Data Source

National Museum of African Art

Label Text

Among the Asante and neighboring peoples, voluntary music associations (ntan) provide entertainment for a variety of occasions, including weddings, funerals and festivals. Many of the motifs on these drums relate to Asante proverbs and suggest the qualities the society seeks in its members or to the society's relationship to the town. For example the use of a powerful animal such as an elephant, or on this drum a lion, refers to how the ntan group supports the town. The cocoa tree is typically associated with members that are farmers. One of the more unusual motifs on this drum is the elephant riding in a truck driven by an antelope. It is an updating of the earlier motif of an antelope atop an elephant. It may, like the British coat of arms on the front of the drum, refer to the mixing of traditional and colonial powers.

Description

Wood drum with hide drum head mounted on the back of a lion. Low relief of two figures seated at table, British coat of arms, equestrian, elephant, turtle, crossed crocodiles, sankofa, elephant in a truck, cocoa tree, crab, recumbant figure, and other various animals. Traces of metalic paint on lion and multi-colored paint overall.

Provenance

Emil J. Arnold, New York, -- to 1968

Published References

Ross, Doran (ed). 1992. Elephant: The Animal and Its Ivory in African Culture. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, p. 154, no. 7-24. (Drawing of detail of elephant in truck. Wrong accession number printed, 68-36-297.)

Maker

Asante artist

Date

Mid 20th century

Credit Line

Gift of Emil Arnold

Medium

Wood, hide, plant fiber, paint

Dimensions

H x W x D: 118.4 x 53 x 62.9 cm (46 5/8 x 20 7/8 x 24 3/4 in.)

Type

Musical Instrument

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

Object number

68-36-397

Topic

elephant

crocodile

lion

turtle

equestrian

crab

tree

Male use

sankofa

Geography

Ghana