FANTE ASAFO FLAG: WILL YOU FLY OR WILL YOU VANISH
GHANA, EARLY 20TH CENTURY
£1,900
African & Oceanic Art and Antiquities
Auction: 21 March 2018 at 11:00 GMT
Description
cotton applique flag, depicting a cockatrice devouring a hunter with unattended rifle below, a Union Jack to the top left hand corner surrounded by a navy blue, white and red chevron border
Dimensions
190x111cm
Footnote
Please note; Framed by John Jones to museum quality, the flag is mounted on a cotton backing and presented in a wooden frame.
Beginning in the 17th century, the Fante groups which inhabited the south-west coast of modern-day Ghana formed military and political units known as 'asafo' (deriving from sa, meaning war, and fo, meaning people). Each unit developed elaborate traditions of visual art, most striking of all the flags shown here. These comprised of bold naïve imagery appliqued onto a cotton background, they commonly depict indigenous proverbs which relate closely to the commissioning Asafo group. With the British conquest of the region in 1856 many Asafo groups incorporated versions of the Union Jack into the flag to enhance the power of the imagery.
This image is inspired by the dragons, griffins, cockatrices and wyverns of European heraldry. The Fante say of this monster "it can fly, it can dig the ground, it can go anywhere".