The Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is set to receive 28 more gold ornaments and regalia. These ornaments date back to the nineteenth-century creations of royal artisans of the Asante Court and others.
The objects include linguist staff, swords, palace security locks, rings and necklaces, and proverbial gold-weights of crocodiles. They also include gold scandals reflecting court governance structure and chiefship.
The official presentation will be at a mini durbar at the Manhyia Palace this weekend. The presentation coincides with the centenary anniversary of the return from exile in the Seychelles of Otumfuo’s grand uncle, the 13th Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I.
The durbar would also be in honor of the visiting President of the Seychelles, Wavel Ramkalawan.
Historian and Associate Director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, Ivor Agyeman-Duah, said in a statement today, November 20, that the items are part of the collection of African gold of the AngloGold Ashanti in South Africa.
The Asantehene made a direct invention earlier this year to the multinational company (formerly Ashanti Goldfields), which led to a deaccession agreement.
They had previously been part of the Gold of Africa Museum of AngloGold Ashanti in Cape Town before they were transferred to the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria. “The deaccession to Kumasi, however, follows the approval of an export permit given three weeks ago by the Reserve Bank of South Africa,” the statement said.
Authentication of Gold Regalia
Mr Agyeman-Duah performed the authentication of the acquisition, supported by a member of the Ghana Board of AngloGold Ashanti and former Member of Parliament of Obuasi, Edward Michael Ennin.
The objects, which were produced over a century ago, were purchased by the wealthy Swiss collector of West African art, Joseph Mueller, in 1922. They were part of his collection, which was later turned into the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva.
In 2000, AngloGold Ashanti bought the Barbier-Muller Collection of 350 objects show-casing the best goldsmithery in West Africa and housed them in a century-old Dutch East Indian Company building in Cape Town. The collection’s return to African origins was hailed as a major cultural event.
It was later on that the AngloGold Ashanti’s Gold of Africa Museum merged with the Geneva-based one and became the AngloGold Ashanti Gold of Africa Museum-Barbier Muller Museum in Pretoria.
These objects, Mr. Agyeman-Duah explained, would go into a new contemporary art gallery the Asantehene has recently added to the Manhyia Palace Museum.
The AngloGold delegation
An AngloGold Ashanti delegation to be led by the Chief Sustainability and Corporate Affairs Officer, Stewart Bailey, will include the Senior Vice President of Group Sustainability, Baso Sangou. Also, the Senior Vice President of Africa Non-Operated Venture, Eric Asuoboteng and Legal Resource for Corporate Affairs, Aviona Mabaso, are expected in Kumasi for the presentation.
International accomplishment
A fellow of Yale University’s Director’s Forum, Lekgetho Mokola, who was formerly Director of the Javett Art Centre in Pretoria, says it’s a major internal accomplishment. “Africa,” he said, “is now taking the lead in restitution within its own territories to deal with its own colonial legacies.
“Possibly, the rest of the restitution work beyond our borders will increase in pace to return what belongs to the people of this continent.”
Background
This return brings the number of the restituted and other loaned cultural objects of the nineteenth century received by the Palace this year to 67.
It is the highest such deaccession in Africa in a single year for a very long time. Earlier in February, the Fowler Museum of the University of California at Los Angeles brought in seven objects looted in the 1874 Anglo-Asante War. Later in March, 32 were brought from The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Source: graphiconline
