Art and Chieftaincy in Ahwiaa Culture

Ahwiaa chieftaincy is never devoid of its monumental artistic creations. Ahwiaa is a town in the northern part of Kumasi in which the people are predominantly carvers. According to oral traditions, the people who have naturalised as Asantes were brought from Denkyira by the first Asante King, Nana Osei Tutu I, specifically to carve stools and other wood artefacts for him and all other paramount chiefs of the Asante Kingdom in Ghana. The principal motivation of this study stems from the fact that although a great deal of art pervades the chieftaincy system of Ahwiaa culture, it has received little recognition in scholarly circles. Furthermore, an in-depth research on the role of art and chieftaincy in the cultural system of Ahwiaa enables and even excites comparison between the culture of Ahwiaa and that of other towns where the cultural system is dominated by art and chieftaincy.

Autorentext

Nana Kwaku Asiedu, PhD: studied History and African Art and Culture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He also Studied Business Education at Winneba, Kumasi campus. He is currently principal, Foso College of Education, Assim Foso. He is a historian, Educationist and a Cultural Anthropologist.