(Ur. ¿4^9
The Sacred Stools of Ashanti
By Peter Kwasi Sarpong
Contents :
introduction
I. The Religious Beliefs of the Ashanti
1. The Supreme Being
2. Minor Gods
3. Ancestral Spirits
II. The Ashanti Stool and the Ancestral Blackened Stool
1. Ashanti Stools
2. The Ancestral Blackened Stool
3. The Essential Function of Blackened Stools in the Worship of Ancestors
Conclusion
Introduction
Ashanti was one of the four regions of pre-independent Gold Coast. After
independence, however, Ashanti was divided into what is now Ashanti proper
and Brong/Ahafo regions. For the purpose of this article, we shall use Ashanti to
include Brong/Ahafo region.
Linguistically and culturally, Ashanti is a scion of the wide spread Akan
nation which speaks the various forms of Twi (Ashanti, Akuapim, Akyem, etc.)
in the forest and Fanti on the coast. Except for a few details, the ideas expressed
in this article can be said to be peculiar to the Akan people as a whole.
Among the most celebrated regions in the history of West Africa is
Ashanti, whose belligerent behaviour in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
not only enabled it to dominate its neighbours, but also to prevent the British
from colonizing it for years. Its indigenous high culture has made it very famous
in the anthropological world. The degree to which it has developed the arts of
carving, weaving, pottery and weighing gold, makes visitors look on it with
Note of the editor: This article is taken from a longer work dealing with the problem
how traditional rites of the Ashanti are applicable to Christian cult. Solving this problem
we have first to ask for the sense of the religious rites. This has been done here by a young
African who took his material from the literature at hand, from his fellow-countrymen,
and from his own experiences.
K.J.N.
(i 1»)
Anthropos 62. 1967
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