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Description: The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana
I was pleased to accept the Dallas Museum of Art’s invitation to write a foreword to this catalogue. We Asante are justly proud of our long history and our rich and complex culture. I believe that the exhibition The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana marks an important step forward in presenting and explaining that culture to the wider world.
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PublisherDallas Museum of Art
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Foreword
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Description: Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene by Frimpong, Gordon
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene (Photograph by Gordon Frimpong, Kumasi, 2009).
Description: f0013-01
I was pleased to accept the Dallas Museum of Art’s invitation to write a foreword to this catalogue. We Asante are justly proud of our long history and our rich and complex culture. I believe that the exhibition The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana marks an important step forward in presenting and explaining that culture to the wider world.
Visitors to this exhibition and readers of this publication will learn about a dazzling range of Asante artifacts, including intricately cast gold regalia, strikingly colorful kente textiles, cast brass weights for weighing gold, a range of impressive wood carvings, and many other items. All of these demonstrate the supreme skills of their makers, skills that have been refined over the centuries and continue to enrich our society today. Visitors and readers will also learn how these works relate to the history of Asante and to the various roles, including the crucial role of women, within our matrilineal society. It takes creative minds to plan, innovative minds to explore, and enterprising spirits to execute for success.
The central object in the exhibition The Power of Gold is the cast gold spider recently acquired by the Museum. Thanks to the work of Dr. Walker, its history has been traced back to the 1880s and the reign of my predecessor, Kwaku Dua II. The recently discovered history of this object casts new light on the complex interactions between the Kingdom of Asante and outside powers, while the exhibition as a whole reminds us that from its earliest days Asante was part of a trading and political network that stretched far beyond its boundaries in West Africa.
Today there are many Asante and other Ghanaians residing in the United States. For them, this exhibition offers a unique opportunity to be reminded of the richness of their culture and its historical depth, and to share these artifacts with others who know far less about the ancient Asante kingdom. I firmly believe that mutual understanding and respect will grow out of such encounters, and that as a result, all those who attend the exhibition will be enriched. I wish the exhibition every success.
Description: f0013-02
OTUMFUO OSEI TUTU II, ASANTEHENE
MANHYIA PALACE, KUMASI
Asantehene’s Foreword
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