CARVED IN WOOD: SYMBOLISM IN THE WOOD CARVINGS OF THE AKAN OF GHANA

Stools

The stool is one of the more ubiquitous types of woodcarving in Ghana. The Akan stool is carved from one piece of wood. There are three distinct forms (or shapes) of the Akan stool. One is the formless stool with a handle. This stool is called dufua. The second type is circular in shape. The third type of stool has a rectangular concave seat with vertical supports - it is referred to as asesegua or asesedwa. It is the third type of stool that the rest of this chapter focuses on. The stool is carved with a symbol in the middle part. These symbols are given names that reinforce the prestige of the political office if the stool is owned by a chief or the the prestige and status of the owner. Some of the stool names serve to evoke, record, and communicate some aspects of Akan beliefs, history, social values and cultural norms.

Among the Akan, the stool has varied functions. First, it is an utilitarian object found in every  household. Second, the stool is an object associated with rites of passage. For example, during the naming ceremony, the one week-old child's buttocks are touched on a stool to signify that the child is welcome to the household and that the child should feel hospitable. Also, the crawling child is given a stool by its father to mark the survival of the dangerous period of infancy; in this instance, it denotes the continuity of life. During the female puberty rite, called bra gorɔ, the girl is ceremoniously placed on a stool to signify admission to womanhood. When a bridegroom presents a stool to his new wife, it symbolizes marital permanence.

Stools indicate status, power and succession of chiefs and kings. Carved from single blocks, Akan stools traditionally have crescent-shaped seats, flat bases and complex support structures, which exist in many designs with symbolic meaning. Most had specific names and designated users. Akan stools are spiritual as well as practical. They were understood to be the seat of the owner's soul and when not in use were leaned against a wall so that other souls passing by would not settle on it.

Abusua Kahyire
   The third function of a stool is the use of the stool as a sacred object. As Peter Sarpong (1971) described it, many civilizations and ancient societies worship the dead and communicate with their spirits in numerous ways, but none of them "communicates with their ancestors through the medium of a stool. The veneration of stools is a special peculiarity of the Akan-speaking peoples of Ghana" (Sarpong, 1971). The stool is used in ancestor veneration. In this regard the stool serves as a medium through which the living establish and maintain contact with the ancestors. It serves as physical manifestation of the spiritual links between the living, the dead and the yet-to-be-born members of the family or the society. This function of the stool is encoded in the stool symbol called abusua kahyire (see picture above).

The stool is far more than just a seat. It is the first present from a father to his small child, and the child soon learns that a stool contains the soul of its owner. When he is not sitting on the stool, it must be tilted on its side so that no evil spirits may sit there. Making stools, then, is an important task of the Akan woodcarver. He carves the stool from a single piece of wood. The varieties of designs come in the decoration of the legs or the column between the flat base and the curved seat. The carver knows that the designs have meanings and that some of them can only be used on certain stools. There are men's stools, women's stools, and those designed for kings, queens, or priests.

In an everyday context, the stool is imbued with the being of its owner, as if the person's sunsum - essence or spirit is absorbed into it upon each sitting. To prevent another person's sunsum from entering it, a stool is placed on its side when not in use, particularly during night time.

The fourth function of stool stems from its use as political symbol. The stool functions in the Akan political system as symbol of legitimacy. The various levels of the Akan political system -  from the abusua (family) through ɔdekuro (town) to the ɔmanhene (state) use the stool as august emblems of political, judicial, and social leadership. In the Akan political system the stool denotes the office of the ɔhene (or ɔdekuro) and also of subordinate officials such as  divisional chiefs (e.g., benkumhene) or bureaucrats such as ɔkyeame (linguist). When a person is elected chief, he is "enstooled" in the office; during his reign he is said to "sit upon the stool," and when he dies in office, the Akan say, "the stool is fallen."

San kɔnu w'abε - Go back and tend your palm tree