Background information

ASANTE STOOL

Made by: Maker unknown

Materials: Wood

Museum number: 34.136

Stools are often a symbol of power and authority in Africa in the same way that the Royal Throne represents power in this country. The Asante have one of the largest ranges of stool designs anywhere in Africa. These differing designs show the many levels of power and authority in their society. The shape of the supports can vary and in the past have been used to distinguish whether they are made for men or women. Silver and gold are added to stools for use by royalty and sometimes carvings of leopards and elephants are used to represent the greatness and fierce nature of a King.

The first stool, covered in gold, was said to have been sent from heaven to the first Asante King. This stool was passed from generation to generation and was believed to be so sacred that no one could ever sit on it. It was believed to contain the soul of the Asante nation and on state occasions it was placed on another chair. The king's own stool was not only a symbol of his authority. It could be withdrawn from him if he lost the respect of his people or could be placed in a shrine and celebrated to remember him after death.

Stools were used by many different types of people who would commission a stool to be made specially for them. Their stool would be appropriate to their place in society and would be related to their personality and spiritual state. Stools in day to day use would become dirty and would be cleaned using water and fine sand and sometimes lime juice before being used in ceremonies.

In the middle of the eighteenth century the Asante Empire was the largest and most powerful state in the region. Its success was built on the strength of its army, mining and trading in gold and trading slaves, both with Europeans and with other African Kingdoms to the North of the Asante Empire. During the nineteenth century the Asante Empire had a series of wars with the British, who wanted to control the gold trade, who eventually defeated the Asante. Today the Asante mostly live in southern Ghana in west Africa. The Asante King is still an important ceremonial and symbolic figure in Ghanaian society.

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