Asante (Ashanti) weight in the form of a stool

One of 84 Asante (Ashanti) brass weights for measuring gold in the form of a stool.

This is an Asante (Ashanti) weight in the form of a stool used by the Asante people of West Africa to measure and trade commodities.

Asante weights were produced in a wide variety of shapes, patterns, and sizes by skilled metalworkers. Each design could carry a particular meaning and provide an insight into the Akan people and their culture. This one represents the Asante belief that stools hold the soul, or spirit (sumsum) of its owner. According to legend, a golden stool descended from Heaven into the lap of Osei Tutu (1660-1771). This marked the founding of the Asante Empire with Tutu as its first ruler.

The Asante were part of the wider Akan civilisation, which comprised several populations that shared a language and many cultural traditions. They were primarily located in what is now Ghana. The region became known as the ‘Gold Coast’ because of its long-established and lucrative gold trade, which connected Akan states with merchants from across West Africa and European traders with whom they eventually also exchanged enslaved people and firearms. Gold brought considerable wealth to the region contributing to the rise of powerful Akan states. From around 1700, the Asante consolidated their power and expanded to become one of the most powerful empires in West Africa until after a series of conflicts, the British annexed it as a colony in 1902.