Description
Akunitan were one of the lesser known but very striking styles of prestige male dress in mid C20th Ghana, these dramatic motifs were machine embroidered onto imported wool cloth. Very finely made akunitan cloth with motifs that include a peacock, tortoise, fish, crocodile, lion, elephant, royal stool, etc. Maroon ground akunitan were less popular than the dark blue ground style and are consequently less often found today. The cloth is in excellent condition and dates to around 1960. A number of these cloths are in major museum collections. The motifs, like much Akan art, allude to proverbs and royal imagery. As Cole and Ross note in the volume “Arts of Ghana” (1977) “each “cloth of the great” is in fact a set of allusions to a chief’s power and responsibility.” I wonder if there’s an echo of these in the very bright large scale embroidered designs on the latest style of high end kente in Ghana.
Measures 149 ins x 80 ins, 380 cm x 204 cm.
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