral histories outlined in the Ashanti Stool Histories offer other evidence of the
relationship between female ancestors and stools. Here we read explanations of the
transmission of authority from women to men, a phenomenon said to have occurred in
the decades and centuries that followed initial matriarchal foundations. Nana Kyerew
Akenten, ancestress of the Mamponten stool, is identified as both the queen mother of
Mamponten and the female chief. According to related oral traditions, she “reigned for a
long time, but because of the intermittent wars that faced the nation it became necessary
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
52
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 2, Atasomanso stool history, p.1.
53
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Akyawkrom stool history, p. 1.
54
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Dadiesoaba stool history, p. 1.
! 33
to appoint a male substitute.”55 It was Nana Kyerew Akenten’s brother, Nana Saasi
Ayeboafo, who was selected as the first male occupant of the Mamponten stool.
Similarly, Nana Dufie, ancestress of the Fehyiase stool, “handed over the administration
of this village, as well as the ancestral stool, to her son, Toku Kumanin, who was then a
minor” because of the ongoing wars in the area.56 Apparently, once her son came of age,
Nana Dufie decided to divide their responsibilities by ruling over the women while Toku
Kumanin dealt with the administration of the men.57 These oral histories are in line with
Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng’s (1995) observation about the
prominence of war (male activities) in the new Asante nation, as key factors impacting a
shift from female to male authority in the period after the confederation’s founding.58 The
other crucial reason for the change cited by Akyeampong and Obeng is that of taboos
around menstruation that restricted female participation in certain spheres.59 We can see
in these various examples the strikingly important role that gender is seen to have played
in Asante stool history and ongoing signification.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
55
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Mamponten stool history, p. 3.
56
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Feyhiase stool history, p. 1.
57
Ashanti Stool Histories, vol. 1, Feyhiase stool history, p. 1; No doubt, oral histories pertaining to other
stools that are not recorded in the Ashanti Stool Histories offer comparable explanations to reconcile the
change of power that took place between the origin stories and later realities. When considered in the
context of these early legends that feature ancestresses and their stools, the queen mothers’ broad dismissal
of the Golden Stool story that included ancestral stools being buried in the River Bantama in my interviews
in 2012 takes on new significance. Contemporary queen mothers may have been offended by a story that
effectively erased the material evidence of the crucial roles their ancestresses played in the creation of the
Asante nation. Interestingly, while there is a disconnect between women’s ancestral authority as told in the
Ashanti Stool Histories and their twentieth-century circumstances, their relationships with stools (in the
sense of the physical object) seems to have been sustained and even strengthened over time.
58
Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, “Spirituality, Gender, and Power in Asante History,”
The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 28, no. 3 (1995): 492.
59
Ibid. 492.
! 34
The Golden Stool and the Issues of Gender
The Golden Stool or Sika Dwa Kofi (“Golden Stool born on Friday”) is the
foremost political symbol of the Asante peoples and the rudiments of its origin story are
well known: in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Osei Tutu, leader of
Kumase, overtook numerous towns and states in the area of the Gold Coast and unified
them as the Asante Confederacy. He called upon his chief priest and advisor, Okomfo
Anokye, to conjure an object from the heavens that would symbolize the unity of this
new nation. Then, on a certain Friday, a glorious stool descended from the heavens to the
accompaniment of thunder and lightening and came to rest on the lap of Osei Tutu.
Chiefs of the different divisions of Asante gave nail and hair clippings, which were made
into an ointment that was rubbed onto the stool to show that it belonged to the entire
nation and contained its soul or spirit. Anokye delineated a code of moral behavior that
all Asante people had to follow in order to ensure the health and survival of the Golden
Stool, and accordingly, the nation itself. This code and the importance of the Golden
Stool to the Asante peoples have continued throughout their history.
Another facet of the Golden Stool story that seems to appear mostly from the
1960s onwards includes an addition with vital details on gender. This version is
exemplified in Alex Kyerematen’s 1969 article, “The Royal Stools of Ashanti.60 in which
he takes up what he calls the “Golden Stool from the heavens”:
A condition of its arrival, Anokye insisted, was that all the chiefs in the kingdom,
including the king, should surrender all their regalia – their stools, swords, and
spears – and thereby avoid reminder of their earlier history and sentiments. A
huge cavity was dug in the bed of the River Bantama, and in this all the regalia
was buried. Because of this the river became known as Aworo afena, ‘running
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
60
Alex Kyerematen, "The Royal Stools of Ashanti," Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
39, no. 1 (Jan., 1969): 1-10.
! 35
over swords’. To mark the spot where the regalia was buried, Anokye is said to
have planted a sword on the bank, predicting that no one would be able ever to
remove it but that if he did, this would presage the end of the kingdom. This is
said to be the sword still to be seen in the grounds of the Kumasi Central Hospital
at Bantama, apparently immoveable by unaided human effort. Only one piece of
regalia was exempted from Komfo Anokye’s decree: the stool of Ankyaw Nyame,
founding ancestress of the royal Oyoko lineage who, it is said, descended from
the heavens by a gold chain, the Sika Atweaban, having been preceded by her
court-crier, Esen, and by Aya Kesee who carried her stool.61
The Ashanti Stool Histories (vols. I and II) recorded by Joseph Agyeman-Duah, Ivor
Wilks, and others between October 1962 and December 1968 includes this variation of
the Golden Stool story associated oral accounts (ex. the Hia stool history, the Kyidom
stool history, and the Agona stool history62) but with the exception that none make a
point of excluding the Oyoko ancestral stool from being buried along with the rest of the
earlier regalia.63
Rattray’s 1923 account of the Golden Stool story in Ashanti does not mention the
surrender of stools as a condition of the Golden Stool’s arrival. His version, which he
credits to an “old Ashanti of the ruling class, deeply versed in the lore and traditions of
his race, whose ancestor was one of the Ashanti kings,”64 is generally consistent with the
details outlined in the first paragraph above. However, in his 1929 Ashanti Law and
Constitution, Rattray offers an alternate story to explain the renaming of the River
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
61
Alex Kyerematen, "The Royal Stools of Ashanti," Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
39, no. 1 (Jan., 1969): 3
62
The Oyoko stool history included in The Stool Histories does not address the Golden Stool so it is
difficult to ascertain whether the informants were aware of the story outlined by Kyerematen with regard to
the exemption of the stool of their ancestress, “Nana Ankyewa Nyame” (as spelled in Ashanti Stool
Histories).
63
Kyerematen credits Nana Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II for providing him with information for the
article, which focuses exclusively on the blackened stools of the Oyoko royals. It is possible that the
exemption he mentions may be a consequence of his informant’s desire to emphasize the Oyoko royals’
right to rule and privileged position within Asante.
64
R. S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 288.
! 36
Bantama to “aworo afena” (“awomfana”) which points out that when going to war, army
leaders demanded a sign that they would be victorious.
Here the story becomes not only more complex but also important in terms of
historical nuance. Among other things, Anokye (“Anotche”) gave one of Osei Tutu’s
(“Osai Tutu”) sons a shield that “so long as the front of it was presented towards the
enemy, they would retreat.”65 According to Anokye, who explains that the shield taboo
relates to the drinking of palm wine, Osei Tutu after creating new swords and handing
them out to his commanders, the latter accepted them, taking the oath decreed by
Anokye. When the son broke the taboo by drinking palm wine, the enemy overtook the
Asante, forcing them to retreat. Anokye then ordered all the swords thrown into the river
and new ones made in turn.66 Rattray reports that, “of the ‘medicine’ which had been
used in the making of the Stool, [Anokye] took what remained, and mixing it with
copper, distributed pieces to all Chiefs who possessed blackened Stools, thus sharing with
all some of the power which lay in the Stool.”67 This account not only offers an
alternative explanation for the renaming of the River Bantama, but also points to the fact
that the chiefs did not surrender their blackened stools. In short, the stools identified with
key female ancestresses of these lines still are considered to retain political primacy.
During my fieldwork in the Ashanti Region in 2012, when I inquired about the
story that all leaders had given up their regalia to bring about the birth of the Golden
Stool, I was met with resounding denial. None of the queen mothers I interviewed or their
affiliates (chiefs, linguists, family elders, etc.) admitted even the slightest familiarity with
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
65
R.S. Rattray, Ashanti Law and Constitution (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929): 273.
66
Ibid. 274.
67
Ibid. 277.
! 37
that aspect of the story. In their explanations, I found myself privy to yet another version
of the Stool’s origins. Nana Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy Director of the Centre for National
Culture and Ankobia (“chief who does not travel”) of Asotwe, first communicated the
story to me but a number of queen mothers later corroborated it. I understand that this
version may be recorded in some capacity by an Asante playwright (in Twi); however, I
haven’t yet been able to verify this elsewhere.
The version of events discussed above is framed in part around a modern view
that the present day Asante peoples are descendants of the original Empire of Ghana
(which flourished in the western Sudan between the fourth and twelfth centuries). These
individuals migrated over time to their present location in the forest region of southern
Ghana. According to Nana Sarfo Kantanka, the stool belonging to the ancestress of the
ancient royal lineage was lost in the migration from the Empire of Ghana to the forest
region. When Okomfo Anokye called upon the gods to deliver a symbol of the unified
Asante nation in the early seventeenth century, the Golden Stool that appeared before
them was the one that had been lost centuries before. Another aspect of the story points
out that prior to the Golden Stool’s descent, the Asantehene or king of the Asante was not
yet identified. In brief, although Osei Tutu had victoriously led his armies to take over the
other previously independent groups, he was not automatically considered the paramount
leader. Instead, the stool came to rest on the lap of “the Asantehene” as an “identifying”
act. In other words, it could have landed on the lap of any of the chiefs present at the
event, but instead it selected Osei Tutu as the official King of Asante.
This legend of the Golden Stool, as told to me by Nana Sarfo Kantanka, seems to
be a version of the framing by the ‘Very Reverend Apostle Mr. Ofori,’ leader of the
! 38
Assembly of Christ Redeemer, a Pentecostal denomination in Kumase, presented to T.C.
McCaskie in the mid-1990s.68 McCaskie reports that Mr. Ofori outlined a story that
claims the Asante people, then called the “Koa,” migrated in the fifth millennium BC to
‘a valley in modern day Israel’ from the Sudan via Egypt. They lived peacefully
alongside the Jews until the Babylonians took Jerusalem and enslaved them. When the
Persian King Cyrus later captured Babylon, the Jews returned to Israel but the Lord God
revealed to the Koa that they were, in fact, his chosen people and he had a special plan
for them. Their leader, also named Cyrus, was instructed to eat a scroll of lamentation
and they were told that they would wander the earth until they found their final resting
place. Initially, they settled in the area now known to have been the Western Sudanic
Kingdom of Ghana. This kind of historical repositioning to bring a polity into
engagement with other well known historical centers in Africa is well known elsewhere
on the continent.
What is new here is the important place in the narrative of ancient Ghana. The
name “Ghana,” according to Ofori, is a transformation of the name Koa to Koana to
Gwana and, finally, to Ghana. When Islam dominated the area, according to this account,
the Koa moved on and arrived at their final home, Asante. Here “the appearance of the
Golden Stool (sika dwa), in essence, was a reappearance, the manifestation of the scroll
ingested by the first Cyrus. It descended from Heaven upon the knees of Cyrus’ lineal
successor the first Asantehene Osei (ie. Cyrus) Tutu.”69 As Asante thrived, the population
fell into idolatry and God punished them by bringing colonialism upon them. However,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
68
T.C. McCaskie, Asante Identities: History and Modernity in an African Village (Bloomington:
University of Indiana Press, 2000): 231-235.
69
Ibid. 234.
! 39
in this process, they also were introduced to the Bible. The British unknowingly provided
the Asante with the tool with which they would “wrest the Christian message back from
European ignorance and Jewish dismissal…at last, the Lord God would restore the true
order of his creation. Black African peoples instructed and led by the Asante (Koa) would
exercise benevolent dominion over Europeans, Jews and the other peoples of the earth.”70
Taken together, the nuances of these different versions of the Golden Stool story,
of which there are surely more, illustrate the dynamic character of history and its
narration. Kyerematen’s account (although it exempts the Oyoko clan’s ancestral stool)
and the stories in the Ashanti Stool Histories focuses on the erasure of previously distinct
identities and assumes that Osei Tutu is the rightful leader of the Asante nation. The story
relayed by Kantanka, however, links the ancient lineage with the new kingdom and
foregrounds the active selection of Osei Tutu as Asantehene, therein echoing the process
by which queen mothers choose chiefs for Stools (leadership offices) in their
communities. In effect, the Golden Stool in Kantanka’s version defines the queen mother
as ancestress who selects the king. The story relayed to T.C. McCaskie adds another layer
to the ancient origin story, establishing a clear link with Christianity and reconciling
potential conflicts with indigenous traditions. In this case, the will of the
ancestor/ancestress becomes synonymous with the Word and Osei Tutu who is positioned
as Cyrus’ proper successor in the eyes of God. Each told from a distinct vantage point
over the course of a century, these legends, in their diverse privileging of nationhood,
matriarchy and Christianity, reflect the complex backdrop that was twentieth-century
Asante.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
70
T. C. McCaskie, Asante Identities: History and Modernity in an African Village (Bloomington:
University of Indiana Press, 2000): 234.
! 40
Queen Mothers and the Stool Market
Adom Gyamfi Richard, secretary of the Ahwiaa Wood Carver Association,
informed me that, next to foreign visitors, queen mothers have been the stool carvers’
most frequent customers throughout the twentieth century.71 Depending on their rank and
financial resources, queen mothers purchase ready-made conventional stools of a
standard design or they commission more elaborately embellished ones (at greater
expense) to use in their official capacities, which include such events as judging disputes,
attending durbars, and presiding over female puberty rites. When they are enstooled,
queen mothers inherit all of the stools belonging to the previous queen mothers from that
line. They also may choose to have a new stool made to suit their tastes or they may
select one of the inherited ones for regular use. All these objects fall under the heading of
“Stool property” (a term that is comparable to “Crown” property in its reference to an
official political division) and when a queen mother chooses to have a new stool made, it
becomes part of this archive. If she chooses to leave her post or passes away, each stool,
including any newly made ones, is transferred to the next queen mother.
These stools, which might be called “archival” stools, differ from the blackened
stools of ancestors that have been a frequent subject of discussion in the literature on
Asante culture. While blackened stools are sacred objects that are not practical items for
seating, “archival” stools are often presented to queen mothers to sit on during their visits
with one another or with chiefs.72 Chiefs also maintain archival stools that are part of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
71
Adom Gyamfi Richard, Secretary of the Ahwiaa Wood Carver’s Association, in conversation with the
author, 26 May 2012.
72
For a discussion of Blackened stools see Peter Sarpong, The Sacred Stools of the Akan (Accra-Tema:
Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1971); A. Kyerematen, "The Royal Stools of Ashanti." Africa: Journal of
the International African Institute 39, no. 1 (Jan., 1969): 1-10.
! 41
their stool property but their own uses of them differ from those of queen mothers.73 The
bulk of the stools in European and North American museum collections are “archival”
stools of this type.
Euro-American Stool Collections and the Question of Gender
As we have seen, queen mothers, rather than chiefs, have been the largest local
consumers of Asante stools since at least the early twentieth century. Yet for the most
part, existing discussions of stools have centered on their roles in (male) chieftaincy
traditions and ancestral veneration; queen mothers’ roles in turn largely are presented as a
female equivalent to male chieftaincy.74 Both are problematic since the positions of
Asante queen mothers and related engagement with stools are distinct from those of men.
Museum records in Europe and North America, when they exist, generally reinforce false
assumptions of male identity with stools by making exclusive mention of chiefs, even
though this reference is frequently inaccurate or misleading.
The origins of these ideas are traceable to the period of active collecting of Asante
stools, which took place in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Prevailing Euro-American ideas about stools in the early twentieth century are perhaps
best evidenced in the newspapers from that period, and especially, the Editorials section.
The content of articles from the London Times reveals the pervasiveness of Euro-
American peoples’ understanding of Asante stools through equations with the British
Throne and male chieftaincy or kingship, as well as their general confusion regarding the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
73
The preceding information about Asante queen mothers’ uses of stools is based on interviews I undertook
with 14 queen mothers in the Ashanti Region of Ghana in May and June of 2012.
74
See R. S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927); A. Kyerematen, "The
Royal Stools of Ashanti." Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 39, no. 1 (Jan., 1969): 1-10.;
Peter Sarpong, The Sacred Stools of the Akan (Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1971); Sharon
Patton, "The Asante Stool," PhD Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1980.
! 42
role of the Golden Stool and asese dwa more broadly. An article from 21 September
1921, provided by the newspaper’s Dunkwa correspondent, explained that “the Golden
Stool of Ashanti is the symbol of sovereignty corresponding to the Throne and a Monarch
in Ashanti was not enthroned but enstooled.”75
Not only was the Golden Stool equated with the Throne, stools in general were
often conflated with the Golden Stool. For example, in the follow-up to his initial article
concerning the Golden Stool, the Dunkwa correspondent offered further details about the
Golden stool and then launched into a discussion of “true Ashanti stools,” explaining that
They are rectangular and oblong in plan with a flat solid base carrying a column
at each corner and a larger central upright, which may be circular or square but is,
in the best kinds, hollowed out and pierced with rectangular holes. The columns
are also embellished by scalloping, etc, cut out of the stolid. The top or seat is
curved downwards from the ends to the centre, the design as whole being simply
severe and pleasing, and the proportions always good.76
Shortly after the article was published, a woman by the name of Lucy C. F. Cavendish
wrote in to announce that she was aware of “three copies of the Golden Stool” that were
in the possession of her family. She explained that two of the stools, both covered in
“Native Silver,” were brought home by Sir Owen Lanyon after the Kumase campaign and
one was given to her with her initials carved into it. According to Cavendish, the stools
“tall[ied] exactly, except as to size, with the description given lately by your Ashanti
correspondent.”77 Cavendish recalled “Sir Owen telling [her] that no one was allowed to
sit on the stool except the King and that it was always kept lying on its side to prevent
any devil sitting on it.”78
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
75
London Times, “The Golden Stool Found: Ashanti Symbol of Sovereignty,” 21 September 1921.
76
London Times, “Golden Stool of Ashanti: Mystery of Its Fate,” 14 October 1921.
77
London Times, “The Golden Stool of Ashanti,” 11 November 1921.
78
Ibid.
! 43
These Western articles reveal confusion about Asante stools on a number of
levels. First, the Golden Stool is not the same shape as that described by the Dunkwa
correspondent and it is covered in gold, not silver. Thus, Cavendish’s stools clearly were
not copies of it. Second, the Golden Stool does not belong to the “King” or Asantehene,
nor is it a throne. Considered a living being, the Golden Stool is enthroned on an asipim
(a high-backed European-style chair) with its own set of royal regalia. Finally, even in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was primarily queen mothers, not chiefs,
who used stools as a type of “throne,” in the sense of a “seat” that expresses power.
Asante Stools in the News
Articles from the American popular press during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries similarly reveal a tendency to conceive of Asante stools, and the
Golden Stool specifically, in terms of British Coronation symbolism. Male chieftaincy
narratives reached well beyond England’s borders. An article from the Dallas Morning
News in April 1900 refers to “the Gold Stool of the Ashanti, the royal throne.”79 Around
the same time, a news brief about the Asante from the Philadelphia Inquirer mentions the
“ancestral golden throne.”80 An 1899 story from the San Jose Mercury News talks about
“Ashanti kings…and treasures attached to the royal stool, or throne.”81
The degree to which the Golden Stool was conceived as a male coronation seat or
throne, and the problematic nature of this belief, is best evidenced by the story of Sir
Frederick Hodgson. In late March of 1900, Hodgson, the Governor of the new Gold
Coast Colony, met with Asante leaders in Kumase to discuss their petition for changes in
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
79
Dallas Morning News, “Golden Stool War,” 10 April 1900.
80
Philadelphia Inquirer, “Is Ashanti’s throne found? Discovery of the Golden Stool May be the Cause of
Trouble,” 8 April 1900.
81
San Jose Mercury News, “The Coast of Blood and Gold,” 24 June 1899.
! 44
the British occupation. After demanding that the Asante pay interest on an old war
indemnity, Hodgson concluded his speech by proclaiming:
…once and for all that Prempeh will never again rule over this country of
Ashanti… The paramount authority of Ashanti is now the great Queen of England
whose representative I am at the moment… Where is the golden stool? Why am I
not sitting on the golden stool at this moment? I am the representative of the
paramount power, why have you relegated me to this chair? Why did you not
take the opportunity of my coming to Kumase to bring the golden stool and give
it to me to sit upon?82
In fact, this was not the first time the Governor had attempted to seize the Golden Stool.
Major Frederick Myatt, M.C., author of The Golden Stool: An Account of the Ashanti
War of 1900, reports that a year prior, Hodgson had organized “a secret expedition into
Ashanti in search of it” but the Asante were well aware of his aims.83 When Sir Frederick
Hodgson demanded to sit on the Golden Stool, the Asante peoples were so offended that
they resolved to defend the Golden Stool, the soul of their nation, by waging war against
the British.
On 30 March of that year, Sir Cecil Armitage, the individual responsible for
acquiring one of the largest holdings of Asante stools now in the collections of the British
Museum, led an expedition to the town of Nkwanta under the guise of looking for arms
and ammunition. The real purpose was to travel to nearby Bali, where a young informant
had told them the Golden Stool was buried beneath a building in a forest grove. After an
unsuccessful search that involved extensive digging, the party returned from Bali, where
they were met with a group of angry Asante who opened fire on them after the British
started clearing their plantain crops to establish a defensive position. The constabulary
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
82
Quoted in Pamela McClusky, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back (Seattle: Seattle Art
Museum in association with Princeton University Press, 2002): 91.
83
Major Frederick Myatt, M.C., The Golden Stool: An Account of the Ashanti War of 1900 (London:
William Kimber, 1966): 33.
! 45
left for Kumase the next morning at dawn but this was just the first in a series of clashes
that constituted the Ashanti War of 1900. 84
The campaign that ensued, which Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the queen mother of
Ejisu, is credited with instigating, is acknowledged as one of the “most determined
resistance movements of the colonial era.”85 The British eventually overcame the Asante
when reinforcements arrived with new weaponry, but not before lives were lost on both
sides as a result of Hodgson’s demands. In his arrogance, the Governor failed to
understand that no one sits on the Golden Stool. Not even the Asantehene or
Asantehemaa. In short, Hodgson assumed that the Golden Stool was the Asante
equivalent of the British Throne, and in doing so, made a grievous error.
Even after the nine months of war that followed the British Governor’s politically
motivated assertion, calls for the Golden Stool did not cease. Authorities continued to
search for it throughout the Asante region during the next two decades. As Pamela
McClusky has explained, the British mistook the Golden Stool for a coronation seat and
saw it as a prize that they should capture and own.86 When King Prempeh was exiled in
1896, the stool was buried in the forest for safekeeping. It was not until thieves
uncovered it accidentally in 1921 that its true significance came to be understood. The
discovery of the stool led the Asante people to fear that the British would be able to take
possession of it and they went into national mourning. Dreading another war, R.S.
Rattray, the Government Anthropologist, wrote a memorandum to the British authorities
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
84
Major Frederick Myatt, M.C., The Golden Stool: An Account of the Ashanti War of 1900 (London:
William Kimber, 1966): 33.
85
Pamela McClusky, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back (Seattle: Seattle Art Museum in
association with Princeton University Press, 2002): 91.
86
Ibid. 92.
! 46
to clear up the misconceptions concerning the stool. Here Rattray explained that “this
stool was never sat upon” and it was “the shrine of the sunsum or soul of this people.”87
In response to the memorandum, the British agreed to discontinue their attempts to take
the Golden Stool into their custody.
Despite the clarification issued by Rattray with regard to the Golden Stool,
museum records indicate that conventional Asante stools continued to be understood in
terms of coronation symbolism throughout the twentieth century. While some aspects of
this comparison are accurate, such as referring to the political office of a chief as a
“Stool” in the same way that one refers to the “British Throne” or “The Crown” to
indicate such things as property ownership, the equation contributed to many
misconceptions about stools, about the Asante political system more generally and about
the gendered history of both. What is particularly remarkable in this discussion is that
stools were envisaged as “seats” of power used by male chiefs, with little or no mention
of their principal users, and specifically the place of queen mothers (ahemaa, e.g. the
important female rulers who appoint chiefs) within this process.
Queen mothers and Asese Dwa
One of the most striking features of Asante stools is that queen mothers are the most
important leaders in society permitted to sit on them in public and when they do so, their
use expresses the official power and importance of these women (see Figure 10). In my
interviews with chiefs, queen mothers and other members of Asante royal lineages, the
resounding consensus is that a chief only sits on a sese dwa very briefly (lowering
himself upon it three times) during the enstoolment process, when he is bathing (this is a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
87
R.S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 292.
! 47
traditional practice that has become somewhat less common over time as domestic
washroom facilities have changed) and in some instances, before approaching the
ancestral stools in the nkonnwafieso (stool house). Additionally, certain male office
holders may sit on very small stools while serving the Asantehene in a specific capacity,
as is the case of the okyeame (orator or linguist). In these roles, the men are generally
perceived as attendants to the ruler, not as chiefs in their own right.88
Figure 10 Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, sitting on her mmaa dwa stool
next to her nyansapo stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
88
I discuss the responsibilities of the okyeame and his use of a stool as a seat of authority in more depth in
Chapter Two.
! 48
Although my interviews on this topic took place in 2012, I believe it is not likely
that the differences I witnessed between women and men’s uses of stools changed much
over time and with respect to status. In other words, it seems highly unlikely that (male)
chiefs in the late-nineteenth century or early twentieth century sat on stools in public, or
that chiefs of higher rank sat on stools while those of lower rank sat on asipim (or vice
versa). Interviews with queen mothers and chiefs of all ages and at all levels of the
political hierarchy, including Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, the Adumasahemaa or queen
mother of Adumasa, who has been on the stool since 1928, made it clear that (male)
chiefs appear not to have used stools other than in the very limited contexts I outlined
above for at least a century.89 Stools here remained largely the privileged object of
female historical agency and political power.
Figure 11 “Yaw Sapong, Asante Chief,” photographed by Frederick A. L. Ramseyer c. 1888-1895.

(Image credit: Basel Mission Image Archive, University of Southern California Libraries, Record ID: impa-
m38378)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
89
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, Adumasahemaa, in conversation with the author, 15 June 2012.
! 49
Historical photographs in the Basel Mission Archives that date as far back as the
1880s as well as R.S. Rattray’s early twentieth-century photos of Asante corroborate this
information. For example, an image titled “Yaw Sapong, Asante Chief” taken by
Frederick A. L. Ramseyer sometime between 1888 and 1895 shows the young leader
sitting in state on a European style asipim chair not a stool (see Figure 11).90 The metal-
plated front rung of the chair is visible between his feet, just below the edge of the kente
cloth he wears. Another image taken by Ramseyer during the same period, titled “The
indigenous chief of Obomeng,” shows the chief sitting in state with his entourage. He
wears a top hat and the finial of an asipim is visible above his left shoulder.91 Similarly,
in a photograph taken by a Mr. Berger between 1903 and 1912 of the “Chief of Kokofu,”
the armrests of an asipim, as well as its upper rail, are visible behind the seated leader.92
In Rattray’s images, too, it is clear that chiefs sit on asipim chairs and queen
mothers sit on asese dwa (stools). This is perhaps best exemplified in the image of the
model court scene Rattray asked carvers to create for him. Significantly, the figure of the
chief or Asantehene is seated on an asipim while the queen mother and okyeame are both
seated on asese dwa.93 Another image taken by Rattray showing the Juabenhene and
Juabenhemaa sometime before 1929 includes the Juabenhene sitting on an elaborate
asipim beside an akonkromfi chair that supports the Juaben Stool (see Figure 12).94 On
the other side of the Stool, the female leader here, the Juabenhemaa, is seated on what
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
90
Basel Mission Image Archive, University of Southern California Libraries, “Yaw Sapong, Asante Chief.”
Record I.D.: impa-m38378.
91
Basel Mission Image Archive, University of Southern California Libraries, “The indigenous chief of
Obomeng.” Record I.D.: impa-m38338.
92
Basel Mission Image Archive, University of Southern California Libraries, “Chief of Kokofu.” Record
I.D.: impa-m25845.
93
R.S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927): Figure 188.
94
R.S. Rattray, Law and Constitution in Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929): Figure 29.
! 50
appears to be the mmaa dwa (“woman’s stool”) style of sese dwa, which is decorated
with metallic strips. I am unaware of any historical images or documents that present a
chief sitting in state on a sese dwa. As is the case today, it appears that for at least the
time since the late nineteenth century, chiefs sit on asipim chairs and queen mothers sit
on traditional stools when acting in official capacities publically.
Figure 12 “Juaben Hene and Ohema with stool,” photgraphed by R.S. Rattray c. 1921-1929. (Image credit:
Pitt Rivers Museum, Acc. Number: 1998.312.529.1)
Another account provided by Rattray reinforces the important relationship
between queen mothers and asese dwa, in particular, those showing the mmaa dwa
design. In Chapter XXIV of Ashanti the author describes the process involved in creating
a replica of the Silver Stool of the Mamponghemaa (queen mother of Mampong), which
the queen mothers and women of Asante sent to H.R.H. Princess Mary, Viscountess
! 51
Lascelles, on the occasion of her marriage in 1922. The stool was made in the mmaa dwa
design associated with women and queen mothers and incorporated silver plating on its
columns, base and seat. Its underside was “consecrated” (a process I will discuss in more
detail in subsequent chapters) and it included metal fetters around its core to bind the
owner’s soul to the stool. The crucial relationship between queen mothers, women and
asese dwa is delineated in the letter the Mamponghemaa wrote to accompany the gift:
Lady Guggisberg, wife of His Excellency,

I place this stool in your hands. It is a gift on her wedding for the King's child,
Princess Mary.
Ashanti stool-makers have carved it, and Ashanti silversmiths have embossed
it.
All the Queen Mothers who dwell here in Ashanti have contributed towards it,
and as I am the senior Queen Mother in Ashanti, I stand as representative of all
the Queen Mothers and place it in your hands to send to the King's child (Princess
Mary).
It may be that the King's child has heard of the-Golden Stool of Ashanti. That
is the stool which contains the soul of the Ashanti nation. All we women of
Ashanti thank the Governor exceedingly because he has declared to us that the
English will never again ask us to hand over that stool.
This stool we give gladly. It does not contain our soul as our Golden Stool
does, but it contains all the love of us Queen Mothers and of our women. The
spirit of this love we have bound to the stool with silver fetters just as we are
accustomed to bind our own spirits to the base of our stools.
We in Ashanti here have a law which decrees that it is the daughters of a
Queen who alone can transmit royal blood, and that the children of a king cannot
be heirs to that stool. This law has given us women a power in this land so that we
have a saying which runs:
'It is the woman who bears the man.' [emphasis mine]
(i.e., the king). We hear that her law is not so, nevertheless we have great joy in
sending her our congratulations, and we pray the great God Nyankopon, on whom
men lean and do not fall, whose day of worship is a Saturday, and whom the
Ashanti serve just as she serves Him, that He may give the King's child and her
husband long life and happiness, and finally, when she sits upon this silver stool,
which the women of Ashanti have made for their white Queen Mother, may she
call us to mind.
(Signed) AMMA SEWA AKOTO.

X her mark.95
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
95
Quoted in R.S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 294-295.
! 52
The Colonial Legacy and the Complication of Categories
As the various oral testimonies and documentary evidence outlined above reveal,
asese dwa have been associated with queen mothers since at least the late nineteenth
century. Legends identified with the era around the time of the early eighteenth century
foundation of the Asante confederacy reveal much the same thing. What, then, accounts
for the fact that early twentieth-century collectors did not mention queen mothers in their
documentation of Asante stools, despite the fact that these women were their primary
users? There are many possibilities. Writing in 1923, after finally learning about the vital
roles of queen mothers in the matrilineal society of the Asante, anthropologist R. S.
Rattray explained,
[he] asked the old men and women why [he] did not know all this – [he] had spent
very many years in Ashanti. The answer is always the same: 'The white man
never asked us this; you have dealings with and recognize only the men; we
supposed the European considered women of no account, and we know you do
not recognize them as we have always done.'96
That an early twentieth-century African trader might mislead a Western collector into
thinking that a stool belonged to a (male) chief rather than a female ruler because he
thought it would be more highly valued is a distinct possibility. Christopher Steiner’s
research into the African art market reveals that it was, and still is, a common tendency
for African traders to alter the histories and forms of objects to suit the perceived tastes of
Western collectors. For example, Steiner quotes the experience of the American scientist,
Frederick Starr, who travelled through the Belgian Congo to collect specimens and
artifacts for the American Museum of Natural History in the early twentieth century. In
December 1905, Starr reported that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
96
R.S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 84
! 53
Yesterday a well-carved wooden figure was offered. I refused it because it was
rather new and empty [of medicine] in its stomach hole. Today it appeared again,
this time with a fat round belly neatly sewed up and well smeared with cam and
oil. I agreed to the price, getting it down to 1.50 francs.97
Steiner explains that Starr’s sources eventually became so familiar with his tastes that
they only offered him objects they knew would meet his criteria. As previously
discussed, the pervasiveness of this kind of scenario, particularly in West Africa, means
that the objects that have come to represent “Africa” in European and North American
museums tend to be selected and framed by specifically Western perspectives.
This problem imposed by the colonial reconstruction of knowledge is exacerbated
by the ways in which later scholars have used early sources, and inaccurate taxonomies
perpetuated by them. In 1927 R.S. Rattray published photographs of thirty-one
conventional Asante stools.98 He explained that the list was not necessarily exhaustive of
all the possibilities but felt that it was “sufficient to show their graceful lines and the
technique and beauty of their design.” 99 For each stool, he listed information such as its
title and the member or members of society who had permission to possess it. For
example, he described the Esono ‘gwa or “The elephant stool,” that could only be used
by the “King of Ashanti,” and the Sakyi dua koro ‘gwa or “The stool with the single
centre support,” which was used “only by the priesthood.”100 Among the stools he
mentioned were three that he claimed were exclusive to women: the Ahema ‘gwa or “The
Queen’s stool,” that is the stool of “Nyako Kusi Amoa, one of the early Queen Mothers
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
97
Christopher B. Steiner, “The Taste of Angels in the Art of Darkness: Fashioning the Canon of African
Art,” Art History and Its Institutions, ed. Elizabeth Mansfield (London: Routledge, 2002): 142.
98
Throughout this chapter I use the term “stool” to make reference to “conventional” Asante stools or “sese
dwa” and I use all three terms interchangeably.
99
R.S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927): 273.
100
Ibid. 272-273.
! 54
of Ashanti,” the Mma ‘gwa, or “the woman’s stool,” that “a man, when he marries,
generally presents his wife with this stool,” and Me fa asa ‘gwa or “my half is finished,”
that he explained meant “half my clan is dead.”101 Rattray’s outline, with its tidy
descriptions of users and meanings, promoted a picture of Asante stool designs and
functions as being static, clearly defined and rigidly hierarchical.
This idea has been replicated in the majority of the literature on Asante stools
produced in the twentieth century. For example, Peter Sarpong, in The Sacred Stools of
the Akan, appears to draw the bulk of his examples of stool owners and their designs and
symbolism from Rattray’s early account.102 M.D. McLeod, in The Asante, devotes most
of his discussion of Asante stool types and uses to a reiteration of the content of Rattray’s
compilation.103 Sharon Patton’s unpublished 1980 dissertation, “The Asante Stool,”
strives to categorize stools and hierarchies in an approach that draws on Rattray’s
framework, too. As not many substantial studies of stools were published during the
twentieth century, most other publications and catalogues replicate the espousal of
Rattray’s framework in their brief discussions.
Yet, Rattray’s language suggests that even as he was writing in the late 1920s, the
cogent categories he described were not so exclusively demarcated as his own catalogue
may have implied. Specifically, he opens his discussion of stools by saying that “a
generation or so ago, every stool in use had its own particular significance and its own
special name which denoted the sex, or social status, or clan of the owner.”104 Such an
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
101
102
The examples cited by Sarpong are the same stools listed in Rattray’s account. See Peter Sarpong, The
Sacred Stools of the Akan (Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1971): 19-25.
103
M.D. McLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1984): 114-115.
104
! 55
observation suggests that, although he believed stringent rules regarding ownership
existed previously, they may not have been employed so rigorously at the time of his
observations.
When Sharon Patton undertook a study of the stools of the chiefs of the Kronti
political division in the late 1970s, she also noted that individuals in possession of stools
did not necessarily follow the policies outlined by Rattray or the carvers with whom she
spoke. For example, contrary to Rattray’s assertion that only women could own the
mmaa dwa, and that a husband gave it to his wife, Patton documented multiple chiefs
who possessed this design.105 She also observed that despite the carvers’ insistence that
chiefs’ stools should have black designs painted on the bottom, most of the stools of the
chiefs she viewed did not incorporate this feature.106 Although Patton noted the
disconnect between the “rules” and practice, her study did not penetrate more deeply into
the ways in which stools were used in different contexts: she commented only that certain
chiefs possessed the mmaa dwa, not how or why these chiefs were using these specific
stools.107
For the most part, Patton attributed the discrepancies she observed to “rule
breaking” or changes to stool uses that occurred over time. Similarly, Rattray did not
indulge in any lengthy investigation of how the stools he listed functioned in specific
scenarios. In the other chapters of Religion and Art in Ashanti and in his additional
publications he mentions various individuals sitting on stools in the course of ceremonies
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
105
Sharon Patton, “The Asante Stool,” PhD Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1980. 66.
106
Ibid. 108.
107
As I discuss in Chapter Three, a number of people I interviewed provided reasons that the “woman’s
stool” may have been in these chiefs’ possession. Among other things, they speculated that the chiefs might
have had them to provide to queen mothers to sit on when they came to visit.
! 56
and other events (for example, when he describes the rites associated with the Adae
festival in Ashanti108) but he does not go into detail about which type of stool one was
sitting on.
My own research among queen mothers in Asante reveals that hierarchical
prescriptions are exceptionally relative and context is a crucial component of how a
leader chooses which stool to employ at particular moments. While some discrepancies
can indeed be attributed to “rule breaking” and/or changes that have occurred over time,
at least in the case of queen mothers, there is also an important sense in which some
Asante stools and their uses are fluid and dynamic and have been since at least the early
part of the twentieth century.109 In other words, the rules that apply to an individual’s use
of stools in one situation may not be equally relevant under a different set of
circumstances.110
As I have emphasized in this chapter, Asante stools historically have had
important links to women. Consistent with this, men (chiefs) sit on stools on very limited
occasions and generally in quite intimate contexts (bathing, for example). It is queen
mothers who use these stools actively as seats of authority in an array of public and
private spheres. This may be one of the key reasons that studies of Asante stools from the
twentieth century, that focused almost exclusively on stools with regard to male
chieftaincy, are framed in predominantly static terms. Because the stools that chiefs use
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
108
R.S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 94-95.
109
I suspect that the fluid and dynamic character of stool rules and hierarchies is applicable to chiefs’ and
other users’ engagement with them but I cannot comment in more depth as my investigation focused on
queen mothers. This is an area that would be fruitful for future study.
110
The most elderly queen mother I interviewed was Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, who was enstooled in
1928, the year after Rattray published Religion and Art in Ashanti. Her experience with stools has been as
dynamic as more recently appointed queen mothers, which suggests that this kind of fluidity was
operational even at the time that Rattray was writing.
! 57
do not circulate in the same ways as queen mothers’ stools, scholars who have interpreted
them may not have been as concerned with the need to understand the hierarchical rules
around them as context-dependent. This is another critical argument for distinguishing
the history of queen mothers’ stools from that of chiefs and developing a discussion of
them that considers their unique circumstances.
! 58
Chapter 2
Bodies and Stools: Ritual, Structure and Symbols
! 59
Stools: Ritual and Rank
The most important lesson I learned from queen mothers about Asante stools is
that, while there are important rules about who can use which types of stools and forms
of decoration (as Rattray, Patton and others have described), these policies shift and
change depending on the person’s use of the stool, location and present company. For
example, Nana Birago Ababio, the Mpobihemaa, told me that anyone at any level of the
socio-political hierarchy, male or female, could own a stool that represents his or her
abusua, and many people do. For the Agona abusua the symbol on such a stool would be
a parrot, for the Bretuo, a leopard, the Oyoko, a falcon or hawk, the Ekuona, a buffalo,
the Aduana, a dog, the Asenie, a bat, and the Asakyiri, a vulture.
However, men would likely not sit on these stools and owners would use them
only in the privacy of their bedrooms or compounds.111 If someone other than a queen
mother (or member of the royal retinue assigned to sit on a stool, such as an okyeame) sat
on a stool at a public event, they could be reprimanded and even charged for
misrepresenting themselves. Nana Gyama Pensan II, the Aboasohemaa concurs that
individuals, usually women, can only own and sit on stools in private realms, such as
their bedroom. She explains, “you can buy it. Maybe in your privacy in your bedroom
you can sit on it because there is nobody there but immediately if you would bring it out
and sit on it [in public] you will have problems.”112 According to Nana Gyama Pensan II,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
111
112
Nana Gyama Pensan II, Aboasohemaa, in conversation with the author, 7 June 2012.
! 60
sitting on a stool in public without the proper authority to do so would be a great offense
that is punishable by lawmakers.113
Even in someone’s own household, the ability to sit on a stool is dependent on
who is in her company. In most cases, merely owning a sese dwa of any design does not
appear to be an issue. It is the act of sitting on it that is loaded with implications. For
example, if an individual lives with the queen mother, she usually cannot sit on a stool in
her presence (or anyone else who lives there as they would likely see it as subversive
behavior). Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, the District Cultural Officer for the Bosomtwe
District Assembly, when we were in conversation with Nana Afia Serwaa, the
Aputuogyahemaa, described the following scenario to me to explain this idea:
(Gesturing to the daughter of the queen mother) This lady is sitting by her mother
who is the queen mother. The queen mother is sitting on the stool. She can’t sit on
the stool, though there may be more in the house. But traditionally she is not
permitted to sit on it because she is not a queen mother. It is only the queen
mother who is permitted to sit on the sese dwa. So you can buy one and put it in
your room for decoration’s sake but not to sit on it as traditional authority
permits.114
The overarching idea, it would seem, is that how one uses conventional stools privately is
her own affair but if she sits on one in the presence of someone who has the right to use it
as a seat of authority she is considered to be acting with great disrespect.
Earlier, I outlined the hierarchical political structure of Asante queen mothers.
The kind of relational permission system for stool use that applies to non-queen mothers
also applies, in slightly more complicated ways, to differently ranking queen mothers. Put
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
113
Nana Gyama Pensan II, Aboasohemaa, in conversation with the author, 7 June 2012. Another part of
queen mothers’ royal regalia is a specific type of sandals. These sandals identify her important position,
along with the dansinkran hairstyle mentioned in Chapter Three. If any woman who was not a queen
mother presented herself in public with any one or combination of these identifying features, she would
likely be subject to criminal prosecution for impersonation.
114
Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, District Cultural Officer for the Bosomtwe District Assembly, in conversation
with the author, 4 June 2012.
! 61
simply: in any given situation, the queen mother with the highest status (out of whoever
is present) establishes the “rules” about appropriate dress and accoutrements for the
women under her. In some cases, this may be communicated through an official
announcement. For example, when the Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II celebrated
his Silver Jubilee in 1995, each rank of queen mother from omanhemaa down to
odikrohemaa was provided with guidelines about the cloth they should buy and wear for
the event. For the Jubilee, the paramount queen mothers exhibited their rank by wearing
white lace, which no one else was permitted to integrate into their dress.115 For a few
specific positions or lineages, there are clear prescriptions about what may be integrated
into stools and regalia. The spiritual chief of the Asantehene and the queen mother of that
Stool, for instance, always use a white umbrella.116 However, on most occasions, queen
mothers are expected to anticipate what an appropriate level of elaboration for their own
regalia will be relative to the other attendees. This leads to accusations of insubordination
when a superior queen mother perceives someone below her to have integrated some
component into her regalia that is fancier than her own.
Nana Sika Brayie, the Sasaamopaninbenkumhemaa, who is at the level of ohemaa
or obaapanin, told me that her senior queen mother accused her of wearing a cloth that
was finer than her own and the accusation was so serious that they had to go to the
Asantehene’s court to resolve the issue.117 Nana Adwoa Agyeiwa II, the New
Bomfahemaa, who is an odikrohemaa, relayed a similar type of story about a festival held
at Mampong where some of the queen mothers wore gold-plated sandals, only to find that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
115
Nana Braku Yaa I, Asokoremanhemaa, in conversation with the author, 9 June 2012.
116
Nana Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy Director of the Centre for National Culture – Kumase, in conversation
117
Nana Sika Brayie, Sasaamopaninbenkumhemaa, in conversation with the author, 31 May 2012.
! 62
the Mamponghemaa, who is second in authority only to the Asantehemaa, was wearing
the same ones. They had to leave quickly and purchase new sandals (without gold) to
wear for the occasion.118 According to all of the queen mothers with whom I spoke, if
you arrived at an event and discovered that one of your superiors was sitting on a stool
that was the same as yours, you would have to dispose of it immediately and find
something more appropriate to sit on.
The pressure to select the correct stool for a festival, ceremony or other event is
sometimes alleviated if it is hosted by a paramount queen mother because she often
provides enough stools from her own holdings to seat the visiting queen mothers in
attendance. In such a scenario, the paramount queen mother will distribute stools to the
variously ranking female leaders in a way that is in line with their hierarchical political
structure (usually the taller and more elaborately carved/plated stools will go to the
highest ranking women; however, it depends on the perspective of the queen mother
issuing the stools. Some queen mothers may be inclined to use other criteria, such as
giving taller stools to taller women).
Nana Braku Yaa I, the Asokoremanhemaa, informed me that queen mothers at the
level of odikrohemaa are not allowed to sit on stools at all when large numbers of queen
mothers gather. They can do as they wish in their own communities, where they have
authority, but when they are in the presence of amanhemaa, abremponhemaa and
ahemaa, they have no right to sit on a stool. She added that when a gathering takes place
in the presence of the Asantehene, only paramount queen mothers may use stools.
According to the Asokoremanhemaa tensions have arisen amongst the queen mother
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
118
Nana Adwoa Agyeiwa II, New Bomfahemaa, in conversation with the author, 8 June 2012.
! 63
ranks in recent years because adikrohemmas who possess wealth have become notorious
for flouting the traditional laws around employing regalia appropriate to their station.119
For smaller local gatherings, queen mothers may be expected to bring their own
stools, in which case, they must be cognizant of the proper level of decoration relative to
the other guests and their statuses. As I mentioned above, the most important
consideration is to fit within the structure established by the dominant queen mother. This
means that much variation can occur from town to town and queen mother to queen
mother. If the highest ranking queen mother chooses to use a stool that is not particularly
elaborate, in most cases the queen mothers below her must ensure that they do not exceed
(or even match) the stool she has chosen to employ. However, the rules around exactly
what this means shift and change depending on the prescriptions of the ruling queen
mother (for example, some queen mothers are concerned about the relative height of
stools, whereas others are not). When a queen mother holds court, attends a family
member’s funeral or presides over an event in her immediate community, she is generally
the only one who sits on a stool and can use any design, size and level of decoration she
chooses.
Nana Birago Ababio, the Mpobihemaa, who is at the level of Abrempon, has a
stool plated with imitation silver, which she uses in her village but not elsewhere. As she
explained to me, “I cannot bring that stool to Otumfuo’s house or Ohemaa’s house. I
cannot take the stool to Mampong, but I sit on it at my own house.”120 The distinction
between stools and local use is very important, Nana Birago Ababio continued,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
119
Nana Braku Yaa I, Asokoremanhemaa, in conversation with the author, 9 July 2012.
120
! 64
…when you are in your town it is different from when you travel somewhere.
Most especially when you are in Manhyia palace or when you are going to see the
Offinsohemaa. If you go there, she has to provide you with a stool – you don’t
have to carry your own stool there, you see. You don’t have to carry your stool to
Mamponghemaa’s house or to Offinsohemaa’s house. You go there and she will
provide a stool for you.121
Although most queen mothers have multiple stools, some of which they use for different
events, most have one “special” stool that is the one they use most often, particularly in
their own communities.
Bodies and Stools
Writing in 1927, Rattray listed numerous taboos applied to a woman of
childbearing age, which I will quote in full to illustrate the scope of their implications:
She may not cook her husband’s or any adult male’s food, but may cook
for her own sex or for children of either sex, but may not herself eat food cooked
in the dwelling-house for any man.
In olden days if a woman entered the ancestral stool house (where the
blackened stools are kept) during her monthly periods she would have been killed
instantly. ‘If this were not done the ghosts of his ancestors would kill the reigning
chief.’ She may not cross the threshold of any man’s house. Even to-day in
Ashanti every ‘bush’ village has its bara dan or bara fieso (bara hut) where
women go and live during the menstrual period. She may not ‘swear an oath’, nor
may an oath be sworn against her. She may not cross certain sacred rivers like the
Tano; even should she become unwell when away from her home for the day, she
may not return home across the river till six days have elapsed. She is not allowed
to reside in certain sacred villages, e.g. Santemanso, near the sacred grove.
The wives of certain craftsmen, e.g. weavers, may not even address their
husbands directly when in this condition, but must do so through the medium of a
spokesman, generally a young child. They must not touch the talking drums. For
most suman (amulets), contact with them is the deadliest taboo. Women who die
in this state may not even be removed from the bara hut and buried until that day
when in the normal course they would have come forward from their seclusion.
They may not sit in court as an arbitrator in any case.122
The Asante consider menstrual blood “unclean” and dangerous to anyone with whom it
might come into contact. Not surprisingly, women subject to such extensive restraints
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
121
122
R.S. Rattray, Religion and Art in Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927): 74-75.
! 65
could not engage actively in the affairs of the state. As Ivor Wilks notes, “there is no
doubt that between menarche and menopause a woman’s life in Asante tended to be
restricted to the concerns of household and family.”123 Although there seems to be
somewhat more flexibility in applying these rules in contemporary contexts, taboos
around menstruation are still in active practice, particularly among high-ranking leaders
of the royal lineages.
Interestingly, queen mothers and other members of Asante courts with whom I
spoke named the taboos around menstruation as the key reason why queen mothers sit on
stools while chiefs or kings sit on asipim chairs. In other words, women’s broader
authority in Stool offices may have been circumscribed by menstrual taboos, but their
relationship with the physical objects themselves was maintained and, even strengthened,
for the very same reasons. As the Offinsohemaa explained to me, “[stools] were made for
women – purposely for women and asipim, for men. Someone who menstruates should
not sit on the asipim. If you sit on it, you won’t have a baby.”124 Similarly, the
Mpobihemaa told me, “they’ve made a rule or a taboo for a woman to sit on asipim. If
you are a woman and you haven’t started giving birth to children and you sit on an asipim
they say you cannot give birth because you’ve made yourself a man already and a man
cannot give birth to children. So women don’t sit on asipim.”125
Nana Brefo-Boateng, the Gyasehene of Gyamase, adds, “with all due respect, we
think that when women are in their menstrual period they are not that pure…so because
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123
Ivor Wilks, Forests of Gold: Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante (Athens: University of
Ohio Press, 1993): 335.
124
125
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of that, you don’t allow them to sit on asipim.”126 Accordingly, post-menopausal queen
mothers may sit on asipim chairs on some occasions if they so choose; however, most
with whom I spoke indicated that they rarely do so and that the appropriate seat to use in
any official capacity as a queen mother is the stool. Although women who are
menstruating can sit on the “white” asese dwa, they cannot come into contact with
blackened stools, as Rattray’s description outlines. This regulation suggests that there is a
significant difference in the ways “white” and “black” stools are conceptualized.
Although the taboos regarding menstruation limit the activities of queen mothers
and may account at least partially for the transition of authority from women to men in
the early years of the Asante nation, it would be an oversimplification to assume that this
means menses is perceived from a singularly negative perspective. In fact, part of what
seems to necessitate the restrictions imposed on women is the belief that menstrual blood
is extremely powerful. As I discussed previously, the matrilineal Asante hold that abusua
members are connected through shared female blood. As such, women are highly valued
in Asante society, particularly for their fecundity, of which menstruation is a vital
symbol. As Nana Brefo Boateng explains,
We are a matrilineal society and the women are very, very, important because the
lineage or the family…the growth of the family depends upon the women. So,
normally, if a child is born the first question the women will ask is, “is it a
female”? If it is a female then everybody is happy because they know that the line
is going to be continued. So, because of that we always give reverence to women.
So that is why women are always important in our chieftaincy matters.127
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
126
Nana Brefo-Boateng, Gyasehene of Gyamase, in conversation with the author, 26 May 2012.
127
Ibid.
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In addition to celebrating women more generally, Asante peoples value queen mothers
especially for their participation in selecting Stool occupants. Nana Brefo-Boateng
continues,
Women are supposed to be our mothers so it is the mother who knows which of
its children will be fit for the stool. So our queen mother, that is who is the head
of all the women in the town or the area, is responsible for electing a chief when a
chief dies or when he is destooled. The queen mother or the head woman of the
family who should select the chief – the reason is that she knows all her children
and she knows which of them can be a proper chief. So the responsibility is purely
hers to select somebody. And after the selection it is up to the kin-makers to
accept or reject that person.128
In these ways, queen mothers are highly esteemed in the configuration of Asante socio-
political life. In many contexts, they are thought to balance men through their
complementary qualities. According to Michelle Gilbert, the queen mother’s “main
attribute is the moral quality of wisdom, knowledge, emotion, compassion, all that
pertains to her as a woman and is not bestowed by male officials.”129 The female puberty
rite, bragoro (“life-dance”) exemplifies these ideas in its celebration of Asante women
and their fertility, which is performed through the ritual enstoolment of initiates as “six-
day queen mothers.”
Bragoro: Female Puberty Rites and the ‘Six Day Queen Mother’130
In Asante there is no puberty rite for boys and there is no evidence that there ever
was one. Traditionally, when Asante girls reach their menses, they engage in a week-long
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
128
129
Michelle Gilbert, “The Cimmerian Darkness of Intrigue, Queen Mothers, Christianity and Truth in
Akuapem History,” Journal of Religion in Africa, vol. 23, iss. 1 (1993): 9.
130
I had the opportunity to observe a rehearsal for a female puberty rite in Offinso in June 2012. The
rehearsal was undertaken in preparation for a massive ceremony (for multiple initiates) that was planned to
take place during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Offinsohemaa in July 2012. Because I viewed a
rehearsal, not all the ritual components were treated in their entirety. Therefore, I have relied heavily on
Sarpong’s detailing of the rites from 1977 and have noted where my observations add to or diverge from
his account.
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series of ceremonies that mark their entry into womanhood called bragoro.131 The queen
mother of a community begins the ritual by declaring her permission for the adolescents
to participate (in some cases, this may require her to inspect the potential initiates for
evidence of menstruation and confirm that they are not pregnant). According to Sarpong,
families often consult a diviner to determine whether or not the deities think it is a good
idea for their daughter to participate in the puberty rituals. If they advise someone not to
join in, only the most essential aspects of the rite are performed on her: the dedication
and the ‘enstoolment.’132 Material goods are crucial to the implementation of different
aspects of the ceremonies and come in large quantities. Families with less access to
financial resources may borrow items from friends and relatives to use in the duration of
the events and return later. Some of the materials used in the course of the rituals include
such things as mats, pillows, umbrellas and stools; others items are presented as gifts to
the young woman for her future life (beads, kente cloths, sewing machines, etc.).133 Once
all the materials are acquired, a date is set and the ceremonies take place.
The first day of the rites is the busiest for the initiates as well as their community.
It begins when the mother wakes her child and sends her for a cold bath while she goes
out to the village to assemble the other women and officially announce the beginning of
the celebrations. After bathing, the girl is ritually enthroned on a stool in the public space
outside her house. The stool used for this ceremony is the same one used by queen
mothers when sitting in state, the “white” stool. Here, “white” refers to the fact that the
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131
In recent years, communities have adapted the length and components of these ceremonies to
accommodate such commitments as attendance at school.
132
Peter Sarpong, Girls Nubility Rites in Ashanti (Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1977): 18. The
fact that the enstoolment is considered essential to the puberty rite reinforces the vital relationship between
womanhood, queen mothers and stools.
133
Ibid. 19.
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stool, which is made from sese wood, is a raw stool, not a blackened ancestral stool.134 If
multiple initiates are going through the rites together, they will use a communal space for
the ‘enstoolment’ and other public activities (see Figure 13).
Figure 13 Young initiates ‘enstooled’ publically as part of bragoro. Nana Darkowaa Ababio II (far left) and
other queen mothers who officiated the event stand behind the girls. The gifts they received are pictured in
front. (Image credit: Nana Sarfo Kantanka, 2006).
As is the case in the enstoolment of chiefs and queen mothers, the initiate is raised
and lowered over the stool three times. Sarpong reports that the ‘enstoolment’ is usually
performed with the assistance of an old woman who ensures that the girl’s “buttocks
make contact with its surface.”135 The girl is dressed in cloths that reveal nothing but her
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
134
In fact, in the rehearsal ceremony I witnessed in June 2012, the initiates used archival stools belonging
to the Offinsohemaa. It is my understanding that for the major ceremony slotted to take place in July, the
young women planned to borrow stools from the Offinsohemaa as well as her subordinate queen mothers,
if necessary (due to large numbers of participants).
135
Peter Sarpong, Girls Nubility Rites in Ashanti (Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation, 1977): 22.
! 70
face and she sits on the stool with a brass basin that contains water, adwira plant leaves,
an egg and dry okro fruit at her side. When revelers approach the young woman, they
throw coins into the basin and the woman sitting with her dips her hand into the basin and
then sprinkles her with water. Sarpong notes that in Kumase, one egg is placed in front of
the girl and one behind. Each time a gift is presented to her, the woman aiding her
switches the position of the eggs. The idea is that the egg at the front absorbs any
malevolent forces that might be contained in the incoming gift. By reversing the positions
of the eggs, they are cleansed and the process can begin again.136
The crowd of onlookers, mostly comprised of women and girls, plays musical
instruments, sings and admires the initiate. Later on, more musical and dance
performances take place that center around celebrating the enstooled adolescent and
sometimes teasing local men who happen upon the scene. During the dancing or at the
same time, the head of the girl’s matrilineage pours a libation to thank the gods and
ancestors for ensuring that their child reached the age of puberty and requests that they
continue to safeguard her through adulthood. Following this important event, visitors
lavish the young woman with gifts she can use in her new life as a woman and/or wife.
Depending on her family’s wealth, the presents may range anywhere from pots and pans
to agricultural land.137
In the course of the events, the young woman’s father plays an important role
during the hair-cutting ceremony.138 He is responsible for shaving her head so that only a
braid remains at the crown. He then offers an amount of money to his daughter to “buy”
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136
137
Ibid. 26-27.
138
As the puberty rite that I witnessed at the Offinsohemaa’s residence in 2012 was only a rehearsal, this
event did not take place. Accordingly, I rely entirely on Sarpong’s account here.
! 71
the braid so that it can be removed. The braid is then kept in a crack in the wall of their
home, where it can be retrieved if the young woman has the misfortune to pass away
when she is travelling a great distance. The braid then becomes a stand-in for her physical
body during mortuary rites.139 An old woman then clips the finger and toe-nails of the girl
before preparing her hair in the closely cropped dansinkran140 style worn by queen
mothers, which includes a thick band of shea-butter mixed with soot that runs along her
hair-line.141 Afterwards, she rubs the initiate’s body with shea butter and replaces her
clothing with a fresh white cloth that leaves her breasts bare as a symbol of impending
motherhood. She is also shrouded with beads and jewelry to amplify her feminine beauty.
Her maternal benevolence is broadcast throughout the rituals by dishes of food that
circulate among the onlookers on her behalf.142
A ritual bath, which usually takes place in a nearby river, follows next in the
sequence of events. The girl is carried to the spot with her retinue following her,
complete with a younger girl who acts as her “royal” stool carrier. As the women parade
toward the water they sing songs (in Twi) with lyrics that translate as
Queen-mother, you are going!

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139
140
Nana Sarfo Kantanka, in conversation with the author, May 2012. Nana Sarfo Kantanka reports that the
term “dansinkran” comes from the English words “dancing crown.” He told me a story in which the British
arrived in Kumase and were captivated by the beautiful dancing women (who they did not realize were
queen mothers) and referred to their characteristic hairstyle as a “dancing crown.” This was adopted into
Twi to become “dansinkran.”
141
Sarpong refers to this hairstyle as “the traditional one of Ashanti adult women” but the queen mothers I
interviewed in 2012 maintain that it is only appropriate for queen mothers to wear it and, in the case of
puberty rites, initiates (temporarily). They claim that wearing the dansinkran hairstyle in public without the
preceding justifications would be tantamount to impersonating a queen mother and would be considered
criminal. It should be noted that merely having a cropped hairstyle is very much a traditional style for all
adult women – it is the highlighting of the hairline with shea butter and soot that is reserved exclusively for
queen mothers.
142
Ibid. 28.
! 72
You have (a good) parent.
You are going!
Mother! Queen-mother!
You are going!143
Once they reach the river, an old woman submerges the initiate three times.
Following this, in Offinso, she is seated again upon the stool and a fresh lime is squeezed
over her head. Food offerings are then made to the river and the stool-carrier washes the
stool in exchange for an egg before taking it back home. A full bath then takes place,
which involves carefully washing each part of the young woman’s body with a
combination of lime juice and soap in a manner that is similar to the bathing rituals
performed on deceased leaders transitioning to the realm of the ancestors. While she
bathes, women shout out from the bank, suggesting which part to wash next and praising
her female body. After the bath, she is once again rubbed with shea butter, hair-styled and
clothed, this time in kente cloth and a fresh white head covering. The women carry the
‘queen mother’ back to her house under an umbrella, where she is seated again on the
stool and surrounded by friends and relatives who observe soberly as she is dedicated to
the Supreme Being, gods and ancestors.144 In the dedication the officiant145 pours palm-
wine on the ground at the end of each line of prayer as she entreats the gods and ancestors
to care for the young woman.
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143
144
Ibid. 31. Note: the initiate does not actually eat the food at this juncture; rather than swallowing it she
spits it into a pot.
145
At the rehearsal of the puberty rites I witnessed at Offinso the Offinsohemaa, Nana Ama Serwah
Nyarko, acted as the officiant.
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Figure 14 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, Offinsohemaa, feeds one of the initiates an egg during the rehearsal
of bragoro I attended at her home on 29 May 2012. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Next, she feeds the girl a series of foodstuffs while reciting an explanation of their
symbolism (ex. as she feeds the girl a pepper the officiant says, “May you never taste
misfortune.”) (see Figure 14).146 This portion of the ritual culminates when she covers the
girl’s head and her own with a white cloth and feeds her an egg, followed by mashed
plantains and palm oil, which the initiate must consume without using her teeth (because
she must not “bite her seed”). Finally, the remaining food is placed in a basin on the
ground and the young woman leads two children (a girl and a boy), who are symbolic of
her future family as well as the forthcoming generations of her lineage, toward it and
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
146
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releases them. As they run for the food the other children race to grab their share. The girl
then officially breaks her day long fast by eating a feast of exquisitely prepared foods.
Once everyone has consumed an ample amount they resume dancing and singing until
the night finishes with a dance by the initiate, who shakes everyone’s hand and exits the
scene.147
Traditionally, initiates spend the six days following the first day of festivities
confined to their homes where they are cared for like queen mothers.148 This means that
they do not engage in anything involving physical exertion and maid-servants (younger
local girls) look after all of their daily needs. The ‘six-day queen mothers’ bathe three
times a day, after which they are oiled with shea butter and draped in gleaming new
cloths. They eat often and only the best foods so that they might become “plump and
attractive” prospective brides and mothers.149 Like queen mothers, the initiates in this
phase may be called on to settle disputes arising among the young girls who attend to
them; in some cases, they will go so far as to dismiss ill-behaving servants. Their other
activities during this time involve telling tales to one another and playing games, both of
which usually revolve around themes of men, husbands and love. Sometimes, boys from
the village will join in games such as ahenahene, wherein male and female participants
select each other as partners and elect themselves to various positions within a traditional
Asante court (king, queen mother, etc).150 These activities continue for five days, after
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
147
148
More recently, this long period of confinement is shortened or modified in various ways to ensure that
initiates do not miss school. This may involve participating in the activities associated with the confinement
during consecutive weekends or abbreviating the rituals to suit a shorter timeframe such as one or two days.
149
150
Ibid. 41.
! 75
which the initiate is ‘destooled’. Her attendants warn her of the impending destoolment
by dancing and singing a song with the refrain
Six-day queen-mother
Tomorrow we are destooling you.151
On the following day, for the first time since the beginning of the festivities, the young
woman appears in public with bare feet (symbolic of her ‘destoolment’) and assists the
young girls with cleanup.152 The day after that she dresses richly again and, accompanied
by her family, travels around the village and surrounding areas expressing her thanks to
all who joined in the merriment.
The celebration of young girls entering womanhood through the enactment of
being a “six-day queen mother” illustrates the crucial links between women, queen
mothers and fertility, as symbolized by the onset of menstruation. The important role of
the sese dwa in these events, particularly in the initiate’s official transition from girl to
woman and presentation to the public, both resonates with and reinforces the fundamental
relationship between women, particularly queen mothers, and stools. The use of the stool
in bragoro rituals, in combination with other factors, suggests that the “white” sese dwa
may even be conceived in some ways as a female body. I will return to this point later on.
Rituals and Stools
The important link between women and stools may encompass even more
complex definitions of the female gender in Asante thought. During the fieldwork I
undertook between 2007 and 2012, queen mothers, chiefs and numerous other members
of royal courts repeatedly told me “men do not sit on stools.” At first, this assertion
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
151
152
Ibid. Queen mothers and chiefs are not allowed to touch their feet or buttocks to the bare ground. If this
occurs, it is synonymous with their destoolment.
! 76
seemingly contradicted the written and photographic “evidence” I had seen that depicted
male office holders sitting on stools in both historical and contemporary contexts.
Admittedly, none of the material with which I was familiar described a chief or king
sitting on a stool; but, in many cases, male members of his retinue sat on stools while in
his service.153 When I pressed the matter further by showing photographs of these men to
various leaders in the Ashanti Region in May and June of 2012, a number of them
responded, “Oh! That is because they are like women!”
On one level, the remarks made by the interviewees may be interpreted as
dismissive: by saying men who sit on stools are “like women” they seemed to imply that
they were “mere servants” to a powerful leader. In the context of this discussion, I was
told that if a young boy were to sit on a stool of the kind used by a queen mother, he
would be admonished and removed from it immediately lest he be deemed a “sissy.”
People would say something like, “What? Are you a woman? Get off!”154 This attitude
seems in line with the sentiments of Nana Birago Ababio, the Mpobihemaa, who, when I
asked why women sit on stools and men sit on asipim, said, “God made man and God
made woman, so, to differentiate men from women, and always, men are on top of
women, so, they designed this asipim for men and this stool for women.”155 To explain
why linguists and other attendants in the service of the Asantehene sit on stools, the
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153
Someone can be a chief in his village but not interpreted as such when serving a higher-ranking official
such as the Asantehene. In such a case he might sit on a stool while serving the king but in his own village
(where he performs a different range of functions and sits differently within the overall hierarchy) he would
sit on an asipim chair.
154
Nana Sarfo Kantanka, in conversation with the author, 25 May 2012.
155
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Mpobihemaa added, “they have to come down before the chief. Even their stools are not
as big as [queen mothers’ stools]. They are very, very small ones.”156
But such an interpretation is not the only lens through which Asante society
frames women and was by no means shared by the majority of queen mothers with whom
I spoke. In fact, Asante peoples continue to uphold and celebrate women for their roles as
progenitors and nurturers in society, as the female puberty rite described above illustrates.
Discussions from the literature addressing akyeame (sing. okyeame), gods, and priests or
priestesses may provide further insight into the relationship between stools and the
female gender, broadly construed.
Frequently translated into English as “linguist,” the okyeame appears in his most
public role as the chief’s (or queen mother’s) orator. Nevertheless, he is responsible for a
very wide range of functions such as advocating judicially, advising the chief, performing
ancestral rites, and maintaining expertise on lineage and local history.157 The okyeame is
one of the most important positions in an Asante court and he leads the chief’s
hierarchically organized retinue. 158 In Rattray’s Religion and Art in Ashanti, written in
1927, he reports that he asked carvers to create a model Asante court for him and
describes the results. In his account he points out that the Asantehene is seated on an
asipim chair and the queen mother and the okyeame are both seated on stools. While
discussing the okyeame figure, he remarks that the chief refers to the okyeame as “eno,”
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
156
157
For a discussion of the okyeame’s responsibilities see Ivor Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century: The
Structure and Evolution of a Political Order (Athens: University of Ohio Press, 1995): 471-474.
158
Each chief or queen mother generally has at least one okyeame but higher-ranking individuals may have
multiple akyeame. In such a case, there will usually be a primary okyeame who is highest in rank. When
Rattray was writing in 1927 he reported that the Asantehene had twelve linguists. Female akyeame exist
(predominantly in queen mothers’ courts) but they are rare.
! 78
which he translates as “mother” (the same term he reports that the community uses to
refer to young women after their puberty rites)159 and the okyeame calls the chief “me
kunu,” which he translates as “my husband” (but does not go into the topic in more
depth).160
Writing in 1995, Kwesi Yankah addressed the topic of akyeame in Speaking for
the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory. He explains that, when he is
appointed, the head okyeame to the chief undergoes rituals that are comparable to
wedding formalities.161 According to Yankah, “an okyeame is traditionally referred to as
the ohene yere, the chief’s wife.”162 The ideas underpinning this designation are “mutual
accessibility between the two functionaries, enjoining mutual loyalty and unanimity in
word and deed.”163 As this description suggests, in many ways, the okyeame is conceived
as the chief’s complement, similar to a queen mother. While the official rites for
installing an okyeame differ slightly depending on the particular group, the process
follows the same cultural guidelines as a marital engagement. Okyeame Kofi Amoakwa
of Agona Nsaba described his selection procedure to Yankah as follows:
It’s just as if the chief has seen a woman he is interested in. He first seeks your
consent, and informs his council of elders of his attention to “marry” you, then
sends a drink through an envoy to your father. The latter in turn presents the drink
to your maternal lineage and informs them about the chief’s intentions. If they
also agree to the proposal, the father sends a positive reply to the chief. After this,
the chief makes final preparations for the marriage. If he is a paramount chief, he
presents Schnapps (gin) drinks and a token cash amount to your father. In the
olden days, items presented included an amoase [undergarment worn by women
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159
160
Ibid. 277. “Eno” also refers more generically to women, elderly women and grandmothers.
161
Kwesi Yankah, Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1995): 89.
162
Ibid.
163
Ibid.
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between the thighs]. Part of the drink, plus the amoase, are given to the okyeame-
to-be, and the cash is distributed to key members of the lineage. A day or so after
this, you are presented to the chief as his “wife,” and in the presence of his elders,
you pay a drink fee to the state drummers and hornblowers, after which it is
announced, “This person, So-and-so, is henceforth the chief’s wife; if you slander
or verbally assault him, the law will deal with you accordingly.164
When a chief passes away, his okyeame participates in bereavement rituals similar to his
royal wives. Although Yankah notes that these practices have been relaxed in some
groups in more recent years (for example, the confinement period may be lessened), at
least among the Agona, the process concludes with the presentation to the okyeame of a
“new cloth, a cock, and a drink, the normal rites in widowhood.”165
Aside from the queen mother, the okyeame is the only member of a chief’s court
who can address him directly while sitting in state. He has unparalleled access to his
private affairs and, like a wife, can receive guests, enter his rooms without special
permissions and exercise discretion about which visitors are suitable for presentation to
the chief.166 One of his most important duties is to perform rituals on the chief’s (or
queen mother’s) behalf in the nkonnwafieso or stool room. These activities underscore
the important link between akyeame and ancestors. As I witnessed when I attended the
Akwasidae ceremonies of the Mantia Stool at Amanfrom, it is often the okyeame who is
responsible for pouring libations to honor the ancestors. This kind of direct relationship
with the ancestors and complementarity to the role of the chief suggests important links
between akyeame and queen mothers. Yankah notes that in rare cases of female
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
164
Okyeame Kofi Amoakwa of Agona Abusua, quoted in Kwesi Yankah, Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame
and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995): 90.
165
Kwesi Yankah, Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1995): 90.
166
Ibid. 90-91.
! 80
chieftaincy, the okyeame is still referred to as a “wife” but he does not specify how the
role of the okyeame is conceived when he or she is serving a queen mother.
It is my understanding that female chiefs (as opposed to queen mothers) are
perceived as being masculine in gender and they use the regalia appropriate to this (male)
station. For example, Nana Brefo-Boateng, the Gyasehene of Gyamase, relayed a story to
me about a woman who, because she was appointed both queen mother and chief at the
same time, wore a chief’s sandal on one foot and a queen mother’s sandal on the other.
When she was sitting in state as chief, she used an asipim, but when acting as a queen
mother, she sat on a sese dwa.167 This kind of gendered association with roles rather than
specific individual’s sex reinforces the idea of male-female balance that seems to play out
in the relationship between the chief and okyeame.
During my interviews with Asante queen mothers I did not encounter any female
okyeame so I cannot comment on their seating prescriptions but it is worth noting that the
male akyeame I met in queen mothers’ courts sit on asipim. For example, Nana Gyama
Pensan II, the Aboasohemaa, explained to me that in her palace, men, including akyeame,
never sit on asese dwa. She keeps asipim there specifically for seating male visitors. Even
men who are not officials in her court or elsewhere sit on asipim in her presence,
although they are basic in design (non-royal men are invited to sit on a standard wooden
asipim with a hide covered seat but no additional decorative elements).168 This raises
questions about whether the role of the okyeame is constituted differently in the service of
a queen mother. Because a queen mother is conceived on many levels as the ultimate
symbol of feminine capacities and powers, is her okyeame thereby considered from a
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167
168
Nana Gyama Pensann II, Aboasohemaa, in conversation with the author, 7 June 2012.
! 81
masculine vantage point? These questions, which, unfortunately, I was unable to pursue
in more depth during the course of my fieldwork, warrant further investigation.
The relationship between the female gender, stools and performance may also
play out in the realm of Asante gods. As I discuss in more detail in the Introduction, the
Asante pantheon is a complex and multi-tiered hierarchy with Nyame, the Supreme
Being, at the top. Pashington Obeng explains, “certain aspects of the hierarchical
structure of the Asante society seem to provide a prototype for the framework of their
religion.”169 In other words, things like complementary gender roles and signaling status
levels through regalia, which are crucial to the socio-political hierarchy, have parallels in
the spiritual realm. For the purposes of this discussion I am most interested in parallels
that relate to gender and seating: since some gods are perceived as female and others as
male, it makes sense that directions regarding seats of authority are applied here as well.
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko (Offinsohemaa) first introduced me to this idea with regard to
the female god of the Ofe River.
According to the Offinsohemaa, when a male priest is taken over by a female god
he dons a woman’s cloth and sits on a stool. She maintains that if a god who is male
inhabits him or her, his priest or priestess will sit on an asipim chair. In the course of our
discussion, she relayed the following story to me to establish her point,
There was a day that I went to Ofe [River] and…I told ɔfe, “I am going to see
your husband. I want you to meet me there!” So then I got to the skirt of the town
and [the priest] went in the shrine and when he came back he dressed like Ofe. So
I told him, when did he dress like this? He said, “as soon as he saw you,” so I told
him I had gone to see Ofe. I told the river that I am going to see your husband.
There’s another river, which is a man. So I told her, “I’m going to see your
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
169
Pashington Obeng, “Asante Catholicism: Ritual Communication of the Catholic Faith among the Akan
of Ghana,” PhD Dissertation, Boston University, 1991. 45.
! 82
husband so I want you to meet me there.” As soon as I got there, the priest [at that
river] changed into Ofe.170
She further explained to me that in addition to wearing a woman’s cloth, the priest as Ofe
[a female river god] sat on a stool. After the Offinsohemaa visited with the priest, to
express her thanks, she sent him a cloth similar to the one that she wears. He now puts on
this cloth each time he embodies Ofe.171 The Offinsohemaa’s claim that a priest or
priestess personifying a male god would dress and behave in a masculine manner is
supported by Pashington Obeng’s observations about Asuo Abena, a male river deity at
Juaben. According to Obeng, although the custodian of the shrine is a seventy-year-old
woman, she keeps her hair trimmed in the male style and wears her cloth loosely around
the shoulder as men do.172
Similarly, a description included in T.C. McCaskie’s discussion of the present-
day Medoma shrine in Kumase emphasizes the importance of dressing to suit the spirits.
McCaskie reports, “when a spirit ‘mounted’ (akom) him, [the priest] sniffed at it to make
sure which one it was before putting on the garb appropriate to it. Each spirit had its own
special dress.”173 Although these additional sources do not pay special attention to
seating, the Offinsohemaa’s assertions regarding stools and asipim are consistent with
their emphasis on the crucial relationship between gods, gender and clothing.
Two photographs taken by R.S. Rattray at the palace of the Asantehene in the
1920s suggest that, at least as early as that period, abosom were required to sit on
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
170
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, in conversation with the author, 29 May 2012.
171
Ibid.
172
Pashington Obeng, “Asante Catholicism: Ritual Communication of the Catholic Faith among the Akan
of Ghana,” PhD Dissertation, Boston University, 1991. 109.
173
T.C. McCaskie, “Akwantemfi – ‘In Mid-Journey’: An Asante Shrine Today and Its Clients,” Journal of
Religion in Africa, vol. 38 (2008): 60.
! 83
particular types of seats (see Figure 15). In the images, the shrines of deities rest on
various asese dwa and asipim. The caption for both photos reads, “All the abosom and
their priests assembled in the Gyase Kesie, when the gods took this oath to the chief
through the mouths of their priests…[after which] the shrines of the gods were each set
upon his stool and the chief passed among them.”174 Without further information it is
difficult to confirm that gender was the primary reason for the specific seating
arrangements pictured but, based on the preceding discussion, it seems very likely. At the
very least, the photographs suggest that particular types of chairs/stools were required for
distinct abosom.
Figure 15 “All the abosom and their priests assembled in the Gyase Kesie, when the gods took this oath to
the chief through the mouths of their priests…[after which] the shrines of the gods were each set upon his
stool and the chief passed among them,” photograph by R.S. Rattray, c. 1921-32. (Pitt Rivers Museum,
1998.312.524.1)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
174
Pitt Rivers Museum, photograph numbers 1998.312.524.1 and 1998.312.525.1.
! 84
There also seems to be a sense in which the gendered nature of stools has been
translated into contemporary Anglican and Catholic religious practices in the Ashanti
Region. As I discuss in Chapter Three, many of these churches adopted stool-shaped
altars in the latter half of the twentieth century. On one level, the integration of the stool
as altar was explained to me by various individuals, including Rt. Rev. Edmund Kojoe
Yeboah (Bishop of St. Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kumase, 1985-1998), as symbolic of Christ
being the “King of kings.”175 As the ultimate chief, Christ should have a stool as his
symbol. However, my discussions with other members of Asante royal lineages,
especially, Nana Brefo-Boateng, the Gyasehene of Gyamase, suggest that there are
multiple levels on which the link between Christ and the stool can be understood.
When I asked Nana Brefo-Boateng about the significance of the integration of
stools as altars into the Anglican and Catholic churches, he agreed that, “it is because we
know that God is the supreme king or chief…so since the stool is our symbol of
authority, a supreme being who is more powerful, it should also represent his
authority.”176 But at the same time, when I subsequently framed my question in terms of
asking about whether the altars in these churches are a representation of God’s body, he
concurred and added that, “that’s why you see that most of the altars are also shaped in
the stool form. Yes, yes. You see, with us it’s very interesting - sometimes we call God a
man and sometimes we call God a woman.”177 In making the connection between the
idea of the stool as the body of God, and in that context, God being a woman, he further
explained, “well, it’s the woman who knows how to take care of her children, how to
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
175
Rt. Rev. Edmund K. Yeboah, Bishop of Kumase 1985-1998, in conversation with the author, November
2009.
176
177
Ibid.
! 85
feed the children, so that when you want something from God you say, ‘the good mother,
I want this…’.”178 Here, again, appears the idea that stools may be symbolic of chiefs in
some ways but, simultaneously, the act of sitting on a stool, and the idea of the stool as a
body, are intimately linked with notions of women and queen motherhood.
Structure: The Stool as (female) Body
In her PhD dissertation on Asante stools, Sharon Patton documented the
anthropomorphic terminology carvers use to refer to asese dwa. As she explains, the
names assigned to different parts of stools “denote structural analogies between the stool
and the human body.”179 Specifically, carvers call the top of the seat anim (face), the
bottom is the etikuro (back of the head), the rounded knobs on the underside of the seat
are etiko puaa (braids of hair), the middle section of the stool is called mfinimfini (the
trunk of the body), and the top of the base is referred to as ahweaabo (testicles or stone).
Stools that do not have tokuro (holes cut into the surface of the seat) are called akonnwa
mum, “dumb stool.”180 In addition to these anthropomorphic titles, Patton listed other
language used by the carvers that made reference to architectural forms, such as the word
denoting the “plaques resting on the base of the stool or upon the stool supports,”
aban.181 Aban means “fortress or enclosure” and describes the fences built up around
Asante traditional structures for protection. When I spoke with carvers at Ahwiaa (the
village in the Ashanti Region where they are centralized) in 2012, they offered the same
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
178
179
180
Ibid. 65.
181
Ibid. 66.
! 86
range of expressions to name the various parts of a conventional stool that Patton
documented in the 1970s.
While the carvers at Ahwiaa have an extensive and complicated vocabulary with
which they refer to stools and their components, the majority of queen mothers and their
affiliates with whom I spoke were not familiar with and/or did not make regular use of
these same terms. However, my discussions with them regarding stools and their various
meanings and uses gave me the impression that the carvers’ terminology, in its diversity
and complexity, makes reference (simultaneously) to multiple levels on which stools can
be conceived. For example, perhaps the most obvious reason for the use of
anthropomorphic terminology to describe various stool components is the ritual
blackening of stools after an important leader’s death.
As discussed in the Introduction, the stool that had the most intimate contact with
its owner (traditionally the bathing stool) is blackened and placed in the stool room of the
lineage upon his or her death. It then becomes the repository for the leader’s ancestral
spirit, who has the ability to intervene in the daily lives of his or her family members. The
stool itself is not the ancestor; rather, it is a temporary dwelling place that allows
individuals to continue to communicate with him or her. In this sense, it is a kind of
“body” that the ancestor and family members can use to connect with one another. In this
context the use of the differently gendered terms “ahweaabo” (testicles) and “etiko
puaa,” (“atiko pua”) which Rattray reports was used to describe the hairstyle of queen
mothers during the early twentieth century, can be understood as a layered description of
the stool as representing male ancestors in some cases and female ancestors in others.182
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
182
! 87
The relationship between a leader and his or her stool as body is evidenced in the
common saying “a great stool has fallen” to refer to the passing of a chief or queen
mother.
Although the link between blackened stools and anthropomorphic terminology is
certainly an important one, I believe that it is just one of the ways that the association
between asese dwa and the human body is conceived by the Asante peoples. In particular,
the sese dwa seems to be conceptualized in certain contexts as the queen mother’s body.
Here, the use of the term “etiko puaa” as a reference to the hairstyle worn by historic
queen mothers may take on additional significance. When I met with Nana Birago
Kokodurfo (Adumasahemaa, on the stool since 1928) and her family and court members,
together they explained to me that the ritual enstoolment of chiefs and queen mothers is,
on some level, a rebirth. According to the group, there is a sense in which the stool used
during enstoolment is the (queen) mother, who gives birth to the leader in his or her new
role.
With reference to enstoolment of chiefs, they drew parallels with the puberty rites
for young women, saying “it’s like you are born… a woman bore you therefore you sit
three times and after you sit three times the third time you become yourself as a man. It’s
like the women - they do the same thing when the young girl is ready to become a
woman. They sit you on the stool like this, too, in public.”183 The role of the sese dwa in
the moment of transition from man to chief and from young girl to woman is presented as
pivotal because of its association with the queen mother. Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
183
Nana Birago Kokodurfo, Adumasahemaa, and family/court members, in conversation with the author,
15 June 2012. Members of the discussion included: Okyeame Attakyei, Okyeame Ekoba Gyase, Osei Tutu
(son), Akosua Achiba (witness), Mrs. Margaret Adu-Poku, (daughter), Mrs. Rita Paintsil (grandchild),
Elizabeth Paul Hutchison (niece), Gordon Amoah (grandchild), Mrs. Gladys Opokuware (daughter), Nana
Kyei Benkum (sub-chief), Alex Bekoe (sibling to the chief).
! 88
niece of the Adumasahemaa, added another layer to the discussion by explaining that
some chiefs sit three times on a “white” sese dwa before approaching the ancestors in the
stool house as a way of identifying themselves with the queen mother. By sitting on the
stool, they show their relationship with the woman (and related women of the lineage)
who gave them the right to rule and accordingly, the privilege to approach the ancestors.
As she explains, “the queen mother is the mother of the chief; therefore, you will sit on
your mother’s lap.”184
The idea of the stool as a symbol of the queen mother and links with procreation
was communicated to me by a number of the Asante leaders with whom I spoke. Many
individuals framed the relationship with particular attention to the close connection
between queen mothers and ancestors. Nana Afia Serwaa, the Aputuogyahemaa,
commented that although it is always the men’s role to pour libations for ancestors,
…it is the women who make sure that the ancestors are fed. They prepare food for
the chiefs to feed the ancestors, they make sure that there is water, everything that
is needed at the stools room, at the very end of it, they gave birth to the ancestors,
it is not the men. The men’s children are out so once they give birth to the
ancestors of the lineage that will become the next chief and the next queen
mothers. They have the direct line.185
This emphasis on the matrilineage was also expressed when I enquired about the form of
the sese dwa and, specifically, the mmaa dwa or ahenanan stool design, which Nana
Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, told me is the oldest stool design, along with
the kotoko dwa (both of which I discuss in more length in Chapter Three).186 Nana
Gyama Pensan II and Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, who have been on the stool for 15
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
184
Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, niece of Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurfo, in conversation with the author, 15
June 2012.
185
186
! 89
and 84 years, respectively, both told me that the central pillar of the mmaa dwa design
symbolizes the queen mother, who is surrounded by her community (symbolized by the
four corner columns). As Nana Yaa Birago Kokoduro’s niece, Elizabeth Hutchison,
explained in more detail, “the four legs make the stool firm. And so she’s the mother, she
has to be firm. With the Akans, everything is about your mother. Not our father. So we
cherish our mothers more than our fathers. Therefore the queen mother has to be
protected. She has to be surrounded by the family.”187
The Architecture of Stools
The same kinds of arguments put forward to explain the shape of the mmaa dwa
as a body came into play when I asked about traditional Asante architecture. I found that
the ways that architecture, stools and queen mothers were portrayed intersected and
echoed one another in fascinating ways. Nana Adwoa Agyeiwa II, the New Bomfahemaa
described the four-part plan of conventional Asante homes and palaces by explaining that
they were based around the idea of a woman (or, in the case of a palace, a queen mother)
being surrounded by her family. Similarly, Elizabeth Hutchison told me, “if you are a
man you can get married to another woman from a different family. So what you do, you
go there. But if you come to one of the queen mothers or the woman of the house, her
children stay in the house…so she’s like a pillar!”188 In other words, the matrilineal
character of Asante means that the woman is the center of the home and her family
members surround her, both literally and figuratively. The queen mother is the center of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
187
Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, niece of Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurfo, in conversation with the author, 15
June 2012.
188
Ibid.
! 90
her palace and her community. According to Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurfo and others,
both stools and traditional architecture demonstrate this relationship.
Figure 16 Interior of newly built palace for the Mantia Stool that draws on the traditional form of an open
courtyard surrounded by open and closed front rooms. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Although many Asante peoples now live in private residences that, especially
among the wealthy, resemble the multi-storied homes popular in North America and
elsewhere, the majority of palaces I visited still conform on some level to the four-part
plan of traditional Asante architecture (see Figure 16). They are not exact replicas of
traditional architecture but they continue to make use of the central courtyard surrounded
by both open and closed rooms that is a distinguishing feature of historical forms. Several
of the queen mothers I visited, particularly those in more rural areas, also make their
homes in dwellings that draw on this conventional design. However, most are now made
from cement bricks and plaster rather than wattle and daub.
! 91
Figure 17 Basic four-part plan of traditional Asante architecture.
(Credit: Swithenbank, Ashanti Fetish Houses, 1969, p. 3)
The traditional architecture of the Asante was based on a common underlying
structure for individuals at all levels of society. The same four-part plan was used to build
shrine houses for gods, official meeting places, family homes, and the residence of the
Asantehene (see Figure 17). The design involved four rectangular, single-room buildings
that were set around an open courtyard.189 The corners of the buildings were joined with
the assistance of a splayed screen wall that could be manipulated for size and angle as
necessary. In most cases, three of the buildings had open fronts that were exposed to the
central courtyard. These buildings were called adampan.190 The fourth building was at
least partially closed off by a door and windows, or an openwork screen that allowed for
better ventilation. On the external walls there were no other openings, except in a few
cases where a small exit was located at the rear of the building. Each unit sat on a red
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
189
190
M.D. McLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, Ltd., 1981): 32.
! 92
clay platform that was raised about 3 feet from the ground. To enter, one had to ascend a
set of steps that usually numbered around 3, but could vary.191 The upper register of the
structure was always painted white, and its base was always red. This color scheme has
been maintained in many contemporary cement buildings.
To construct the basic Asante architectural unit, craftsmen would set out a
framework of timber posts around the perimeter of the clay platform. Bamboo or cane
was then woven horizontally through these posts to link them and provide stability. A
mixture of muddled clay was plastered onto the framework and the result was a sturdy
wall of about ten inches in thickness.192 Smoothing liquid clay over it several times
finished the surface. Roofs were designed for the buildings by sewing palm leaves in an
overlapping pattern and attaching them to a bamboo grid. With the support of beams,
these frameworks were secured into place, often creating very steeply pitched roofs. The
openwork screens that covered the fronts of some rooms were of two main types: straight
and curved. Straight designs were created using timber cores that were covered with clay,
while curved shapes, also covered with clay, were made by bending flexible babadua
cane.193 The designs added to the faces of buildings also came in two forms. The lower
section of the building was decorated by building up layers of red clay, most commonly
into a variety of spiraling motifs. The upper register generally included a range of
geometric designs that were created by manipulating narrow strips of cane. After the cane
was bended into place and attached to the building front, a layer of clay was smoothed
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
191
192
Ibid.
193
Ibid. 4-6.
! 93
over its edges. Once completed, the entire upper section of the building was covered in a
wash of white clay known as hyire.194
T.E. Bowdich compiled the most extensive record of this style of construction in
his description of the palace complex at Kumase in 1817. Unfortunately, the British
subsequently destroyed these structures in 1874 but Bowdich’s illustrations and
discussion offer an opportunity to explore the character of traditional Asante architecture
in some depth. By the early nineteenth century, Kumase was established as a major
trading and government center. The layout of the city, which was located on a hill that
overlooked the Subin River, reflected its increasing urbanity. In 1817, it had at least 27
major streets and covered an area that was nearly 4 miles in circumference.195 The city
was organized into quarters, or abrono, and the court servants responsible for certain
tasks took up residence according to their occupation. For example, Blacksmiths lived
and worked in the northeast section of the capital.196
Every street was named and had a superior captain who was in charge of its
maintenance and security; some of these streets were as wide as 100 meters. The palace
complex was located at the center of the city’s two main avenues and was reported to
cover an area of nearly 2 hectares in 1840.197 According to Bowdich, the front of the
palace was surrounded by a wall, which acted as a kind of entranceway. It was around
200 meters long and was lined with adampan used by the king’s servants. As one came
closer to the palace, the fronts of buildings became more and more elaborately decorated
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
194
195
T. Edward Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, with a Statistical Account of that
Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, 1819):
323.
196
Ibid.
197
M.D. McLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, 1981): 46.
! 94
and the individuals occupying the rooms increased in importance. At the end of the
passageway, visitors arrived in the Great Court or Pramakeseso, where officials met with
the Asantehene to decide on important matters related to state business. When Bowdich
observed the court in 1817, it measured around 35 x 15 meters.
After leaving the court, one was confronted by a series of courtyards, around
which the traditional 4-part building plans took shape. The residences of the highest-
ranking officials were located in the most interior part of the complex, along with the
bedroom of the Asantehene, and these were the most extensively decorated. Living
quarters for the King’s wives were located at the back of the palace, close to the bathing
facilities, menstruation houses, and latrines. Bowdich reported that the women’s
residences were among the most highly ornamented in the palace complex.198 Not only
were the royal residences more decorative than those of the lower-ranking members of
society, the buildings used to form the basic 4-part plan were significantly larger in size.
In 1848, W. Winniet observed that, “the apartments of the Royal premises are of the same
order and style as those of the native dwellings… but the Royal apartments are of much
larger dimensions than those of the people.”199 The settlement plan and architecture of
Kumase were replicated in nearly every other town and village in the Asante Kingdom.
Tarikhu Farrar reports that the plan on which Kumase was based “is virtually universal
for the Asante and Bono peoples, who together constitute about three-fifths of the Akan
population.”200
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
198
304-309.
199
Quoted in M.D. McLeod, The Asante (London: British Museum Publications, 1981): 46.
200
Tarikhu Farrar, Building Technology and Settlement Planning in a West African Town: Precolonial
Akan Cities and Towns (Lewiston, NY: Mellen University Press, 1996): 63.
! 95
Many of the contemporary queen mothers and their affiliates with whom I spoke
told me that traditional Asante architecture is subject to the same hierarchical design rules
as stools (although architecture’s permanency and public character means that their
application is less relativistic and dynamic than stool rules, which I discuss in more depth
in Chapter Three). When I asked about the decoration of traditional architecture, Nana
Akosua Abrafi explained to me that, like stools, the designs on buildings are a means of
identification and communication of status. She further compared the adornment of
homes and palaces to the symbols found on regalia, saying, “you are in the durbar.
You’ve come late and you want to see where your chief is – you don’t ask, you look up!
At the top of the umbrellas you see the design that belongs to your chief and you go
there.”201 Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, the District Cultural Officer of the Bosomtwe District
Assembly, added, “I am from a different place, madam is from a different place, Nana is
from a different place and we are all getting together at Manhyia palace. There is a big
durbar, Akwasidae festival… When I go, the minute I see the symbol of my chief’s
umbrella. I don’t ask anybody, I meander my way through and I go and stand behind my
chief and that will identify through the symbol of my chief’s umbrella. Architecture is the
same.”202 In other words, the decorative features of traditional buildings made the identity
of their occupants clear.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
201
Nana Akosua Abrafi II, Sewuahemaa, in conversation with the author, 4 June 2012.
202
Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, District Cultural Officer for the Bosomtwe District Assembly, in conversation
! 96
Case Study: King’s Bedroom illustrated by Bowdich in 1817
Figure 18 “The King’s Sleeping Room,” illustrated by T.E. Bowdich.

(Credit: T.E. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, no. 10, bet. 308-309)
The parallels between the hierarchical designs used on Asante stools (and other
regalia, such as umbrellas) and conventional buildings in historic contexts are best
evidenced by Bowdich’s illustrations of the Asantehene’s “Sleeping Room” (see Figure
18). The comments that accompanied Bowdich’s sketch were as follows:
No. 10, is the exterior of the King’s bed room, being one side of an inner area,
about 30 feet square. The stunted silk-cotton and the manchineal tree are fetish or
sacred, as are the white and red rags at the top of the pole, and the small brass
cups supported by the forked sticks. The colored bags hanging over the round
doors (the chequering of which is in relief,) contain Moorish charms. The carving
of the left hand window is cased in silver, of the right hand, in gold. The two men
are playing at Worra.203
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
203
308.
! 97
Although Bowdich provided a few useful pieces of information, the account is primarily
descriptive and lacks a comprehensive discussion of how the structure and forms
functioned within broader Asante.
The integration of symbolism found on stools and other regalia is evident in the
designs featured on the walls of the king’s bedroom. For example, in the bottom left-hand
section of the upper register there is a single “X” figure located between two undulating
lines. The only other place that a single “X” is depicted in Bowdich’s drawings of the
Asantehene’s palace is in one of the most elaborately decorated piazzas. The highly
decorative nature of this piazza suggests that it was probably part of the inner palace
complex that was reserved primarily for the use of the Asantehene. Thus, it seems that a
single “X” motif on buildings may have been solely the prerogative of the King. This
proposition is supported by the rules regarding stool ownership outlined by Rattray. In
1927, he listed two stools, both with a single straight-lined “X” design that he said could
only be owned by the Asantehene and his personal stool carrier. (Note: another stool that
he claimed was available to both men and women had a slightly more stylized version of
an “X” motif, but this design was curved and the name of the stool, the “Moon Stool”,
indicates that it referenced two half-moon shapes placed back to back, and was not an
“X” in the strict sense. This paired half-moon shape is also found on many stools as a
smaller incised design, but in no other examples is a single straight-lined “X” found).
Another example from Bowdich’s illustrations reinforces the suggestion that
status symbols on stools were also found in architectural spaces. In the bottom right-hand
panel between the two entrances to the Asantehene’s bedroom there is an additional motif
that may also have been reserved for use by the King. The design is similar to the shape
! 98
of a violin, with rounded ends and a semi-circular indent on either side of its middle. This
design is also included in the elaborately decorated piazza mentioned above, but not in
any of the other sections of the palace depicted by Bowdich. The same motif is etched
into the metalwork of a stool purported to have belonged to the Asantehene Kofi Karikari
(see Figure 19).
Figure 19 Asante stool in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art bearing the “violin” motif in
its metalwork. (Image credit: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Object ID 65-5)
The stool, which is now in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City, Missouri, bears a plaque that reads: “King Koffee’s State Chair from his
Palace at Comassie brought home by Arthur Paget Feb 1873.”204 The elaborate décor of
the stool, with its metal plating and intricately carved designs, indicates that the stool
could very well have belonged to an Asantehene. Furthermore, the motif does not appear
on stools belonging to lower-ranking individuals I viewed in Ghana, in European and

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
204
Herbert M. Cole and Doran H. Ross, The Arts of Ghana (Los Angeles, CA: Museum of Cultural
History, University of California, 1977): 138.
! 99
North American museum collections, or in any of the existing literature. Based on this
information, it seems reasonable to suggest that the “violin” motif may have been
reserved for use by the Asantehene in both stools and architecture. Unfortunately, no
documentation exists on the “X” and the “violin” symbols that may offer more
information on their significance.
The curvilinear design situated between the two sets of stairs on the bottom
register of the King’s bedroom is also worthy of comment within this discussion of
hierarchical motifs. While there are fluid or curving designs on the lower section of
several of the palace buildings depicted by Bowdich, this particular motif only appears in
the Asantehene’s room. Remarkably, it is found on one other example of traditional
Asante architecture that was located outside the royal complex (that is illustrated and/or
discussed in the available literature). In 1969, Swithenbank undertook a comprehensive
study of nine shrine houses that escaped demolition by the British in the late nineteenth
century.205 Among these buildings was the temple at Bawjwiasi that housed the shrine of
Tano Odomankoma, one of the sons of the River God Tano (see Figure 20). On the
bottom right-hand register of the kitchen section of the shrine house the same curvilinear
motif is included. It is possible that this design could be some kind of stylized depiction
of Odomankoma.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
205
Michael Swithenbank, Ashanti Fetish Houses (Accra: Ghana Universities Press, 1969).
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Figure 20 Ceremonial cooking area at the Bawjwiasi shrine that shares a design similar to the one found in
the sleeping room of the Asantehene.
(Credit: Swithenbank, Ashanti Fetish Houses, 1969, p. 18)
Swithenbank does not make any mention of the meaning of the specific motif in
the context of the shrinehouse; however, it is interesting to note that Tano Odomankoma
was a God with national, rather than only local, significance.206 According to
Swithenbank, the spirit was often carried into battles to provide protection and military
strength. The presence of the curvilinear design in the Asantehene’s bedroom could have
served a similar purpose. Nana Akosua Abrafi II, the Sewuahemaa mentioned to me that
militaristic considerations play into the composition of the Asantehene’s palace. As she
explained, “when he sits in state with his elders almost everyday the chamber that faces
the main entrance is where they sit so that if anybody is coming from outside they can
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
206
! 101
just notice and see quickly – they can take defensive action.”207 It may be that the
curvilinear motif found at Bawjwiasi and in the King’s bedroom is a depiction of
Odomankoma, which provides protection and reflects the Asantehene’s military prowess.
While the specific curvilinear motif in the king’s bedroom may have a
relationship with Odomankoma, it is interesting to note that Bowdich’s illustrations also
imply that the fluid designs visible on the bottom section of the Asantehene’s Sleeping
Room may also be indicators of status more generally as they do not appear in the
dwellings of the lower-ranking individuals. In Chapter Three, I address the addition of
prestigious “consecration marks” to the underside of stools that are destined for the court
of the Asantehene and Asantehemaa. While the immediately visible parts of nearly all
conventional Asante stools are symmetrical along a vertical axis and are carved using
static geometric design motifs, “consecration marks,” in contrast to rest of the stool form,
are fluid or curvilinear. It is possible that the apposition of fluid and static motifs in
Asante architecture functions in a similar way to those on stools.
In addition to the hierarchical symbolism found on various Asante regalia that
relates to identification, the structure of the stool itself is very architectural; particularly
the mmaa dwa (or “woman’s stool”) which Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief
Carver, described as one of the oldest designs in existence.208 Its cylindrical central
support with a “checkerboard” pattern and four support pillars on each corner have
striking parallels with conventional buildings; especially, the sleeping quarters of the
Asantehene sketched by Bowdich (see Figure 21). Firstly, the same “checkerboard” motif
carved into the columnar mmaa dwa support appears on the ovular entranceway to the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
207
208
! 102
king’s chamber and images of other parts of the palace complex, taken at different points
during the nineteenth century, reveal that the same design was used on almost all doors
that led into private spaces.
Figure 21 Visual parallels between traditional architecture and mmaa dwa design of Asante stools. (Image
credit: Catherine Hale)
Secondly, every conventional Asante stool includes a series of “steps,” called etuo
abo, on the left and right-hand sides of the base that ascend toward the raised platform
where the central support is located. These steps have no functional value, yet appear in
the same place and in the same style on all asese dwa. The consistency of their
appearance suggests that they may have some kind of larger significance that goes
beyond mere decoration. Notably, when viewed end-on, the steps leading to the
“checkerboard” support of the mmaa dwa are a visual equivalent to the entrance of the
Asantehene’s bedroom depicted by Bowdich. The circular shape of the doorways further
reinforces the comparison between the two structures because it implies the cylindrical
form of the stool support.
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Figure 22 Visual parallels between the fihankra symbol and an elaborately carved stool seat. (Image credit:
Catherine Hale)
The adinkra symbol fihankra adds another dimension to this connection between
stools and traditional architecture. The symbol, which is intended as an abstract birds-eye
view of the 4-part Asante structural unit, means “security” and, as Adolph Hilary Agbo
explains, “fie refers to the ‘home or house,’ hankra also refers to a ‘compound or
courtyard.’ Fihankra therefore means a ‘compound or courtyard house…[which] is
typical of Akan architecture.”209 The shape of the fihankra symbol has remarkable formal
similarities with the shape of seats on the most elaborately carved stools. While most
conventional stools have a basic rectangular shaped seat that curves upward at its outside
edges, Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, reports that when carvers are in a
position to create a very carefully rendered stool, they will often shape it so that there are
extended areas of wood on the front and back of the seat. These added details visually
replicate the fihankra symbol as Figure 22 illustrates. The formal parallels just discussed
suggest that the configuration of the stool may have been intended to simulate traditional
Asante architecture or vice versa. Such an association would provide an explanation for
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
209
Adolph Hilary Agbo, Values of Adinkra and Agama Symbols (Kumase: Bigshy Designs and
Publications, 2006): 29.
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the carvers at Ahwiaa’s use of architectural terminology to refer to certain stool
components, such as aban.
This link between sese dwa and traditional Asante architecture implies that
conventional building structures are also conceived in some ways as “bodies” among the
Asante peoples. To begin with, the juxtaposition of static and dynamic elements in both
architecture and stools may communicate some of the core concepts of Asante cosmology
and personhood. George Preston explains that, “perhaps the most charged element in the
traditional Akan political system is kra, an intangible spiritual continuity comprised of
the souls and moral presence of the heroic royal ancestors, and the moral fibre of the
living rulers which are melded into the collective spirit of the body politic and the
generations to be born.”210 The kra is a kind of “lifeforce” that originated with Nyame
(the Supreme Being) and is passed by women through succeeding generations of a given
lineage.211 The ntoro, on the other hand, is the more fixed aspect of an individual that
comes from the father.
In this context, it is worth noting that the bottom or dynamic register is red while
the upper or static register is white. Philip F. W. Bartle has explained that for the Akan,
“colour symbolism consists of white and red for the respective male-female, corpus-
spiritual, blood-semen categories.”212 While personhood is a balance of male and female
qualities, so is governance. Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng argue that
“good leadership combined ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ qualities: reason balanced bravery,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
210
George Preston, “Dynamic/Static,” African Art as Philosophy, ed. Douglas Fraser (New York:
Interbook, 1974): 54.
211
Sam K. Akesson, "The Akan Concept of the Soul," African Affairs 64, no. 257 (Oct 1965): 281; Taylor,
19.
212
Philip F. W. Bartle, “Forty Days: The Akan Calendar,” Africa: Journal of the International African
Institute, vol. 48, no. 1 (1978): 81.
! 105
compassion balanced inflexibility.”213 From this perspective, it is possible that the fluid
and dynamic designs depicted in red clay on the building’s bases, paired with the static,
rectilinear motifs presented in white on the upper registers, were intended to reflect the
balance of female-male power that pervades Asante social and spiritual thought and
reflects the composition of personhood (kra and ntoro) that I outlined previously.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
213
Emmanuel Akyeampong and Pashington Obeng, “Spirituality, Gender and Power in Asante History,”
The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 28, no. 3 (1995): 490.
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Chapter 3
The Primacy of Archives
! 107
Collecting Histories
In the last three decades, curators and scholars have begun to emphasize the
importance of studying the history of collections as an essential step toward identifying
the nature of the assumptions and values that they embody.214 This impulse is part of a
wider recognition that Western museum collections are more representative of the tastes
of particular individuals than they are comprehensive pictures of the cultures whose
objects they contain. This is especially true of African collections. Christopher Steiner
has argued that “perhaps more so than in any other field in the world of art, collectors
have dominated the formation of taste and construction of aesthetic value in the study and
exhibition of African art.”215 He suggests that where scholarship has directed the
development of other art genres, and in turn sparked public desire, collectors have led
institutions dealing with African art to their subject.216 The result of this system is that the
aesthetic discriminations of a particular collector or set of collectors determine the scope
of objects available to represent “African art” at a given institution. Susan Vogel has
added to this assessment, explaining that what has come to be understood as “African art”
in the West is only a small segment of the range of artistic objects created by the different
peoples of the African continent.217
Not only are collections of African material culture limited in scope, but their
composition, documentation, and display often reveals more about the predilections of
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
214
Susan M. Pearce, ed., Interpreting Objects and Collections, (London; New York: Routledge, 1994):
194.
215
Christopher B. Steiner, “The Taste of Angels in the Art of Darkness: Fashioning the Canon of African
Art,” in Art History and its Institutions: Foundations of a Discipline, ed. Elizabeth Mansfield, 132-145.
(London; New York: Routledge, 2002): 133.
216
Ibid. 132-145.
217
Susan Mullin Vogel, ed., The Art of Collecting African Art (New York: The Center for African Art,
1988): 4.
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collectors than it does about the cultures in question. A number of European and North
American museums have significant quantities of Asante stools. Regardless, most of the
studies I encountered of these objects went into significant detail about the position of the
stool in its “original” cultural context, but did not acknowledge or address its presence in
Western institutions. The studies’ descriptions and explanations of Asante stools focus
primarily on men and draw heavily on equations with symbols and ideas from the British
monarchical system; yet, discussion of Europeans and their role as collectors of these
items is limited to quotations from observers that support evidence about the described
role of stools in Asante society.218
In the introduction to his essay on “Oriental Antiquities/Far Eastern Art,” Craig
Clunas addresses this situation in terms of Chinese art. After revealing a personal story
about his own engagement with the “Throne of Emperor Ch’ien-lung” at London’s
Victoria and Albert Museum when he was 14, he states that:
These are not the tales curators tell. Their role in maintaining objects (in both
senses of the word) demands that they suppress such embarrassing personal
engagements and secret fetishisms, which threaten to reopen the space between
the viewer and the artifact. The throne was there, and the Emperor of China sat
on it. Now it is here, and you the visitor view it. Do not ask how it got here, or
where it was from 1770 to now; that does not matter. You are here to engage with
“China,” not with “Britain,” so do not ask what the presence of the throne of the
emperor of China might tell you about Britain and its narratives about China over
the two centuries since the thing was made.219
Clunas further explains that despite the fact that Qing political discourse did not
acknowledge any type of “Throne of China,” and there was no seat that attributed the
right of rule, the British collected and exhibited this chair belonging to Emperor Ch’ien-
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
218
For example see Herbert Cole and Doran Ross, The Arts of Ghana (UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural
History, 1977): 134-140.
219
Craig Clunas “Oriental Antiquities/Far Eastern Art,” The Anthropology of Art, eds. Howard Morphy and
Morgan Perkins (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006): 186.
! 109
Lung in the early twentieth century under the title “The throne of Emperor Chi’en-Lung.”
Clunas maintains that the failure to admit the important role of the British in the history
of this object and the tendency to understand its presence in the museum as a natural
occurrence will only “reproduce a stifling identity of self-regard.”220 This perspective is
further supported by James Clifford who has argued that, “it is important to analyze how
powerful discriminations made at particular moments constitute the general system of
objects within which valued artifacts circulate and make sense.”221 For that reason, a
comprehensive discussion of Asante stools requires attention to their roles in multiple
markets and any consideration must be addressed in terms of intercultural exchanges that
have implications for the ways stools are understood in local and global contexts.
Asante Stools in European and North American Collections
The majority of stools in North American and European museum collections are
asese dwa were acquired in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.222 The
British Museum houses the largest collection of Asante stools by far, with seventy-eight
“full stools” and seventy-five “model stools” (the “model stools” group includes
goldweights, ivory carvings and small stools carved out of inexpensive wood to illustrate
the different designs in existence at various moments in history). The National Museum
of Ireland, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University, and
the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University all have significant numbers of Asante
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
220
Craig Clunas “Oriental Antiquities/Far Eastern Art,” The Anthropology of Art, eds. Howard Morphy and
Morgan Perkins (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006): 186.
221
James Clifford, “On Collecting Art and Culture,” The Predicament of Culture (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1988): 221.
222
Some institutional collections contain historic blackened ancestral stools that are not intended for public
viewing. They are rare in number and museums such as the British Museum have policies in place that
prohibit display and/or viewing of these sacred objects. I will not be discussing blackened stools at length
in this dissertation, as my focus will be on stools intended for public presentation.
! 110
stools and/or model stools in their collections (more than ten but generally less than
twenty in each case). Most other institutions in North America and Europe that are in
possession of stools have them in much smaller quantities and their quality varies
dramatically.
While the more sizeable collections of Asante stools generally include a few
collected at later points in history (which are generally of lower quality than those
collected earlier and may have been created for an external market), many of them,
particularly those in the British Museum, were acquired as a result of British activities in
what was known as the Gold Coast area in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The Gold Coast Commercial Intelligence Bureau, a body concerned with
recording and promoting British activities in the colony, made the second largest
donation of stools (fifteen) to the British Museum (the largest donation to the British
Museum was a group of eighteen stools, which came from the dispersion of the
collections of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1954). The Bureau donated the stools in 1927 when
they were divesting their collections of “specimens,” which were previously put on
display at the “Gold Coast Court” to illustrate “Empire geography and development” in
special exhibitions in London.223
Celia Barclay donated another substantial group of stools (thirteen) to the British
Museum in 1978, which she inherited from her father, Sir Cecil Armitage (1868-1933).
Armitage, along with Wilfred Davidson-Houston (1870-1960), was one of the first two
District Commissioners in Asante and participated actively in the Anglo-Ashanti Wars,
particularly, the Ashanti War of 1900. Sir William Maxwell, Governor of the Gold Coast
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
223
Gold Coast Commercial Intelligence Bureau, Annual General Report 1926-1927 (London: Anckonicus
Publishing Company, Inc.).
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from 1895-1897, donated seven blackened stools to the British Museum during a summer
visit to England in 1896 to speak about the future of the Gold Coast and the Asante
Kingdom. Likely, he obtained the blackened stools in the course of the expedition of
January 1896, led by Sir Francis Scott, in which the British took Asantehene Prempeh I
prisoner. Other Asante stool collectors whose acquisitions ended up in the British
Museum include individuals such as Thomas Edward Bowdich (who travelled on a
diplomatic mission organized by the African Company of Merchants and donated a stool
in 1818), F. R. Morton (who acquired the stool he sold to the museum in 1896 during one
of the Ashanti Expeditions), Captain Robert P. Wild (a military officer who belonged to
the Mines Department of the Gold Coast in the early twentieth century), and R. Austin
Freeman (a member of a medical expedition to Ashanti and Bontuku in 1889 during
which he served as a physician, navigator and naturalist).
Figure 23 Asante Stool collected by Garnet Joseph Wolseley, c. 1874, purported to be the “travelling war
stool of the King of Ashanti King Koffee.”
(Pitt Rivers Museum, 1978.7.1. Image credit: Catherine Hale)
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Stools in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland, the Pitt Rivers
Museum at Oxford University and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at
Cambridge University have provenances similar to those in the British Museum. For
example, the National Museum of Ireland holds eight Asante stools that were originally
loaned by Wilfred Davidson-Houston, previously mentioned to be one of the two first
District Commissioners of Asante, in 1899. The Pitt Rivers Museum has a stool collected
by Garnet Joseph Wolseley, apparently while he commanded the British assault on the
Asante in 1874, which he claimed is the “travelling war stool of the King of Ashanti King
Koffee” (see Figure 23).224 According to Colonel W. T. Dooner, a member of Lord
Wolseley’s 1873-74 Kumasi Expedition, “many of those officers and men who were in
the expedition…brought [an Asante stool] home with them as a memento.”225 The
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge houses three stools that
originated with A. C. Haddon, British Anthropologist and Ethnologist, who collected
them around 1900.
British military, missionary, and anthropological/ethnological activities in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries account for the presence of stools in these more
substantial collections. Because most of the major collections of Asante stools were
composed during this very particular moment in history, the ideas and attitudes of their
collectors as well as the broader public had an important impact on how these objects
came to be understood in Europe and North America. In most cases, the records museums
have about the objects are scarce – mentioning only the donor’s name and, in some cases,
his or her description of what the stool was perceived to be; however, other sources can
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
224
Pitt Rivers Museum Object Catalogue, 1978.7.1
225
London Times, “The Golden Stool of Ashanti,” 21 November 1921.
! 113
help build a more comprehensive picture of how Asante stools came to be understood in
wider European and American consciousness.
Case Study: The Peabody Stool
A stool in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
at Harvard University illustrates how pervasive Euro-American ideas about stools and
their relationships with male chieftaincy impacted wider understandings of asese dwa
(see Figure 24). As in many other cases, the possibility that this stool was associated with
women, and queen mothers in particular, was entirely ignored. The Peabody stool (object
number 22-17-50/B2909) measures 32.5 x 53.5 x 30 cm (H x W x D) and is carved from
a single block of what appears to be sese wood. It has a rectangular base, on which a
second, slightly raised rectangular platform appears. The sides of this second platform are
carved into small steps (called nsayee).226 A third platform is centered on the second
platform. This rectangular platform is about a centimeter deep and stretches almost to the
edges of the second platform. Four semi-rectangular, solid-wood supports with saw-
toothed carvings (nkyεkyaa) along their outside edges extend from the corners of the third
platform to support a curved rectangular seat (anim).
Underneath the seat, on the left and right sides, there are rounded triangular forms
protruding from the base (etiko puaa). A fifth support is located at the center of the four
solid supports (sekyedua). It is hollow, cylindrical, and carved into a small checkerboard
motif. The surface of the stool appears to be covered in some kind of unidentifiable
brown wash. At the center of the underside of the base there is a cavity where the carver
dug out the central core of the cylindrical support. A small rectangular space of wood
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
226
All of the terms for the anatomy of the stool are from Sharon Patton, “The Asante Stool,” PhD
Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1980. 65-71.
! 114
(εtuo abo, “to strike the bottom”)227 has been carved out of the area surrounding the
cavity (1 cm deep).
Figure 24 Mmaa dwa or “woman’s stool” in the collection of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
(Object number 22-17-50/B2909. Image credit: Peabody Museum)
The only documentation that accompanies the Peabody Stool can be found on two
original ledger pages that were used to record information about this object at the time of
its accession. According to these pages, Alice L. Boardman donated the stool to the
museum in 1922, after receiving it from “William Gage Putnam.” The stool is described
as a “Carved wooden seat” from the “Ashanti Tribe, West Coast, Africa.” Under
“Remarks,” the ledger page reads, “Brought from the West Coast of Africa by William
Gage Putnam and given by him to the donor. The seat of an African Chief.” When
Putnam collected the stool and under what circumstances he did so are not mentioned.
Other than their names, the Peabody Museum does not possess further background on
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
227
! 115
Boardman or Putnam. Although the information contained in the ledger pages is limited,
at the very least it offers a starting point for further investigation.
The Historical Register of Harvard University 1626-1936 indicates that in 1924
the William Dorr Boardman Professorship of Fine Arts was established by the President
and Fellows from “the bequest of Alice L. Boardman (Mrs. William Dorr Boardman) in
memory of her son.”228 It seems likely that this was the same Alice L. Boardman
responsible for donating the Asante stool to the Peabody Museum. The bequest suggests
an engagement with the arts and a relationship with the University, and it occurred within
the same general timeframe as the stool donation. Knowing the name of Mrs.
Boardman’s husband (and son) facilitates tracing her genealogy and helps determine her
relationship to William Gage Putnam. In the second volume of Sidney Perley’s A History
of Salem Massachusetts, there is an entry for a Captain Edward Putnam that reads:
Captain Edward Putnam, master mariner and merchant; married Margaret Sage
June 13, 1839; died November 21, 1852; she died in Roxbury Jan 3, 1892; child:
1. Alice Louise, born April 3, 1840; married William Dorr Boardman of Boston
April 3, 1863.229
The fact that Alice L. Boardman’s maiden name was Putnam suggests that, in all
likelihood, she was related to William Gage Putnam. Although State and Federal Census
records from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries make no mention of a William
Gage Putnam, they do record the existence of a William “Sage” Putnam who was the
cousin of Alice L. Boardman.230 William Sage Putnam was born in 1833, worked as a
mariner, remained unmarried, and resided in Salem Massachusetts for most of his life.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
228
President and Fellows of Harvard College, Historical Register of Harvard University 1636-1936
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1937): 43-65.
229
Sidney Perley, A History of Salem Massachusetts, vol. II (Sidney Perley: Salem, MA, 1926): 118.
230
1880 U.S. Census, Salem, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: T9_532; Family History Film: 1254532; Page:
636.3000; Enumeration District: 232; Image 0412.
! 116
Alice Louise Boardman grew up in Salem and, upon her husband’s death in the 1870s,
she returned to her hometown where she lived until she passed away in 1924. Cousins
living in the same town likely had a sociable relationship and William Putnam’s job as a
mariner would explain how he was able to bring the stool from West Africa and give it to
Alice Boardman. This seems to be the most plausible explanation for the stool’s
provenance. The William “Gage” Putnam reported in the Peabody ledger records was
probably a clerical error.
This argument for the Peabody stool’s provenance helps refine the stool’s dates of
collection and creation. After 1900, there is no record of William Sage Putnam in the
Federal or State Census. This suggests that Putnam passed away sometime between 1900
and 1910 (when the next Census was completed). If Putnam was born in 1833 and died
before 1910, he must have collected the stool sometime between these dates. While some
mariners began sailing early in their childhoods, William Sage Putnam came from a
wealthy and well-educated family and probably did not begin work before the age of
eighteen. Based on this information, the collection date of the stool was likely between
1851 and 1910. Although these dates offer a more refined collection period, they cannot
provide any insight into the earliest date of the stool’s creation because the stool could
have existed for any length of time prior to its collection by Putnam. It is only possible to
confirm that the stool was created before 1910.
The small piece of paper adhered to the underside of the base of the stool reads:
…the best thing he has brought away from West Africa, is an “Ashanti Stool.” In
the Kingdom of Ashanti they do not “crown” their kings, they “stool” them. This
stool by its appearance suggests an African background. It is a little lower than a
piano stool and the sides of the seat turn upwards so that the seat resembles a
cross-section of a canoe. It is carved out of the cottonwood or “canoe wood” of
! 117
the country. When an Ashanti chieftain is travelling, the stool, the emblem of his
kingship, is carried with him.
The text appears to be from a newspaper or magazine but I could not determine its
specific origin. Whether or not the description is a direct discussion of the Peabody stool
is also unclear. Its very general content means that it could refer to any number of Asante
stools. Regardless, these fragments of documentation echo the monarchical and male-
centric references espoused in the newspaper coverage and historical accounts from the
same period.
The claim that the Peabody stool was the “seat of an African chief” is problematic
on two levels: first, the design of the stool, which includes a central column flanked by
four supports that have small triangular projections, is called the mmaa dwa or “woman’s
stool” and, theoretically, is not intended for male use. In her unpublished dissertation on
Asante stools from 1980, Sharon Patton noted that although rules regarding who can own
which stool designs are rigorously delineated, they are not necessarily followed with the
same attention.231 She identified more than one chief in the Kronti political division who
had a mmaa dwa or woman’s stool in his possession.
When I inquired about this scenario in my interviews with chiefs and queen
mothers in the Ashanti region in 2012, numerous interviewees suggested that perhaps the
chiefs in possession of the mmaa dwa did not have a queen mother counterpart at the time
and, accordingly, were the custodians of the archival stools of both genders for their
lineage. Another explanation offered to me was that the chiefs in question kept the mmaa
dwa stools on hand for queen mothers to sit on when they came to visit. Both of these
situations are plausible and point to a second issue, applicable to all conventional stools,
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
231
Sharon Patton, "The Asante Stool." PhD Dissertation, Northwestern University, 1980. 82.
! 118
which I mentioned earlier: with a few rare exceptions, chiefs do not actually sit on asese
dwa. Although they may own stools as symbols of their authority or to provide to queen
mothers for their use, they do not often use them as a “seat,” except briefly during
enstoolment, bathing, and in some cases, prior to visiting the stool house.
According to the queen mothers and chiefs with whom I spoke, bathing stools and
the stools used by male attendants to the Asantehene are very small (not usually
measuring more than twenty-five centimeters high). As in the case of the Peabody stool,
the majority of stools in European and North American collections do not show signs of
wear that would be associated with using the stool for bathing and are generally taller
than 25 centimeters. Consequently, it is very unlikely that these objects fit the definition
of “the seat of a West African chief” or some similar designation. In some cases, the
“archival” stools in Western collections such as the Peabody stool may have belonged to
queen mothers and were erroneously identified as chiefs’ stools. In other cases, they may
have been in the possession of a chief who used them symbolically but not practically, or
for seating visiting queen mothers; or, they could have belonged to a male who was in the
service of the king. In any event, their uses certainly differed significantly from that
claimed in the records.
An exploration of contemporary queen mothers’ stool archives reveals many
different stool forms, including the mmaa dwa, and their uses over the course of the
twentieth century. Set in comparative perspective with the history outlined in the
Peabody records, these case studies suggest that, among other things, the Peabody stool
could have belonged to a queen mother who used it as her seat of authority.
! 119
Queen Mothers’ Stool Archives
The dynamic character of queen mothers’ stool uses in combination with changes
occurring over time, and cases of “rule breaking” makes it difficult to establish a clear set
of parameters like those outlined by Rattray in the early twentieth century. Instead, what
follows is a series of case studies of queen mothers’ stools gathered in 2012. Taken
together they exemplify the complexity and fluidity of asese dwa as they have functioned
in twentieth and early twenty-first century Asante. My intention is not to offer a
catalogue raisonne of Asante stools. Rather, I use these case studies and related examples
to explore the intricacies of queen mothers’ uses of stools in different contexts.
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, Offinsohemaa (Omanhemaa)
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko, the Offinsohemaa, is the highest-ranking queen
mother with whom I spoke. Offinso is one of the paramount Asante towns and Nana Ama
Serwah Nyarko, accordingly, is an omanhemaa. This means she ranks just below the
Asantehemaa in terms of status and authority. The stool the Offinsohemaa uses most
often to hold court and attend durbars and other events is the one Rattray described as the
‘Pantu ‘gwa’ or ‘The Big Spirit (Gin or Rum) Stool’ (see Figure 25).232 She
commissioned carvers to create it for her when she was enstooled in 1987 because she
liked the design. The central column is shaped like a liquor bottle and the four supporting
columns positioned at each corner have rounded projections running along their exterior
edge that have triangular cutouts inside of them.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
232
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Figure 25 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s Pantu stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, told me that this specific type of
projection indicates a design intended for men233 and the Offinsohemaa does not deny
this. Instead, she explains that there are certain designs made for women that chiefs
cannot use but queen mothers have the prerogative to own any type of stool design made,
whether intended for men or for women. To illustrate her point she equated the rules
around stool use to accepted norms regarding men’s and women’s clothing. Gesturing to
her woman’s cloth, she stated, “no men can wear this but the men’s t-shirt, I can wear
it.”234
The seat of Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s Pantu stool incorporates a number of
metal tacks that form a circle that is about twelve and a half centimeters in diameter and
has rectangles extending from its top and bottom to the edges of the seat on both sides.
The Offinsohemaa explained that after she received the stool from the carvers she
brought it home and asked the priest of the Offinso Stool to create a special medicine that
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
233
234
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would offer protection to her and the stool. The priest drilled the holes in the seat in the
formation she asked for (which she says has no special significance) and filled them with
a “black potion” after which he “locked it up with the nail.”235 According to Nana Ama
Serwah Nyarko, this spiritual substance makes it so that if someone sits on the stool other
than her, “maybe you can’t wake up, you can’t stand up again.”236
Many Asante peoples believe that one’s sunsum or spiritual essence transfers into
a stool with repeated use and it is therefore very important that no one other than its
rightful owner make use of such a personal stool. However, not all queen mothers deem it
is necessary to integrate protective features into their stools like those undertaken by the
Offinsohemaa. Nana Gyama Pensan II, the Aboasohemaa, told me that she has no need
for protection because she “doesn’t have any problems with anybody.”237 She explained
that if a Stool is under dispute or the process leading to the current queen mother’s
enstoolment was contested, she might be more inclined to add apotropaic substances to
ensure that she is the only one to sit on her stool (both literally and figuratively).238
The Offinsohemaa’s Pantu stool, which is about forty centimeters high, is one of
the tallest stools I saw in the course of my interviews with queen mothers. For Nana Ama
Serwah Nyarko, it is important that her stool be identifiably taller than her subordinate
queen mothers. Pointing to another stool in her holdings (with a liquor bottle-shaped
central column and rounded side supports), which was shorter, she explained, “I won’t
use this one because it is short. I am a paramount queen mother so I have to sit on a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
235
236
Ibid.
237
238
Ibid.
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bigger one. I have some sub-queen mothers and they can use this one in public. Because I
am bigger than them, I am superior, I have to use this one [referring to the Pantu stool] so
that there will be some difference.”239 What is particularly notable in the Offinsohemaa’s
discussion is that she explains the height of her stool in relation to the women who are
under her direct administration. She lists no prescribed height that is specific to her rank
within the larger socio-political Asante framework; rather, it is she who determined the
height necessary for her stool to distinguish her within a specific group of queen mothers.
Another stool, which is from the Offinsohemaa’s archive and stands only about
twenty-five centimeters tall, reveals the changes to height that have taken place in more
recent years (see Figure 26). Many of the queen mothers with whom I spoke mentioned
that stools became increasingly larger in the second half of the twentieth century because
most women find that sitting on shorter stools results in back aches and other
discomforts. Despite its small stature, the older stool from the Offinsohemaa’s collection
includes a number of features that express status in other ways. Like the Peabody stool, it
is made in the mmaa dwa design listed by Rattray240 (a vertical support on each of four
corners with small triangular projections running along their outside edges and a single
cylindrical central support with a “checkerboard” pattern) and features metal plating that
was applied in the same configuration as the tacks on the Pantu stool. However, its
materials are more intricately worked. In particular, the circular shape at center boasts
delicate repoussé ornamentation. It is possible that the tack formation on the
Offinsohemaa’s Pantu stool was intended to evoke this design; however, she did not
mention it.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
239
240
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Figure 26 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s historical mmaa dwa. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Several queen mothers as well as the carvers at Ahwia told me that it is much less
common to incorporate metal plating in a stool today than it was in the early twentieth
century because the materials are harder to acquire and much more expensive. When I
spoke with her, Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, the Wadie Adwumakasehemaa
mentioned that the “very old” black stools in her care have metal on them but is very
uncommon to find similar decoration in her lineage nowadays.241 It is possible that the
metal tacks on Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s stool may be a contemporary adaptation of
the metal plating.
Where the circular metalwork has deteriorated in places along the stool’s edge,
the frayed fibers of a cloth package are visible. Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko told me that,
similar to the protective substances integrated into her personal stool, the material under
the metalwork is the casing of an amulet.242 Although the queen mother was unable to
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
241
Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, in conversation with the author 7 June
2012.
242
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provide me with a date of origin for the stool, she reported that it had passed through
multiple previous queen mothers’ hands. Based on comparisons with stools from
European and North American collections, I would estimate that it was created sometime
in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. It is my understanding that the
Offinsohemaa keeps this stool as part of a material history of her lineage and does not
offer it to visiting queen mothers as a seat the way she might with other stools from her
archive. Such an approach makes sense in view of the fact that the stool has an amulet
integrated into its seat – the presence of this protective feature suggests that it was the
“special” stool of a previous queen mother and not part of the general stool property that
can be used by visitors.
Figure 27 Underside of Nana Ama Serwha Nyarko’s historical mmaa dwa showing remnants of curvilinear
consecration marks. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
A notable aspect of this historical mmaa dwa that adds to its unsuitability for
seating anyone other than its original owner is the existence of consecration marks on the
underside of its base (see Figure 27). Much of the design has worn away over time but
traces of a curvilinear motif executed in three parallel lines on the stool’s bottom are still
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visible. In his description of the creation of a replica of the Queen of Mampon’s Silver
Stool for Princess Mary on the occasion of her marriage, Rattray described the
consecration process as it was executed in the early twentieth century:
The Silver Stool was turned upside down and placed on top of a silk-covered
cushion upon a low table. An old copy of the Observer was carefully wrapped
round it. The Queen Mother's first-born daughter and the Queen Mother seated
themselves on their stools. An egg upon a plate, some soot, a knife, and some
short sticks were placed on a corner of the table in readiness. The Queen Mother
then broke the egg, allowing the white to fall on the ground, the yolk into the
plate. She then spoke as follows: …'Osese tree, receive this egg and eat;
concerning the child of the King of England who is getting married, if she sits
upon you let her have long life.' The daughter frayed out the ends of the sticks and
mixed the yolk and the soot. When all was ready, she and her mother, looking up
to the sky with hands uplifted, spoke the following prayer: …'Supreme Being on
whom men lean and do not fall, concerning Mary, the child of my Lord the King
of England who is getting married, I pray of you to give her long life and grace. I
seat her upon this stool.' These religious rites being completed, the Queen Mother
produced out of a handkerchief 14s. in silver coins, and these she grouped all
around the hollow in the centre of the stool. This was the 'artist's' fee, and if not
paid the woman who was about to draw the design… 'would run the risk of
becoming blind '. Amma Agyiman (the daughter) now began to paint on the
mixture with one of the little sticks, beginning with the steps round the hollow
centre of the stool. When this was done the design upon the bottom of the stool
was next laboriously drawn, the Queen Mother from time to time suggesting or
showing her daughter what to do. The stool was now complete and ready for the
'daughter of Kings ' to sit upon.243
As Rattray’s description indicates, the purpose of applying these marks was to
prepare the stool for a specific individual to use and, in turn, provide them with a form of
protection. Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, explained to me that if a stool
bears these designs no one other than its intended user may sit on it because the specific
purpose of the markings is secret (and if you are not aware of their purpose they could
harm you).244 In addition to the egg yolk and soot that Rattray mentioned, Nana
Frempong Boadu included spider webs on the list of ingredients used to perform the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
243
R.S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923): 297-298.
244
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consecration of a stool.245 It is possible that Rattray did not notice the web being used by
the queen mothers when he was writing in the early twentieth century or that it was not
included on that occasion. Perhaps the components of the mixture have changed over
time and in different circumstances.
In her doctoral study of the stools of the chiefs of the Kronti political division in
1980, Sharon Patton reported that, although they did not explain the reasons behind it, the
carvers at Ahwia told her “it is the custom that all chiefs’ stools be painted on the
undersurface of the stool base.”246 However, she noted that none of the Kronti chiefs’
stools she observed were painted in this manner. When I asked Nana Frempong Boadu
about this in 2012, he explained that during the period that coincided with Asantehene
Opoku Ware II’s reign (roughly 1970-1999) the carvers at Ahwia applied the black marks
to every stool they made for chiefs and queen mothers.247 When Otumfuo Nana Osei
Tutu II became the Asantehene in 1999, he discovered this practice was taking place and
asked the carvers to stop. According to the Otumfuo Chief Carver, the Asantehene told
him to discontinue applying the marks to all stools because “it is one of our most serious
oaths.”248
This may explain the discrepancy between the carvers’ comments to Patton and
her own observations. It may be that the chiefs in the Kronti political division acquired
their stools before the carvers began adding the designs to all stools indiscriminately and
Patton’s interviews took place afterward (in the late 1970s). In the decade or so since
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
245
246
247
Whether Opoku Ware II specifically instructed the carvers to apply the marks to all stools or whether it
was something that began to occur but escaped his notice is not known.
248
! 127
Otumfuo’s request, the carvers at Ahwia only add the black designs to the bottoms of
stools destined for the courts of the Asantehene and Asantehemaa. The Asantehene and
Asantehemaa can then distribute the stools as they please. This means that it is still
entirely possible for chiefs and queen mothers to obtain stools with these markings,
though extremely rare. Nana Frempong Boadu told me that the Asantehene might choose
to give a stool with the markings to a specific leader to show his appreciation for an
achievement or show of excellence.249 As a result, in contemporary contexts the
consecration marks on stools function as status symbols in addition to their other, more
discreet, purposes. This scenario is yet another example of how a specific leader, in this
case, the Asantehene, determines the rules for stool creation and use rather than everyone
following an entrenched set of prescriptions.
Figure 28 Nana Darkowaa Ababio II’s sese dwa with consecration marks on its underside.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
249
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I encountered only one other stool that had black markings on its base during my
interviews with queen mothers. It belonged to an odikrohemaa, Nana Darkowaa Ababio
II, who inherited it from her grandmother, the preceding queen mother (see Figure 28).
Like the markings on the Offinsohemaa’s stool, the designs were composed of three
parallel lines. In this case, the curvilinear motif formed half of a figure eight on either
side of the “step” surrounding the hollowed-out core. The “step,” too, was covered in a
thick line of soot. Nana Darkowaa Ababio II explained to me that her grandmother had
added these marks to the stool but she was unclear on the reasons why. At the level of
odikrohemaa, it is unlikely that a superior leader sanctioned the addition of these marks.
Even during the time in which carvers were adding the marks liberally to stools, their
actions did not extend to adikrohemas. Accordingly, it is likely that this design is a case
of “rule breaking.”
Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko showed me two other stools from her archive that she
uses to seat visiting queen mothers, both of which are about thirty-five centimeters tall.
These were the stools she used to enstool the initiates in the course of the rehearsal of the
puberty rites I witnessed at her residence in May 2012. One stool is the Nyansapo or
“wisdom knot” stool, which features an adinkra symbol as its core support. The
nyansapo symbol indicates wisdom, ingenuity, intelligence and patience and seems to be
fairly popular among queen mothers. I interviewed at least four queen mothers who
possessed this stool design, though none of them used it as their primary sese dwa.250
The other stool, which I mentioned earlier on in my discussion, is a variation of
the Pantu stool. Rather than the four vertical supports that are included in the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
250
The four queen mothers who showed me a nyansapo stool in their holdings were: Nana Serwah Nyarko
(Offinsohemaa), Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo (Adumasahemaa), Nana Ama Agyeman (Kodiehemaa), and
Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio (Wadie Adwumakasehemaa).
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Offinsohemaa’s personal stool, this stool has a rounded support that encircles the central
liquor bottle-shaped form and is embellished with small triangular projections that run
down the center of each curving side (Nana Frempong Boadu reports that these small
triangular projections indicate a stool intended for female use251). Neither of these stools
includes any metal plating and the underside of their bases does not reveal any markings
other than two large initials, “A D,” on the Nyansapo stool. Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko
did not give me any indication of the reasons for this inscription.
While the underside of the Nyansapo stool is completely flat, the base of the stool
that is a variation of the Pantu stool has one square “step” cut out at its center, directly
under where the solid central support is located. Both the Pantu stool and the older Mmaa
dwa have multiple square “steps” carved into the underside of their bases that surround
the openings of their hollow central supports. The Pantu stool has two “steps,” while the
Mmaa dwa has three. Adom Gyamfi Richard, the Secretary of the Ahwiaa Wood
Carver’s Association, claims that the “steps” are conceived as a way for the spirit of the
stool’s owner to enter and exit the stool’s core but the Otumfuo Chief Carver dismissed
this suggestion.252 According to Nana Frempong Boadu, this feature usually indicates that
a stool belongs to a chief or queen mother. In theory, the more steps that are included and
the more complex the design, the higher the rank of the owner, although I am unaware of
any clearly defined number to rank ratio. The Otumfuo Chief Carver explained that the
steps are particularly important for expressing status when the stool is in transit as its core
rests horizontally on the carrier’s head and the seat and underside are exposed to
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
251
252
Adom Gyamfi Richard, Secretary of the Ahwiaa Wood Carver’s Association, in conversation with the
author, 13 June 2012.
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onlookers. When they see the steps carved into the base, the viewers know that “a big
man is coming.”253
Nana Braku Yaa I, Asokoremanhemaa (Omanhemaa)
Nana Braku Yaa I is the Asokoremanhemaa or queen mother of Asokore, which is
one of the paramount Asante constituencies. Like the Offinsohemaa, Nana Braku Yaa I is
an omanhemaa. She was enstooled in 1985. Although Nana Braku Yaa I and Nana Ama
Serwah Nyarko are both paramount queen mothers, they do not necessarily have identical
ideas about stools or regulate the use of them by their subordinate queen mothers in the
same ways. For example, while it was very important to the Offinsohemaa that her stool
be distinguishably taller than her sub-queen mothers, this is not an issue that concerns the
Asokoremanhemaa. She explained to me that if a queen mother under her authority were
to have a stool that is taller than her own, “it doesn’t really matter.”254 According to Nana
Braku Yaa I, using a bigger stool is a matter of convenience, not an act of disrespect. If
someone who is tall has to sit on a short stool, she might suffer discomfort. Nana Braku
Yaa I maintains that she does not care about the height of individual stools because the
seating arrangements required of queen mothers when they gather for official events
illustrates their statuses relative to one another, anyway.255
When I visited with the Asokoremanhemaa at her private residence she showed
me the four stools she keeps there. Like many of the other queen mothers with whom I
spoke, Nana Braku Yaa I stores stools at a number of different places, including her
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
253
254
255
For an example of the hierarchical types of seating arrangements that are strictly regulated within
Asante, see the Seating Plan of the Asanteman Council for the enstoolment of Nana Osei Tutu II in 1999
published in the Daily Graphic Souvenir Edition (26 April 1999).
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palace and family member’s houses. This arrangement makes it easier for her to make
use of appropriate seating without having to carry a stool with her every time she changes
location.256 However, the stools she keeps at home are the ones she uses most frequently.
During our discussion, the Asokoremanhemaa sat on a plastic chair but she made a point
of telling me that she would normally never do so. Because she was feeling unwell, the
elders had granted her permission to use a chair with back support for the occasion.
Under most circumstances, Nana Braku Yaa I always sits on a sese dwa. For her, sitting
on the stool is an incredibly important act because
…when god gave the power to rule to women…the power was vested in the sese
dwa and it was given to the women, the queen mothers. So the power, the
authority, is vested in the sese dwa. Immediately that you have become a queen
mother you have to wear an authority, claiming authority over your people.257
According to Nana Braku Yaa I, historically, queen mothers were “not even allowed to
sit on any ordinary chair except the sese dwa.”258 Nowadays, most queen mothers use
many different kinds of furniture for casual seating and reserve their stools for the times
when they are acting in an official capacity. Nana Braku Yaa I differs significantly from
the majority of queen mothers with whom I spoke in this respect.
The Asokoremanhemaa has a specific stool she uses when she is spending leisure
time in her own compound (see Figure 29). She inherited it from the previous queen
mother and its dimensions are 31 x 52.5 x 23.5 cm (H x W x D). Its seat and base are
conventional, but its core support structure features two Euro-American-style chair or
table legs that appear to have been turned on a lathe. The two legs, located at either end
of the raised platform at the center of the stool’s base, frame a rectangular central column
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
256
257
Ibid.
258
Ibid.
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that is wrapped in black and silver-patterned plastic. It looks as though the plastic
covering may have been packaging or decorative material of some kind that was cut into
strips and repurposed to ornament the stool. Rather than being raw wood like most asese
dwa, the Asokoremanhemaa’s leisure stool seems to have some kind of brown wash
covering it, possibly a varnish. On the four corners of the raised platform and
corresponding underside of the stool’s seat, slightly lighter areas are visible that suggest it
formerly had four supports such as the ones included in the mmaa dwa design. Likely, the
Euro-American style supports are a repair that was made to a more conventional stool.
Figure 29 Nana Braku Yaa I’s “leisure” stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The stool Nana Braku Yaa I uses for public events features the gye nyame adinkra
symbol surrounded by four supporting columns and measures 39.5 x 53.5 x 25.5 (H x W
x D). It is a very basic form that includes little embellishment. The rounded projections
running the length of each of the four supports are simplified versions of the small
triangular shapes seen on the Offinsohemaa’s Mmaa dwa stool. This abbreviation of the
decorative motif on the support columns is common among the pre-fabricated stools
available for sale at Ahwia to buyers who are not interested in ordering a custom-carved
! 133
stool. Nana Braku Yaa I inherited her Gye nyame stool from the previous queen mother,
so she did not have information on how it was acquired originally; however, based on its
features, it was likely purchased ready-made. Neither the Asokoremanhemaa’s leisure
stool nor her Gye nyame stool have the inverted “steps” on the underside of their bases
that Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, says are important features of a
high-ranking leader’s stool.259
Figure 30 Nana Braku Yaa I’s Bathing Stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The most elaborately carved and decorated stool in Nana Braku Yaa I’s
possession is her bath stool, which measures 25 x 49 x 18 cm (H x W x D) (see Figure
30). Its central structure is composed of a liquor bottle shape bracketed on each side by a
semi-circular support that is plated with silver-colored metal, which is embossed with
irregularly spaced half-moon shapes. The underside of the stool’s base includes a single
diamond “step” cut directly below the central support. Although she was not concerned
about the height of her stool relative to subordinate queen mothers, the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
259
Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, in conversation with the author 14 June 2012.
! 134
Asokoremanhemaa told me that if a lower-ranking queen mother integrated metal into her
stool, especially an odikrohemaa, she would be destooled.260 Nana Braku Yaa I also
inherited the sese dwa she uses for bathing from the previous queen mother and explains
that she selected it for this particular purpose since it was the smallest one in her stool
archive.261
Traditionally, a queen mother’s bath stool is the one that is blackened and placed
in the stool room upon her death because it is the one with which she had the most
personal contact. However, changes to bathing facilities in contemporary contexts means
that not all queen mothers use a bath stool as Nana Braku Yaa I does.262 In such cases, I
found that queen mothers considered their “special” stool used for public appearances,
holding court and other official events to be their most intimate stool. This presents a
challenge because many of the female leaders explained to me that size is a very
important consideration for selecting a stool to be blackened. Most compounds and their
stool rooms have limited space and cannot accommodate the larger-sized stools that have
become the norm among “special” stools in the second half of the twentieth century. In
addition, the changes to size that have occurred over time mean that the ancestral stools
of historical queen mothers would be significantly smaller than those of more recent
leaders, thereby visually suggesting an inappropriate and inaccurate hierarchical
relationship between women who held the same position.
As Nana Afia Serwaa, the Aputuogyahemaa, explained to me, “it doesn’t show
respect to your ancestors because they are having smaller ones like this [referring to a
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
260
261
Ibid.
262
Only two other queen mothers with whom I spoke showed me a bath stool: Nana Afia Serwaa,
Aputuogyahemaa, and Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, Adumasahemaa.
! 135
shorter stool] and it is as if you are more important than the one that created the stool.”263
A practical solution, which seems to be accepted by most lineages facing this problem, is
to have the queen mothers get a small copy of their “special” stool made for blackening
and placement in the stool room. The stool likely would not be an exact copy but rather,
an approximation. The queen mothers who proposed this strategy seem to have somewhat
non-traditional views regarding the relationship between an owner’s contact with a
particular stool and its suitability for blackening.
While some queen mothers, most of whom use bathing stools, believe that it is
important to blacken a stool that had intimate and consistent contact with its user, others
are content with having a new copy made for this process. For example, Nana Kwartemaa
Nyiano Ababio, the Wadie Awumakasehemaa, told me that because she “believes in
God,” it does not matter to her if a brand new, unused stool is purchased for
blackening.264 She explained that “in the olden days” it was more of a concern but with
the spread of Christianity, practices have changed.265 In addition, most queen mothers
with whom I spoke were not particularly worried about the aesthetic appearance of their
stools designated for blackening because the designs on them quickly become
unrecognizable when they receive fat, sheep’s blood and other offerings during regular
ceremonial rites. Although Nana Braku Yaa I’s bath stool is the most elaborately
embellished of the group she showed me, this seems to be a product of the fact that it was
small and available, rather than an intentional decision related to design.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
263
264
Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, in conversation with the author, 7 June
2012.
265
Ibid.
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Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, Senfi Adumasahemaa (Abremponhemaa)
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo (formerly Nana Yaa Birago II) is the (Senfi)
Adumasahemaa, which is at the level of Abrempon. She reports directly to Manhyia (the
Asantehene) and has sixteen villages under her authority. Enstooled in 1928 at the age of
six (she was 91 at the time of our interview), she is the eldest and longest reigning queen
mother with whom I spoke. She was preceded on the stool (in reverse chronological
order) by Nana Abrafi, Nana Boatemaa, Nana Nyanta Kromo, Nana Dwirafisem, and
Nana Birago I.266 From the age of ten to the age of fifteen, Nana Yaa Birago II lived at
Hiaa (the home of the wives of the Asantehene in Manhyia Palace) with her mother’s
sister, Nana Ama Ampong, the first wife of Asantehene Osei Agyeman Prempeh II, who
reigned from 1931 to 1970. Nana Yaa Birago II’s grandfather, Opanin Osei Kwaku from
Tano Adwuman, was a stool carrier for the Asantehene.267
“Kokodurofo” is the name added to Nana Yaa Birago II’s title by Asantehene
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on the 80th anniversary of her enstoolment in 2008. It means
“brave” and its inclusion in her name acknowledges her strength and endurance
throughout the trials she faced over her years as Adumasahemaa. The Adumasa Stool,
now occupied by Nana Amankwah Kodom Ababio, Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s son,
was the subject of a decades-long chieftaincy dispute that was eventually resolved by the
Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II on 15 March 2007. The stool has had twenty-three
occupants in the course of its history, at least seven of whom are now deemed non-royal
custodians and have since been removed from the official record of the “true royal
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
266
“Special Commemorative Brochure for the 80th Anniversary Reign of Nana Birago II, Queenmother of
Senfi Adumasa,” published by printart, Asafo-Ksi in April 2008. Received from Nana Birago Kokodurofo
15 June 2012. 24.
267
Ibid. 11-12.
! 137
lineage of the Adumasa Stool.”268 This complex history led to a number of competing
claims to the Stool by different lineages. Nana Birago Kokodurofo’s family reports that
she was the target of relentless and brutal attacks and harassment during the protracted
period of contestation. Individuals making claims to the Stool and their supporters
refused to allow her to bury her mother at Adumasa and barred community members
from traveling to her funeral. At one point they went so far as to destroy Nana Yaa
Birago II’s home.269
Despite the tumultuous events that occurred over a period of more than a decade,
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo does not regret her decision to fight for her lineage’s right
to the Adumasa Stool. As her niece, Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, explained to me, “she
knows she is the right person for the stool…so she doesn’t care what anybody says. She
knows she is the right person and she is doing the right thing. She doesn’t regret it though
she went through all this.”270 When I asked Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo how the
dispute was finally settled, she told me that each of the competing queen mothers was
called before the Asantehene to recite the history of the Adumasa Stool. As the rightful
heir, she was the only one in possession of extensive and detailed knowledge.271
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo showed me six stools she uses regularly. Like Nana
Braku Yaa I, her bathing stool is one of her most important stools and will be blackened
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
268
“Special Commemorative Brochure for the 80th Anniversary Reign of Nana Birago II, Queenmother of
Senfi Adumasa,” published by printart, Asafo-Ksi in April 2008. Received from Nana Birago Kokodurofo
15 June 2012. 24.
269
Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, niece of Nana Birago Kokodurofo, in conversation with the author, 15 June
2012.
270
Ibid.
271
None of the information I have included for any of the stools anywhere in my dissertation would be
sufficient to prove the right to a particular Stool. In a very few of my interviews, queen mothers felt, after
they had spoken, that they provided too many details on a particular subject. In such cases, I have
eliminated those details from my reports.
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upon her death (see Figure 31). However, she differs from Nana Braku Yaa I in that her
bathing stool is the least elaborate of those in her possession. The stool measures 18 x 42
x 17 cm (H x W x D). Similar to the Offinsohemaa’s Mmaa dwa and Pantu stools, it has
five supporting columns: one on each corner and one at the center. Every column is a
basic three-dimensional rectangle and the central support is the same with only one
narrow zig-zag pattern running down its center for decoration.
According to Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, zig-zag motifs,
which are common decorative elements in different variations on many stools, are
symbolic of unity.272 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s bathing stool does not boast the
“checkerboard” core or triangular projections found in the historical mmaa dwa design.
In fact, it probably more closely resembles the Namma or “two-penny” stool Rattray
suggested was for poor people (except for its thin line of decoration – the Namma stool
has no embellishment at all).273 It does not include the atiko puaa (rounded projections)
on the underside of the seat that are common to most conventional sese dwa and the base
has only one small cutout in the shape of a triangle beneath the solid central support. As I
mentioned above, the use of a very basic stool design for bathing and subsequent
blackening seems to be a relatively common practice among the queen mothers I
interviewed, regardless of their status.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
272
273
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Figure 31 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Bathing Stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The stool the Adumasahemaa uses for public events is what the contemporary
carvers with whom I spoke at Ahwiaa call a Mmaa dwa (see Figure 32). Unlike Rattray’s
historical Mmaa dwa it has the same rounded projections (rather than triangular) seen
along the edges of the outside supports on Nana Braku Yaa I’s Gye nyame stool and a
slight variation on the decoration of its central column. Rather than a checkerboard
pattern across its entire surface, the hollow cylindrical column includes groups of four
triangles running vertically down the center with a line of squares on each side. This is
the same design seen on the column on the Me fa asa stool listed by Rattray. The stool is
31 x 55 x 22 (H x W x D) and is irregularly covered with a light blue powder that Nana
Birago Kokodurofo said is a form of defense against termites she applies to her raw wood
stools.274 The underside of the stool features one “step” carved into the area around the
opening of the hollowed-out central support column.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
274
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, Adumasahemaa, in conversation with the author, 15 June 2012.
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Figure 32 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s contemporary mmaa dwa. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The remaining stools the Adumasahemaa showed to me are ones that she uses
only in her own compound. One, which measures 29 x 51 x 20 cm (H x W xD), features a
rectangular column with staircases extending from its center toward the top of the seat
and the bottom of the stool’s base. This design makes reference to the proverb owuo
atwedee baako mmforo, obiara bewu, “everyone climbs the ladder of death,” which
reminds its viewers that mortality is universal. The raw stool is covered in the same blue
pest protection as the previously discussed contemporary Mmaa dwa and the underside of
its base is completely flat. Nana Birago Kokodurofo also owns a Nyansapo or “wisdom
knot” stool that is very similar to the one owned by the Offinsohemaa. The dimensions of
the Adumasahemaa’s stool are 36 x 55.5 x 22 cm (H x W x D) and the underside of its
base is uniform as well.
The two remaining of Nana Birago Kokodurofo’s stools are entirely covered in
silver paint. Nana Birago Kokodurofo did not offer an explanation for this choice but the
edges of the stools under the paint seem to be worn extensively, suggesting that it may
have been added as a way to refresh them for ongoing use. The paint may also serve a
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similar purpose to the blue pest protection seen on previous stools by keeping termites at
bay. The first measures 34 x 47 x 18 cm (H x W x D). It has a central column with two
vertical lines of zig-zag motifs that run parallel to one another, which is encircled by a
support structure that has small triangular projections running down the center of its
outside edges. A small diamond-shaped cutout is visible on the underside of its base
below the solid central support. This stool is in the design carvers at Ahwiaa refer to as
Kotoko dwa (and call a “men’s design”). I will discuss this form at more length later on
this chapter.
The second stool measures 34 x 53.5 x 21 cm (H x W x D) and is of the type
Rattray referred to as the Obi-te-obi-so or “someone-sits-on-top-of-someone-else” stool
(see Figure 33).275 The name of the stool describes the fact that it includes two stools, one
placed on top of the other. Nana Frempong Boadu told me that the order of stools in such
an arrangement is important as the stool on top indicates superiority.276 Nana Birago
Kokodurofo’s two-tiered stool has a somewhat simplified version of a historical Mmaa
dwa (presumably, representing queen mothers) on its bottom level. The central support
does not include a checkerboard pattern but the corner supports feature the triangular
projections that are a hallmark of this stool type. I would argue that the stool on the upper
level is a rudimentary representation of the Golden Stool. The narrow angular supports
that run from the edges of the seat of the Golden Stool on each side down to its base,
which are suggested here, are not found on most stools. The only other stool with angular
supports I have ever seen is the Animinkwa stool published in Rattray’s account.
However, the absence of atiko puaa (rounded projections on the underside of the seat) on
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
275
276
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the top stool further supports the idea that it may represent the Golden Stool as it is one of
the only stools that does not have them (other than the namma stool previously
mentioned). If read based on this interpretation, the stool’s message also makes sense: all
leaders are subordinate to the Golden Stool.
Figure 33 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Obi-te-obi-so stool. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Nana Birago Ababio, Mpobihemaa (Abremponhemaa)
Nana Birago Ababio, the Mpobihemaa, who is at the level of Abrempon, was
enstooled in 1974 at the age of ten. The Mpobi Stool is one of about seven Stools that
comprise the Nsenia division (with the Nsenia Stool at its head). Nana Birago Ababio’s
lineage owns multiple stools, which they keep at various locations (including her home in
Kumase, her home in her village, the chief’s palace and relative’s houses). If she is
planning to host a gathering of queen mothers, she gathers these stools together so she
has enough to seat her guests. Although she inherited several stools from the previous
queen mother, she chose to acquire new ones for her most frequent use. As I mentioned
previously, the Mpobihemaa has an (imitation) silver-plated stool that she uses in her
own community but would never take elsewhere or use in the presence of a higher-
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ranking chief or queen mother. Unfortunately, I was unable to view this stool because she
keeps it at her village for use when she sits in state and our meeting took place at her
house in Kumase.
During our visit, Nana Birago Ababio showed me two stools she keeps at her
home in the city. The first, which she sat on during the course of our interview, measures
34 x 56 x 24.5 cm (H x W x D) (see Figure 34). It is composed in the five-support style
the carvers at Ahwiaa referred to as the Mmaa dwa design when I spoke with them in
2012. Its column is rectangular and features a motif composed of groupings of four
triangles flanked by zig-zag lines that run vertically on each side. Its four corner supports
have rounded, rather than triangular, projections along their outside edges (with the
exception of the rectangular column, this stool owned by Nana Birago Ababio is very
similar to the one in Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s possession). The top of Nana Birago
Ababio’s stool’s base includes the “steps” leading up to the central platform that are
characteristic of conventional stools but the underside of its base, with the exception of
the opening to the hollow central core, is entirely flush. Although Nana Birago Ababio
was in possession of a stool the contemporary carvers at Ahwiaa called the Mmaa dwa
design (which, according to them was exclusively for queen mothers’ use), the
Mpobihemaa was not aware of any such designation. When I asked her about the carvers’
name for this particular stool form she replied, “no, I don’t know. Me, what I know is I
can buy any stool I want… all these stools are made for women. So, I don’t see why they
make a specific one for women that is a Mmaa dwa.”277
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
277
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Figure 34 Nana Birago Ababio’s contemporary mmaa dwa. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
Many of the queen mothers I interviewed, who also owned the so-called Mmaa
dwa, among other designs, shared similar sentiments. In fact, it was common among
queen mothers to use the term “mmaa dwa” interchangeably to refer to any form of sese
dwa. As the District Cultural Officer for Kwabre East, Stephen Anderson, explained to
me in conversation with Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, the Wadie
Adwumakasehemaa, the name for conventional stools “is asese dwa. The name is asese
dwa but because you are a queen mother and you are the leader of all the women you
have the name given to you…. the sese dwa you sit on is [called] mmaa dwa.”278
Conversely, men’s asipim chairs are sometimes referred to by the encompassing term
marima dwa, which is the same name Rattray ascribed to a specific conventional stool
type that he labeled “the man’s stool.”279
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
278
Stephen Anderson, District Cultural Officer for Kwabre East, in conversation with the author, 7 June
2012.
279
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It is worth noting that the five-part design referred to by the carvers as Mmaa dwa
was the most common asese dwa among the queen mothers I interviewed. In addition to
the cases I have already outlined, I observed examples of the contemporary Mmaa dwa in
the collections of Nana Ama Konadu II (Esresohemaa), Nana Ama Agyeman
(Kodiehemaa), Nana Gyama Pensan II (Aboasohemaa), Nana Sika Brayie
(Sasaamopaninbenkumhemaa), Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio (Wadie
Adwumakasehemaa), and Nana Darkowaa (odikrohemaa serving under the Mantia
Stool).
Nana Gyama Pensan II, the Aboasohemaa, an abremponhemaa who serves under
the Kumase Traditional Council280 in the Kwabre East District, is one of the few queen
mothers who acknowledged the name of the five-support design as the Mmaa dwa. She
explained that it is very popular among queen mothers but there is no specific rule that
says that queen mothers must own this design. For Nana Gyama Pensan II, the design of
the stool represents the queen mother (the central column) who is surrounded by the
elders, attendants and women of the town (the supporting columns).281 The Aboasohemaa
uses a newly carved mmaa dwa with triangular projections and a central core with a
vertical triangular design motif that measures 37.5 x 53 x 27 cm (H x W x D) as her
“special” stool. Such a designation may explain why Rattray (1927) claimed that the stool
called the Mmaa dwa was exclusively for women and that “a man, when he marries,
generally presents his wife with this stool.”282 In such a context it would make sense for a
man to give his wife a stool representing ideas of fertility, motherhood, community and
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
280
Because Nana Gyama Pensan II serves under the Kumase Traditional Council she is abrempon but her
status is more akin to an omanhemaa.
281
282
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stability. In many ways, it seems that the naming of the design “Mmaa dwa” may
reference the ideas it embodies about women rather than making exclusive reference to
the individuals permitted to use it.
Figure 35 Nana Birago Ababio’s Kotoko dwa. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The second stool Nana Birago Ababio showed me during our visit featured a
central column encircled by rounded supports (see Figure 35). It is called Kotoko dwa by
the carvers at Ahwiaa and is similar to both the Kotoko ‘gwa and the Kontonkowori stools
listed by Rattray in his stool catalogue. Rattray actually names Kotoko ‘gwa twice in two
separate figures (159 and 177). The first, he claims can be owned only by “amanhene
(paramount chiefs)”; the second, he says is the “porcupine stool” that is sat upon by
“members of the king’s council, composed of the Ashante’Hene, the amanhene, and the
greater priests.”283 He attributes the ownership of the Kontonkowori to the
Asantehene.284
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
283
284
Ibid. 273.
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The carvers at Ahwiaa told me that any variation on the design that includes a
central column that is encircled by rounded supports is called Kotoko dwa. Particularly
elaborate versions of such a design, which are very rare, are called Kontonkowori, which
means, roughly, “the Kotoko dwa of all Kotoko dwas.”285 This explains why Rattray had
two designs listed under the same title – they are all called Kotoko dwa but, as I have
shown so far, they have varying degrees of elaboration that are relative to one another.
Depending on the extravagance of a higher-ranking individual’s stool, the Kotoko dwa
designs below him must necessarily be less elaborate.
When I showed Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, images of a very
ornate version of a Kotoko dwa in the collection of the British Museum, he said that one
like this is a Kontonkowori and is “forbidden to carve” for anyone but the Asantehene
(see Figure 36). This version from the British Museum is far more extravagant than the
stool depicted by Rattray under the same title. The stool types Rattray documented were
ones that he asked carvers at Ahwiaa to create to demonstrate the range of stool types in
existence. Since it would be illegal to carve a sumptuous Kontonkorowi for anyone other
than the Asantehene, it may be that the carvers made a slightly more elaborate Kotoko
dwa and labeled it a Kontonkorowi for Rattray. Such an approach captures the idea of the
relativity of design rules but it does not communicate the complexity of their uses when
they were framed, as by Rattray, in a seemingly inflexible hierarchy of forms. This is yet
another reason to assess Rattray’s categorical distinctions with a critical eye.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
285
Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver and Adom Gyamfi Richard, Secretary of the Ahwiaa
Wood Carver’s Association, in conversation with the author, 14 June 2012.
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Figure 36 Kontonkowori in the collection of the British Museum that I showed to carvers at Ahwiaa.
(Object ID Af 1956,10.12. Image credit: Catherine Hale)
While Rattray and the carvers at Ahwiaa, both in the 1920s and today, referred to
the Kotoko dwa as a “men’s design,” several queen mothers with whom I spoke owned
them and, like Nana Birago Ababio, were not aware of any gendered classifications.
Nana Ama Konadu, the Esresohemaa, who is at the level of Abrempon, keeps one in her
possession to seat visiting queen mothers.286 During my interview with Nana Akosua
Abrafi II, the Sewuahemaa, she sat on an exquisitely carved Kotoko dwa that features the
same spider web-shaped “steps” carved into the underside of its base as the
Kontonkowori in the British Museum (although its design is not as elaborate overall) (see
Figures 4 and 37). Not surprisingly, this very decorative stool is not the one that Nana
Akosua Abrafi II uses to travel - she keeps it at her palace. However, she expressed no
knowledge of or concerns about it being designated for men.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
286
Nana Ama Konadu II, Esresohemaa, in conversation with the author, 30 May 2012.
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Figure 37 Nana Akosua Abrafi II’s Kotoko dwa. For view of underside, see Figure 4.
Like Nana Birago Ababio, the Sewuahemaa told me that “the asese dwa, all the
asese dwa belong to the women.”287 When I asked her about the stools that men or chiefs
sit on she explained that they only use it for bathing so “it doesn’t matter…be it the four
legs or the one with the round checkerboard…because you don’t sit on it in public, when
you die and they [blacken] that one for you, fine. It’s still the stools of the woman or the
queen mother’s stools. In public, if you see a man sitting on a sese dwa it will be the
attendants.”288 As I noted previously, Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, who was enstooled
in 1928, uses at least one Kotoko dwa, which, by its appearance, seems to be several
decades old (it may have been inherited from the previous queen mother but she did not
say). The Adumasahemaa’s use of a Kotoko dwa suggests that queen mothers did not
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
287
288
Ibid.
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subscribe to the rules outlined by Rattray and the carvers at Ahwiaa as early as the first
part of the twentieth century, if ever.
Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa (Ohemaa/Obaapanin)
Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio was enstooled as the Wadie
Adwumakasehemaa, which is at the level of ohemaa or obaapanin, in 1992. When I
visited with her she showed me four stools that she uses frequently. Two she acquired
new, one she inherited from the previous queen mother, Nana Afia Fofie, and one the
abusuapanin or male head of the family keeps at his residence for her to use when she
visits. Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio explained that she had to purchase the two
additional stools because she needed to have enough asese dwa available to seat visiting
queen mothers. She has a kotoko dwa that she acquired at the time of her enstoolment that
is 25.5 x 50 x 20 cm (H x W x D). About a decade later, she began to find the Kotoko
dwa too short for comfort and acquired a new stool that she currently uses for most
events.
This “special” stool, which is now around ten years old, is carved in the
contemporary Mmaa dwa design and measures 32 x 51 x 24 cm (H x W x D). Its
underside does not include any “steps,” though there is an opening to the hollow core of
the central support. To describe this stool design, Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio used
the term “ahenanan” interchangeably with “mmaa dwa.” “Ahen” means “how much” and
“anan” is the Twi word for “four.” Nana Akosua Abrafi II (Sewuahemaa) and Nana
Birago Ababio (Mpobihemaa) also used this same vocabulary. At least among queen
mothers, “ahenanan” seems to describe stools with the four columnar supports that are
! 151
characteristic of the Mmaa dwa design. According to Nana Akosua Abrafi II, “ahenanan”
is the “real name of the [stool] with four legs.”289
Like the Offinsohemaa, the Adumasahemaa, and the Kodiehemaa, the Wadie
Adwumakasehemaa has a Nyansapo or “wisdom knot” stool (see Figure 10). She
inherited it from the previous queen mother, which means that it is at least fifty-five years
old, if not more. It measures 39 x 49 x 28 cm (H x W x D) and has a small double zig-zag
pattern carved into the bottom section of each support. Although Nana Kwartemaa
Nyiano Ababio is the lowest ranking queen mother of those whom I interviewed that
were in possession of a Nyansapo stool, at 39 centimeters, hers was the tallest and most
skillfully carved of the group.
The stool the abusuapanin keeps at his residence for the Wadie
Adwumakasehemaa’s use measures 30 x 59 x 22 cm (H x W x D) (see Figure 38). It
features an elephant figure as its main support – a style that Rattray called the “Esono
‘gwa” or “Elephant Stool” and said was “only used by the King of Ashanti.”290
According to Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, this stool is more than fifty years old.
This was the only stool with a figural support I observed in all of my interviews with
queen mothers. Although Rattray’s stool catalogue reveals that “elephant stools” were
being created at least as early as the 1920s, many of the queen mothers I interviewed still
associate the design with their southern neighbors, the Fante. When I presented images of
a stool from the British Museum with an elephant figural support to a number of different
queen mothers, they told me that it was “Fante” and not Asante. Although such stools
may be in the collection of the Asantehene and others, they appear to be far less common
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
289
290
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among queen mothers than the stools that incorporate more abstract geometric designs or
adinkra symbols.
Figure 38 The stool the abusuapanin keeps at his residence for Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio. (image
credit: Catherine Hale)
As the preceding case studies and related examples demonstrate, queen mothers’
possession and uses of asese dwa are fluid and dynamic. Contrary to the outline
established by Rattray and subsequent authors, there is no clear delineation of “rules”
about who can own which designs. Instead, the prescriptions shift and change according
to the context and attitudes of the most superior leader. In many ways, queen mothers
perform their identity through the use of stools and other regalia in an ongoing process of
negotiation. Like innumerable art forms from across the African continent, such as masks
or cloths, the meaning and significance of asese dwa must be understood within this
larger framework of performance.
The New Stool Types
In the latter half of the 20th century a new form of stool emerged. It draws on the
sese dwa shape but is less finely hewn, has a more block-like structure, and displays
! 153
significantly less curvature in its seat formation (see Figure 39). Stools of this type are
frequently varnished and feature adinkra symbols (visual representations of concepts or
proverbs) as a central design motif, rather than being left unfinished and/or boasting the
more abstract geometric patterns common to conventional stools in the Ashanti Region.
Instead of the incised steps on either side of the top of the base and the concentric shapes
carved into the underside of the stool that are hallmarks of tradition and prestige on
conventional stool types, the new stool type usually has a repetitive “X” motif carved into
the top of its base and its underside is entirely flat.
According to Nana Frempong Boadu, chief carver to Asantehene Otumfuo Osei
Tutu II (the current king or ruler of the Asante peoples), carvers developed this new stool
type in response to a combination of factors, including reduced supplies of the traditional
sese wood used to carve stools, increased costs of tools required for carving, and the
rising demands of the foreign market.291 These new stools require much smaller pieces of
wood from which to carve and craftsmen often replace sese with a cheaper or more
readily available wood such as mahogany. Because of the uneven and darker coloring of
cheaper woods, they are sometimes referred to as “red” stools. The new stool type can be
carved in a matter of days, rather than the weeks, months, or in some exceptional cases,
years, necessary to create conventional stools. Unlike sese dwa their designs do not have
gendered and hierarchical ownership prescriptions – anyone can own and use any style of
the new stool but their uses of them differ dramatically from conventional stools.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
291
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Figure 39 Example of the new stool type with Gye nyame design. Collection of the author. (Image credit:
Catherine Hale)
The most popular new stool type features the “gye nyame” adinkra symbol, which
refers to the proverb “I fear nothing except God” (Figure 39). S. F. Adjei, current director
of the Centre for National Culture - Kumase, and Nana Sarfo Kantanka, the institution’s
deputy director, credit Dr. A. A. Kyerematen, founder and first director of the Centre,
with the conception of this now ubiquitous design. Adjei and Kantanka explained that
Kyerematen asked the carvers at Ahwiaa to create a stool that would represent the Asante
Cultural Centre in its role in the preservation and promotion of Asante culture.292 The
selected design, with its reference to God, mediated between indigenous spirituality and
the Christian belief systems that were adopted by the majority of the Asante population
by the mid-twentieth century. In 1963, after a visit by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, first
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
292
S.F. Adjei, Director of the Centre for National Culture - Kumase and Nana Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy
Director of the Centre for National Culture – Kumase, in conversation with the author, June 2012. It is
worth noting the parallels between Adjei and Kantanka’s account of Kyerematen’s conception of the gye
nyame stool and the well-known story of the birth of the Golden Stool, which is said to have come into
existence around the beginning of the eighteenth century when Osei Tutu asked his chief priest and advisor,
Okomfo Anokye, to create a symbol that would represent the Asante nation.
! 155
president of the newly independent Ghana, the Asante Cultural Centre was renamed the
Ghana National Cultural Centre, and its symbols and strategies were adapted into a larger
nationalist agenda.293 Since that time, the Gye nyame stool has become the most
frequently produced and purchased form of the new stool type. It is readily available in
markets from Accra in the south to Tamale in the north and appears at tourist shops in
other West African nations. For example, I observed the Gye nyame stool in Burkina
Faso and Mali during fieldwork in 2009.
Perhaps not surprisingly, carvers in Ahwiaa and at the Centre for National Culture
- Kumase report that the market for the new stool type is primarily foreign. Promoted as
the quintessential souvenir of Asante and, more broadly, Ghanaian identity, it comes in a
variety of sizes and finishes that facilitate cross-border portability (smaller stools not only
fit in luggage better, the varnish that is applied to most of them helps alleviate any
concerns international border agents have about transmission of insect infestations).
Locally, Asante buyers also may purchase these stools as decorative features for their
homes, but most queen mothers and chiefs with whom I spoke declared that it would be
entirely inappropriate to use them in any kind of official political or ritual capacity.294
Of all the queen mothers I interviewed, only one, Nana Ama Agyeman (the
Kodiehemaa), had one of the new stool types in her possession. It was covered in a dark
brown varnish and featured the sankofa adinkra symbol (a bird with its head turned back
toward its tail, representing the proverb “go back and pick,” which makes reference to the
idea that one should learn from the past in order to move forward). Nana Ama Agyeman
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
293
Nana Sarfo Kantanka, Deputy Director of the Centre for National Culture – Kumase in conversation
with the author, June 2012.
294
This information was gathered during fieldwork between 2007 and 2012.
! 156
explained that she received the stool as a gift from a friend and, although she appreciated
its aesthetic appearance, she would never use it in her role as a queen mother. Instead, it
was integrated into her living room as an ornament. The information that royals would
never use the new stool type in ritual is, of course, rarely shared with overseas customers,
who are often regaled with stories about stools’ roles in chieftaincy and ancestral
veneration in the process of a sale. Product descriptions on websites such as Ebay and
Overstock.com include numerous references to “Asante royal stools,” in their promotion
of stools that conform to this new type.
Although the new stool type proliferates in the shops that line the main road
running through Ahwiaa (the village in the Ashanti region where carvers are centralized)
and can be found in almost every tourist outlet across Ghana, it did not replace the
conventional style, but rather, emerged in parallel as a solution to the growing problem of
reduced resources and increased demand from global markets. At the same time as
carvers create these new stools for foreign buyers, they are still actively creating the more
conventional stool type, which is popular locally with Asante queen mothers. Tourists are
welcome to purchase a variety of conventional stool types that are for sale in Ahwiaa but
the carvers report that most foreigners opt for the new type, which is almost always
varnished. Several shops sell varnished stools of the new type that have been made to
look old through the addition of dust, mud and wear marks.
The Seat of State of Ghana
While the new stool form is not used in Asante rituals, it is integrated into the
design of the Seat of State of Ghana created by Kofi Antubam in the early 1960s (see
Figure 40). The distinguishing feature of the new stool type in this context is the
! 157
repeating “x” motif that is visible along the edges of the stools’ bases. As previously
discussed, conventional stools have a series of “steps” (parallel lines) rather than the “x”
motif. Although scholars have noted the integration of the Kotoko dwa stool design in the
upper portion of the chair’s base,295 the double platform suggests that the lower part of
the chair, in fact, may represent what is called an Obi-te-obi-so or “someone-sits-on-top-
of-someone-else” stool.
This stool design features two different stools, one placed on top of the other, and,
according to Nana Frempong Boadu, Otumfuo Chief Carver, the higher stool indicates
the superiority of the individual or concept it represents. As I discuss in Chapter Four,
Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo, the Adumasahemaa, keeps one of these stools in her
palace. In her case, the upper stool appears to be a rudimentary representation of the
Golden Stool, which surmounts the Mmaa dwa design frequently associated with queen
mothers. The likely message communicated by such a configuration is that all leaders are
subordinate to the Golden Stool. What is remarkable about the design of the Seat of State
of Ghana is that it also appears to integrate a stool form similar to the Golden Stool,
which has angular supports running from the narrow part of the base of the central
support upward toward the seat. However, in this arrangement, the Golden Stool is below
the upper stool, which is a Kotoko dwa.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
295
See Janet Hess, “Exhibiting Ghana: Display, Documentary and “National” Art in the Nkrumah Era,”
African Studies Review, vol. 44, no. 1 (Apr 2001): 59-77 and Carola Lentz, “Traveling Emblems of power:
The Ghanaian ‘Seat of State’,” Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Department of Anthropology and
African Studies, Working Papers 94 (2008): 1-20.
! 158
Figure 40 Seat of State of Ghana. (Image source: Vieta, The Flag Bearers of Ghana, 2000. p. 116)
The Kotoko dwa is conceived sometimes as a general reference to chieftaincy. It
is possible that Antubam, who was widely celebrated as an Nkrumah Era artist,296
intended to communicate the subversion of the Golden Stool (and therein, the Asante
Confederacy) to the new composition of the Republic, which was made up of many
different chieftaincies. Such a sentiment would be in line with the tensions between the
powerful Asante Confederacy and the formation of the newly defined nation that
emerged in the twentieth century. Antubam’s father was an Asante chief but in his own
politics the artist communicated simultaneously an admiration for tradition and a desire to
break away from it.
According to Antumbam, “Art expresses both the tradition and aspirations of a
people, what they consider desirable for the present and the future.... The force of outside
influences is no source of danger to a virile artistic tradition that is too profoundly aware
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
296
See Janet Hess, “Exhibiting Ghana: Display, Documentary and “National” Art in the Nkrumah Era,”
African Studies Review, vol. 44, no. 1 (Apr 2001): 59-77
! 159
of itself to lose its personal and national identity.”297 Although the Kotoko dwa makes
reference to chieftaincy, it does so in a manner that makes it possible to encompass many
different cultures that have similar political structures but do not identify themselves with
the Golden Stool as the Asante do.
At the same time, the Asante are frequently symbolized by the Kotoko or
porcupine symbol, which may suggest that the artist was intentionally asserting two
distinctly Asante emblems within the national design. Why Antubam placed the Kotoko
dwa in a superior position to the Golden Stool is an intriguing question with many
possible answers. Whatever its intended meaning, the integration of the new stool type in
the Seat of State of Ghana fits within the larger twentieth century trend of mobilizing
stools as a ubiquitous emblem of Ghanaian national identity. Whether found in
architectural features, on printed cloth or napkin holders (among a myriad of other
things), the stool is synonymous with the identity of independent Ghana in a global
sphere.
Catholic and Anglican Altars as Stools
Anglican and Catholic churches in the Ashanti Region developed another
important variation of the sese dwa in the second half of the twentieth century: their
altars. In post-Independence Ghana, the Catholic and Anglican churches both underwent
significant changes in their approaches to Christianity. As Pashington Obeng explains,
prior to the consecration of Rev. Dr. Peter Kwasi Sarpong (an Asante born in Maase-
Offinso) as Bishop of the Kumase Catholic Diocese in November 1969, “the church’s
energy was spent on establishing a mission station, mainly to ‘convert’ the Asante to
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
297
Quoted in Lawrence Grobel, “Ghana’s Vincent Kofi,” African Arts, vol. 3, no. 4 (1964): 68.
! 160
Christianity and consequently transform their culture.”298 Lead by European priests who
labeled activities like drumming, dancing, puberty rites and festivals “pagan,” Asante
Catholics were expected to wholly abandon all traditional responsibilities such as
ancestral veneration and take on the lifestyle (as well as the beliefs) of the missionaries.
Preceding the Bishopric of Sarpong, mass was given in Latin and sermons offered in
English (in some cases with a vernacular translation) and clerical vestments were
purchased or copied from European prototypes.299
Sarpong’s appointment followed shortly after Vatican II (1962 – 1965), an
ecumenical council composed of the world’s Roman Catholic religious leaders, who met
to discuss changes to the Church’s doctrine. One of the key outcomes from the process
was the shift toward an openness to engage in dialogue with other world religions and
practices. Although Africa was not the intended focus of the discussions, the documents
produced through the council continue to provide guidance in the continent’s Roman
Catholic restructuring.300 In contemporary Kumase, Catholic services now integrate a
wide range of indigenous regalia and rituals. When I attended the Thanksgiving Mass of
the Golden Jubilee in the Priesthood of Most Rev. Peter K. Sarpong (now Archbishop
Emeritus of Kumase) at St. Peter’s Basilica in December 2009, Asante cultural symbols
were everywhere evident. For example, dancers and drummers preceded the entry of the
religious leaders (who had come from all over West Africa and further abroad for the
event) in a manner echoing the ceremonies that occur prior to the entry of an important
chief. The stoles of the priests were kente cloths and many of the Bishop’s mitres featured
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
298
Pashington Obeng, Asante Catholicism: Religious and Cultural Reproduction Among the Akan of Ghana
(New York: E.J. Brill, 1996): 121.
299
Ibid. 121-122.
300
Ibid. 121-123.
! 161
adinkra symbols. The key officiants took their seats on asipim and akonkromfi chairs
underneath an umbrella comparable to those used by the most elite Asante chiefs and
queen mothers.
When I attended Anglican services at St. Cyprien’s Cathedral and St. Anne’s
Parish (the Seat of the Manhyia Archdeaconry) in November 2009, I witnessed similar
kinds of integration of indigenous symbols, regalia and practices. Like the Catholic
Cathedral, religious leaders at St. Cyprien’s sit under an umbrella on chairs similar to
those used by chiefs. At St. Anne’s, which is the official church of the Asantehene, the
service was given entirely in Twi and presenting the offering (which I was invited to
participate in by the Guild of the Good Shepherd, who was responsible for providing it
that week) involved carrying baskets of various foodstuffs to the altar while we and the
rest of the parish danced to lively music to express our thanks.
These various adaptations mean that services differ dramatically from the types
formerly offered by European missionaries. For the purposes of this discussion, one of
the most interesting modifications made by Anglican and Catholic churches in Kumase in
recent decades is the integration of stool-shaped altars. While the altars in Anglican and
Catholic churches elsewhere in the country have a standard shape more akin to what one
would find in most North American or European institutions, many of the churches in
Asante have stool-shaped altars in their sanctuaries and chapels. According to Rt. Rev.
Edmund K. Yeboah, who was the Bishop of Kumase from 1985 to 1998, the
incorporation of the stool shape took root in the latter half of the twentieth century, when
! 162
the Anglican and Catholic churches began to expand their influence, build new structures
and integrate indigenous emblems.301
Figure 41 Stool-shaped chapel altar at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Kumase.

The altars are not exact replicas of asese dwa, but their configurations suggest the
stool form most often by surmounting a central support structure with a top that has
upturned ends. St. Cyprien’s Cathedral, which was created in 1973, has a cement altar
that features a curving “seat” as its surface that rests on top of three cubic supports. St.
Paul’s Anglican church has a stool-shaped altar in its main space that has a hexagonal
support and one in a small side chapel done in tile-work that has a solid central column
emblazoned with a blue cross (see Figure 41). The rear side of the chapel altar has a small
cubby for keeping the host. St. Anne’s church has a stool-shaped altar with a stylized
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
301
Rt. Rev. Edmund K. Yeboah, Bishop of Kumase 1985-1998, in conversation with the author, November
2009.
! 163
alpha omega symbol as its core support and St. Mary’s Catholic parish has two
converging triangles with a cross decorating them as its stool-altar.
Most individuals with whom I spoke offered the same reason for the use of a stool
as altar: it symbolizes that Christ is the “king of kings” or “top chief.” These ideas
parallel the integration of other motifs and regalia such as the umbrella and asipim chairs
used by officiants. However, in the case of the Anglican Church, there is another layer to
add. When Asantehene Prempeh I returned from exile in 1924 one of his first acts was to
have the desecrated Golden Stool refurbished. In 1929, two years before his death, he
was eager to present the Stool to the public to reassure everyone that stability had
returned to Asante. While he was in Seychelles, Prempeh had converted to Anglicanism.
As Emmanuel Akyeampong has explained, Prempeh seemed to have a very ambivalent
relationship with his new faith and there are dissenting opinions about whether his
conversion was intended as a manipulation of the British or he truly shared their
beliefs.302 Either way, when he presented the restored Golden Stool to the Asante peoples
in 1929 he chose to do so at the Thanksgiving Service at St. Cyprien’s Anglican Church
in Kumase.
Quoting from the Duncan-Johnstone papers at Oxford, Akyeampong reveals that
the Golden Stool was paraded through the streets in a manner reminiscent of the Odwira
celebration of Asante nationhood, after which it was placed in front of the altar in the
church. Prempeh and the Queen Mother then removed all of their ornaments before
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
302
Emmanuel Akyeampong, “Christianity, Modernity and the Weight of Tradition in the Life of
‘Asantehene’ Agyeman Prempeh I, c. 1888-1931, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol.
69, no. 2 (1999): 279-311.
! 164
kneeling to offer thanks for his safe return.303 As Akyeampong queries, “was Prempeh
supplicating the Christian altar, the Golden Stool that was strategically positioned in front
of the altar, or both? Is it worth remembering that the Asantehene always removed his
ornaments before entering the stool room of his ancestors.”304
Whether or not the Asantehene was directing himself toward the altar, Golden
Stool, or both, when he and the queen mother submitted, their actions were critical for a
society who had long awaited the return of their superior leader and guide. It is possible
that the way the Asantehene presented the Golden Stool had some kind of impact on the
subsequent integration of the stool-as-altar in the Asante Anglican Church. In many
ways, Prempeh’s actions presupposed or even laid the groundwork for a new way of
thinking about Anglicanism and, more broadly, Christianity, as something that could
exist in tandem with indigenous beliefs.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
303
Emmanuel Akyeampong, “Christianity, Modernity and the Weight of Tradition in the Life of
‘Asantehene’ Agyeman Prempeh I, c. 1888-1931, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, vol.
69, no. 2 (1999): 304-305.
304
Ibid. 305.
! 165
Conclusion
! 166
In the summer of 2007 a billboard for SG-SSB International Business Centre, a
majority European-owned financial services company based in France, dominated one of
Kumase’s busy roundabouts (see Figure 42). The advertisement featured an image of a
freshly carved stool with the hands of the carver still applying the finishing touches. The
slogan next to the image read, “Carve a Strong Niche on the International Market” and a
list of services, including such things as foreign accounts and import assistance, appeared
in smaller print above it. What caught my attention at the time, and what continues to
resonate with me five years on, is the way the billboard so neatly encapsulates the
complex issues at stake in navigating the dynamic history of Asante stools in the
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Figure 42 SG-SSB Billboard, Kumase, Ghana, June 2007. (Image credit: Catherine Hale)
The incorporation of the new stool type, rather than the sese dwa used most
frequently by queen mothers, is significant. At first assessment, the pairing of an Asante
stool with the slogan “Carve Your Niche on the International Market,” appears to suggest
the promotion of a uniquely Asante identity within the global sphere. Yet, as the
! 167
preceding discussion illustrated, the new stool type is more closely associated with
broader notions of Ghanaian nationalism (as evidenced in the Seat of State of Ghana) and
external perceptions of Asante identity (as the most popular item in tourist markets) than
it is with local politics and ritual.
It is worth noting that the billboard was located in one of the most affluent areas
of the city, where hotels and banking institutions abound and expats from around the
world frequently stay for extended periods of time. This begs the question: who is the
advertisement’s intended audience? Although it is tempting to hypothesize about the
intentions of the advertiser, the main point I want to focus on here is that this marketing
strategy exemplifies the larger phenomenon that has impacted Asante stools and African
material culture in the course of cross-cultural exchanges throughout the twentieth
century. Namely, framing them in terms of vocabulary, ideas and concepts that are
professed to be local or “authentic” but more often than not reflect the perceptions and/or
misperceptions of external agents. Here, it is particularly salient that the adinkra symbol
depicted on the stool on the SG-SSB billboard appears to be an abbreviation of
kintinkantan, which is a warning against arrogance.
Late-nineteenth and early twentieth century collectors appear to have understood
the Asante stools they acquired primarily through the lens of male chieftaincy and
equations with British monarchical symbols. Their narratives about these objects, which
established the dominant framework for thinking about Asante stools for much of the
twentieth century, overlooked the critical connections between women, queen mothers
and stools. Although the ways that asese dwa symbolize chiefs and their authority in
Asante domains are important facets of their histories, this function cannot be separated
! 168
from stools’ association with queen mothers. In fact, it is exactly the stool’s critical link
with queen mothers that makes it an effective symbol of chieftaincy. Put another way, the
stool is an emblem of a chief because it makes reference to the queen mother who gave
him the right to rule.
Oral histories of lineage origins and variations of the Golden Stool story indicate
that women’s roles in Asante have long been vital components of their larger socio-
political system. The female puberty rite bragoro exemplifies the celebration of fecundity
and motherhood that is cherished in the Asante worldview. In each of these contexts,
queen mothers’ engagement with stools is foregrounded, suggesting the pivotal
relationship between the form of the stool and ideas of fertility and cultural propagation.
Conceived on multiple levels as a (female) body, the sese dwa is at once mother, queen
mother, and ancestress, who ensure the continuation of the lineage. Striking parallels
between asese dwa and traditional architecture push this connection even further to
highlight the centrality of women within their communities and Asante more broadly. At
the same time, women’s association with Asante stools appears to extend beyond a rigid
definition of sex to more fluid ideas of gender. In these contexts, the complementarity of
partnered roles, such as chief and okyeame, characterize the feminine-masculine balance
of Asante leadership structures.
As the case studies and related examples of Asante stool archives demonstrate,
queen mothers’ possession and uses of asese dwa are fluid and dynamic. Contrary to the
outline established by Rattray and subsequent authors, there is no clear delineation of
“rules” about who can own which designs. Instead, the prescriptions shift and change
according to the context and attitudes of the most superior leader. In many ways, queen
! 169
mothers perform their identity through the use of stools and other regalia in an ongoing
process of negotiation. Like innumerable art forms from across the African continent,
such as masks or cloths, the meaning and significance of asese dwa must be understood
within a larger framework of performance.
As is the case with much African art housed in museums and circulating in the
international market, global understandings of Asante stools have been mediated through
the perspectives of outsiders with varying biases, levels of familiarity with Asante
culture, and access to information. It is only in retrospect that scholars, museum
professionals and other stakeholders are now able to start unraveling information and
seeking out additional persepctives to develop more comprehensive understandings of
these unique objects. As the preceding discussion demonstrates, investigating queen
mothers’ relationships with stools is a crucial element of building a more comprehensive
history of these vital socio-political symbols.
! 170
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Asante Stools and the Matrilineage

The Harvard community has made this

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11004913

Catherine Meredith Hale

The Department of History of Art and Architecture

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

History of Art and Architecture

All rights reserved.

Asante Stools and the Matrilineage

Discussions of Asante stools in Western literature and museum records have

symbol of female fecundity and the propagation of the Asante peoples.

commissioned and used stools in an ongoing and context-dependent process of

List of Figures ............................................................................................................vii

Glossary of Key Terms ..............................................................................................x

Chapter 1 Re-Engendering Asante Stools..................................................................31

Chapter 2 Bodies and Stools: Ritual, Structure and Symbols....................................59

Chapter 3 The Primacy of Archives...........................................................................107

I am greatly indebted to my supervisor, Prof. Suzanne P. Blier, for her exceptional

development of this project.

Nana Frempong Boadu, Nana Brefo-Boateng, S. F. Adjei, Adom Gyamfi Richard,

Elizabeth Paul Hutchison, Ebenezer Aikins-Opoku, Millington Dofuoh, Kwaku Amoako,

Stephen Anderson, and Charity and Chris Scott.

Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard kindly provided me with access to

their collections and archives to aid in my research.

start to finish of my doctoral degree.

support and encouragement.

Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Committee on African Studies

(Harvard University), and the Stanley-UI Foundation Support Organization (University

Figure 1 The Golden Stool or Sika Dwa Kofi

Figure 3 Underside of Sese Dwa showing concentric squares carved around

Figure 7 Chair for the Offinsohene commissioned by the Offinsohemaa to keep in

Figure 9 Map of Ghana showing contemporary administrative regions.

Figure 10 Nana Kwartemaa Nyiano Ababio, Wadie Adwumakasehemaa, sitting on

Figure 11 “Yaw Sapong, Asante Chief,” photographed by Frederick A. L. Ramseyer

Figure 13 Young initiates ‘enstooled’ publically as part of bragoro. Nana Darkowaa

Figure 17 Basic four-part plan of traditional Asante architecture.

Figure 18 “The King’s Sleeping Room,” illustrated by T.E. Bowdich.

Figure 23 Asante Stool collected by Garnet Joseph Wolseley, c. 1874, purported to

Figure 25 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s Pantu stool.

Figure 26 Nana Ama Serwah Nyarko’s historical Mmaa dwa.

Figure 30 Nana Braku Yaa I’s Bathing Stool.

Figure 31 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Bathing Stool.

Figure 32 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s contemporary Mmaa dwa.

Figure 33 Nana Yaa Birago Kokodurofo’s Obi-te-obi-so stool.

Figure 34 Nana Birago Ababio’s contemporary Mmaa dwa.

Figure 35 Nana Birago Ababio’s Kotoko dwa.

Figure 36 Kontonkowori in the collection of the British Museum that I showed to

Figure 37 Nana Akosua Abrafi II’s Kotoko dwa.

Figure 40 Seat of State of Ghana.

Figure 41 Stool-shaped chapel altar at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Kumase.

Figure 42 SG-SSB Billboard, Kumase, Ghana, June 2007.

Abusuapanin – male head of clan or lineage (abusua)

Asantehemaa – paramount queen mother/leader of the Asante peoples (female)

Asantehene –paramount chief/leader of the Asante peoples (male)

Nkonnwafieso – stool house where blackened stools of ancestors are kept

Obaapanin – female head of a clan or lineage (abusua)

Obosom (pl. Abosom) – tutelary gods

Obremponhemaa (pl. Abremponhemaa) – queen mother, subordinate to the Omanhemaa