Akan Brass Domed Box (Forowa)

The Akan of Ghana produced a range of containers from imported sheet brass. This example, rounded, and sitting on a pierced foot and with a domed lid, was known as a forowa, and was used as a cosmetic container to hold shea butter vegetable fat, which Akan women would rub into their skin. They were also used to store valuable items such as beads, medicinal powders, cowrie shells and gold dust.

The sides are embossed with various motifs including a pair of traditional Akan sandals, a bird, and flower motifs. The high domed lid has borders of vertical banding, arches and is surmounted by a low ‘button’ finial.

The form most probably is based on that of a tradition Ghanaian round hut with a domed roof.

Similar examples are illustrated in Falgayrettes-Leveau et al (2003, p. 175), Walker (2018, p. 73), and Cole & Ross (1977, p. 64).

Forowa production is likely to have stopped by the 1920s.

There are no significant copper deposits to make brass in Ghana, so the brass and copper used was imported either from European coastal trade or via trans-Saharan trade, either in sheet form already, or in metal manilas that were then melted and beaten by native metalworkers.

The Akan are a broad group largely based in Ghana of which the Asante (Ashanti) are a sub-group. Much of the wealth of the Akan came from trade in gold dust. They sourced the gold dust by panning the rivers for gold and by sluicing soil known to hold gold dust. The fact that most of the gold found in Akan lands was in the form of tiny particles (rather than say nuggets or seams) meant that a whole range of implements and containers adept at handling and storing gold dust were evolved. The gold dust was sold to traders from outside the region but also was used as a currency among the Akan.

Most forowa seem to come from the Asante regions of northern rather than southern Ghana and so probably are the work of Asante metalworkers.

The forowa container here is in excellent condition with clear and obvious age.