Akan crown

Crown from the Akan people of Ghana | Velvet, wood and gold leaf | Early to mid 1900

The Akan people are a matrilineal culture of west Africa who have dominated the Gold Coast (present Day Ghana) sine the 11th century AD.  It is believed that they migrated from the Sahara and the Sahel due to desertification and famine.  Akan political hierarchy has the same sort of feudal layering familiar from medieval Europe.  Powerful emperors and kings ruled over lesser local kings who in turn demanded liege homage from war chieftains and local chiefs.  As in medieval Europe, all of these tiers of kings, leaders, chiefs, and aristocrats involved plenty of materialistic status objects.  The Gold Coast derives its name not in a Greenland/Iceland style misdirection campaign, or from the Gold Family, or because of the glittering yellow sunsets.  It is called that because large quantities of gold were found there in historical times.  All of which leads us to today’s crown, which was crafted for an important chief or a lesser king of the the Akan sometime in the 19th century.  The dominant (and delightful) feature of the headdress are geometric charms crafted of wood and covered with gold leaf.  Against the black velvet background they look a bit like the starry nighttime sky. The charms undoubtedly have indivdual symbolic meanings which are beyond me, but the larger meaning–that the wearer is an important person with wealth and important connections–are instantly obvious.  One symbol though is quite recognizable: the crown is surmounted by star and crescent symbol of Islam which was brought to the Akan early on by caravan traders from the north.  For centuries Islam has existed alongside the ancient traditional mythology (which involves a spider sky god!) and Christianity.

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