Akan Brass Rectangular Box (Forowa)

The Akan of Ghana produced a range of containers from imported sheet brass. This example, designed as a rectangular chest with a hinged cover and sitting on a pierced foot, 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 geometric and other motifs including lizards, birds, and a padlock. The decoration on the cover is divided into nine squares each of which is decorated with an animal including a coiled snake and birds. One square has a flower motif.

A similar example is illustrated in 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.