Every six weeks, on the Akan forty-two-day calendar
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Akwasidae: the kingdom, still running
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Akwasidae: the kingdom, still running
The Asante kingdom did not become a museum. Every forty-two days, on a Sunday, the Asantehene holds Akwasidae: the ancestors are honoured in the stool room, and then the court comes out.
The Asantehene sits under a great umbrella that is spun above him. Chiefs approach with their own umbrellas and their own drums and their own linguists — the ɔkyeame, who holds a staff and speaks for his chief, because a chief does not address a crowd directly. Gold on wrists, ankles, headbands and sandals. Fontomfrom and atumpan drums, which are not accompaniment but speech: the talking drums pronounce the king's praise-names in Twi and everyone present can understand them.
Visitors can attend. It is public. You are watching a state that was founded in the 1690s conduct its ordinary business.
Akwasidae is not a performance of a vanished kingdom. It is a living reminder that history can still organise public life.
If you visit Ghana. At Manhyia Palace, ask when the next Akwasidae takes place. The ceremony follows the Akan forty-two-day calendar.
The Asante kingdom did not become a museum. Every forty-two days, on a Sunday, the Asantehene holds Akwasidae: the ancestors are honoured in the stool room, and then the court comes out.
The Asantehene sits under a great umbrella that is spun above him. Chiefs approach with their own umbrellas and their own drums and their own linguists — the ɔkyeame, who holds a staff and speaks for his chief, because a chief does not address a crowd directly. Gold on wrists, ankles, headbands and sandals. Fontomfrom and atumpan drums, which are not accompaniment but speech: the talking drums pronounce the king's praise-names in Twi and everyone present can understand them.
Visitors can attend. It is public. You are watching a state that was founded in the 1690s conduct its ordinary business.
Akwasidae is not a performance of a vanished kingdom. It is a living reminder that history can still organise public life.