Swords of the Asante
After blackened ancestral stools of deceased royals, the most important material symbols of statecraft are swords. Like stools, these swords predate the Asante Confederacy, even if wealthy Asante kingdoms appear to have the most visually and symbolically elaborate examples. Also, like stools, swords originated as practical devices, then passed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through a period of aggrandizement, taking on various non-practical yet even more valuable ideological and ritual roles. Several of the most important swords of the Asante states have their own names, histories, and appointed custodians; one, called Responsibility, has its own set of protective amulets. Many swords thus have spiritual and political associations taking them well beyond mere weaponry. Formal embellishments and dull blades, sometimes with openwork, parallel these ideaological qualities. The basic curved iron blade with scabbard and a hily shaped like a dumbell. The grandest swords have cast gold figural ornaments, as well as other matching regalia worn by their bearers for ritual and festive events. The specific functions and forms of swords vary from state to state. In general, swords are (or were) used for swearing oaths, as symbols of ambassadorial rank and safe passage, during purification rites of chiefs and ancestral state stools, and for display.
*A History of Art in Africa - Visona, Poyner, Cole, Harris, Abiodun, Blier ISBN:0-13-183356-1 |
