African Art Collection Auction Ending 9/28

#48 – ASAFO MILITIA FLAG. Fante people, Ghana. The Asafo Company that owned this flag identifies with the small, wily black duiker antelope that has outwitted and defeated a formidable rival Company represented by the captured, dead elephant (upside down) that has been suspended over a cooking pot. This highly insulting message expresses the proverb, “The lion (or elephant) is a fierce (or huge) beast, but it is the duiker that is the King of the bush”. The canton, the Ghana national flag with an asymmetric star, indicates that the flag was made after March 6, 1957, when Ghana became independent. Identical images are appliquéd on both sides. The figures are hand sewn. L 67in. W 45in. Cotton. Exhibited SMA Fathers Museum of African Art Tenafly NJ 2014. Published in “Emblems of Power. Asafo Flags from Ghana” available only from the authors at ppr2001@med.cornell.edu

ASAFO MILITIA FLAG. Fante people, Ghana. The Asafo Company that owned this flag identifies with the small, wily black duiker antelope that has outwitted and defeated a formidable rival Company represented by the captured, dead elephant (upside down) that has been suspended over a cooking pot. This highly insulting message expresses the proverb, “The lion (or elephant) is a fierce (or huge) beast, but it is the duiker that is the King of the bush”. The canton, the Ghana national flag with an asymmetric star, indicates that the flag was made after March 6, 1957, when Ghana became independent. Identical images are appliquéd on both sides. The figures are hand sewn. L 67in. W 45in. Cotton. Exhibited SMA Fathers Museum of African Art Tenafly NJ 2014. Published in “Emblems of Power. Asafo Flags from Ghana” available only from the authors at ppr2001@med.cornell.edu

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