Depicts the annual yam festival, a large public ceremony held at the beginning of the yam harvest in September. It includes a vast and diverse array of figures: the King, his warriors, dancers, musicians, officers of the foreign mission, Moors, and various onlookers. Toward the center of the scene, the King sits underneath the state umbrella, which is bright red, topped by a golden elephant, and flanked by the flags of Great Britain, Holland, and Denmark. The children of the nobility sit at the King's feet, waving elephant tails. A procession of dancers approaches the King; those at the front beat skulls decorated with thyme. Farther to the left, a bloody prisoner is being led by two of the King's messengers. In the background, Odumata, an aged aristocrat, is being carried in the state hammock. At the extreme left, a group of captains dance in a circle, firing their guns. At the far right, a group of Moors watch the festivities. Closer to the center, officers of the mission can be seen. Their linguists sit in front of them; their soldiers and servants stand behind them., Fold-out plate in T. Edward Bowdich's Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee: with a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa (London: J. Murray, Albemarle-Street: printed by W. Pulmer and Co., Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1819), p. 274., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Creator
R. Havell & Son, engraver
Date
Dec. 2, 1818
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 274, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2894
