Lost Kingdoms of Africa The Kingdom of
Asante Series 2 Episode 1 of 4
Duration: 1 hour
We know less about Africa's distant past
than almost anywhere else on Earth. But the scarcity of written records doesn't
mean that Africa lacks history - it is found instead in the culture, artefacts
and traditions of the people. In this series, art historian Dr Gus
Casely-Hayford explores some of the richest and most vibrant histories in the
world, revealing fascinating stories of four complex and sophisticated
civilisations: the Kingdom of Asante, the Zulu Kingdom, the Berber Kingdom of
Morocco and the Kingdoms of Bunyoro & Buganda.
In this episode, Dr Casely-Hayford
travels to Ghana in West Africa, where a powerful kingdom once dominated the
region. Asante was built on gold and slaves, which ensured its important place
in an economy that linked three continents. He reveals how this sophisticated
kingdom emerged from the unlikely environment of dense tropical forest and how
it was held together by a shared sense of tradition and history - one
deliberately moulded by the kingdom's rulers
Paulina says: I think if I were to look
at a lost kingdom in Ghana’s history, I wouldn’t choose the Asante Kingdom
which is still very much alive as Dr Gus found out but maybe the rarely documented
‘Koma Land’ clay figures from Ghana ancient past (more of that later)..
Anyway, I’ve just finished watching cultural
historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford’s first episode of the second series of Lost Kingdoms of Africa –The Kingdom of Asante and
unfortunately that famous Johnny Nash song is blowing through my mind, yep….. ‘There
are more questions than answers’…
I don’t know if its disappointment or the very real realization that a
kingdom like Asante cannot be condensed into an hour long episode without losing
some of its important truths like the (nearly) one hundred years war with the
British or internal fractions with fellow Akan group like the Fantes…
Also Dr Gus Casely-Hayford’s was shown some ancient ‘Koma Land’ clay
figures (now that’s a lost empire I know nothing about) believed to be between
800 and 1,400 years old. See (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8518185.stm)
(http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=5462)
–which I had hope would have been given more airtime.
These ancient figurines referred to as the ‘Koma Land’ clay figures - go
some way to verifying that we the people of Ghana, be it the Asantes or Fantes (Dr
Gus Casely-Hayford’s tribe) -didn’t just crawl out of the ground in the 15th
Century just because the Portuguese arrived and started documenting our existence
then, –but we have existed in this area since 600 and 1200 AD to the present –a
fact that matters –me thinks….
Still …..whilst the lions has yet to start writing down its own stories,
the hunters will always be the heroes, plus this episode was about the unification
of the powerful Asante kingdom and its symbols of wealth and power which had
its zenith in the 18th century when its founder Osei Kofi Tutu 1 (along with Okomfo
Anokye) was crowned Asantehene (King of all Ashanti) in 1701 ---so I guess it
was never going to be about ‘Koma Land’ clay figures (big sigh)…..
Anyway as I stated earlier, this episode has left me with more questions
than answers –and highlighted just how very mysterious Ghana’s history is and
continues to be, plus I’m guessing the BBC got what it wanted, –the Asante
kingdom pared down, sanitized and pummeled into bite size pieces, perfect for
an hour’s consumption by people who probably know less now about the Asante
kingdom than before they watched this simplistic account of said empire… Plus I’m
wondering why Dr Gus Casely-Hayford didn’t let the viewer’s know his family hails
from Ghana, ---that he is also an Akan???
But fundamentally, I wanted to
watch a 'real' lost kingdom from Ghana --and this wasn’t it…
“There are more questions than answers
Pictures in my mind that will not showThere are more questions than answers
And the more I find out the less I know
Yeah, the more I find out the less I know.”
To view the Lost Kingdoms of Africa The Kingdom of Asante visit the BBC via:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bgndm
http://museumethnographersgroup.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-ja-x.html
More Info…
It appears the Koma Land’ clay figures are now outside of Ghana ($@*&5
read between the lines) and that “Francis Amu a conservator from Ghana Museums
and Monuments Board” has a “selection of pottery from Koma Land, this will be
only the second time this type of pottery has been seen in Europe” to The
Manchester Museum where the “figurines will be studied by Prof. Timothy Insoll
before they go on display in October in the exhibition “Fragmentary ancestors:
Figurines from Koma land.” You can read all about it via: http://conservationmanchester.wordpress.com/tag/koma-land/
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