All that glitters

An MFA exhibit shows the royal adornments and regal craftsmanship of a once-powerful kingdom

November 11, 2005|Globe Correspondent

There's a saying in Ghana, ''if you plant a good tree, you get a push." It suggests that if your goals are worthwhile, you will be supported in your efforts to achieve them.

If ''West African Gold: Akan Regalia from the Glassell Collection," now at the Museum of Fine Arts, is any indication, the Asante people of central Ghana have planted many good trees. The Asante are part of a larger group, the Akan, which comprises several kingdoms in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. The gold-rich region has been an economic powerhouse and center of trade for three centuries. In 1957, the Asante-populated Gold Coast, led by an Asante chief, was the first African colony to achieve independence from the British.

Although Ghana is now a democracy, the regional kingdoms remain, and their kings are respected as men of influence and spiritual leaders. The rituals, traditions, and regalia that surround the kings, including the Asante's current leader, His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, are bright with gold and laden with cultural significance.

''West African Gold," which features just over 100 examples of royal appurtenances, mostly from the 19th and 20th centuries and mostly from the Asante kingdom, comes to the MFA from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. That's just a fraction of the collection amassed by businessman Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., which totals more than 900 objects.

The MFA version, tailored down from a traveling show of 130 objects to fit the Loring Gallery, focuses on royal dress and adornment -- a practical decision that omits a crucial symbol of Ghanaian kingship: the golden stool. The first golden stool was said to have descended from the heavens in the early 18th century. The kings do not sit on them, but when a ruler is coronated, a golden stool is ritually touched to his buttocks. When the Asante king was here last week, he bestowed one on MFA director Malcolm Rogers.

Also missing is a dose of historical context. The catalog and wall text barely touch on what part the gold market in West Africa played in the slave trade, and to what extent Akan leaders were involved in it. ''They were middlemen," Christraud Geary, the MFA's curator of African and Oceanic Art, says in an interview. ''Ghanaians acknowledge their role in the slave trade. It's a tragic part of their history."

How did colonization and the movement toward independence come to bear on these kingdoms? Passing reference is made to the Asante's bellicosity. In fact, they went to war against the British several times, the last time in 1901.