flag
- Museum number
- Af1978,22.715
- Description
-
Asafo flag, with a tree and animals. The base cloth is of blue silk, with a border of red and yellow rectangles plus a white cotton fringe around three sides, and a wide strip with cotton ties on the fourth side. Both side have the same colourful design of a palm tree flanked by an elephant, a four-legged animal (a leopard?) and a bird together with a man at the side holding a sword and a pair of scales. These have been cut out from coloured cloths and sewn down onto each side. A Union Jack in red, white and black cotton has been sewn down onto an upper corner. There is no text.
- Production date
- 1900-1920 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 180 centimetres
-
Width: 123 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
The popularity of this motif was probably influenced by the use of an image of an elephant standing in front of a palm tree as the British symbol for the Gold Coast Colony (Cole & Ross, 1977: 216; fig.397).
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Image of elephant with trunk wrapped around palm tree is one of the most popular asafo company motifs.
Power symbol for No. 3 Company illustrating the proverb: 'Only the elephant can uproot the palm tree', indicating that while the palm tree is the strongest in the plant world, the elephant has superior strength.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Turquoise cloth sewn onto back to support deteriorating silk.
- Acquisition date
- 1978
- Acquisition notes
- The Barclay Collection comprises material inherited by Mrs Celia Barclay in 1961 from her father, Maurice Cockin. The Nigerian part of the collection was accumulated between 1911-1914 by Cockin in Southern Nigeria where he worked as an Assistant District Commissioner.
The majority of the collection from Ghana is believed to have been acquired in the Gold Coast between 1895-1920 by Sir Cecil Armitage who served in the army and then as Commissioner in Ashanti and the Northern Territories. After Armitage's death in 1933 part of his collection was purchased by Mrs Cockin.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af1978,22.715
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: C.47 (Barclay Collection number)
