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Title: Odumata's sleeping room ; Inner square of Apookoos house
Description: Plates are included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." Top plate shows the sleeping room of Odumata, an old Ashanti aristocrat. Bowdich described the room as being "one side of an oblong area in a very retired angle of his house, about 25 feet by 8." As he continued,"The cloth suspended to the left of the door on the top of the steps, hides the bloody stools which are in the recess. The small gallery in front of the upper room is only wide enough for one person to walk in. The recess and small room below accommodate confidential slaves. The bed room was very small, about 8 feet square, but being hung round with a variety of gold and silver ornaments, had a very rich appearance. The bed is generally about 5 feet high, and composed entirely of large silk-cotton pillows piled one above another. The King of Gaman, we were assured, had steps of solid gold to ascend to his bed. A man wearing a crier's cap, is playing the sanko." (p. 307) As the title suggests, the bottom plate shows the inner square of Apokoo's house. (Apokoo was the keeper of the Ashanti royal treasury.) Describing the image, Bowdich wrote, "No. 6, is a perspective view of the entrance area to Apokoo's house; the fourth side is an open fronted building like those on the right and left for attendants to wait in, and for the hearing of palavers. The opposite closed side is a bed room. The figure is playing the bentwa." (p. 307), Two plates 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. 306., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 306, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2895

Title: Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 7] ; Part of a piazza in the palace [No. 8]
Description: Plates included in Chapter VI, "Architecture, Arts, and Manufactures." As the title suggests, the top image shows part of a piazza in the palace of the King of Gaman. (The Gaman peoples live in modern Ghana.) "No. 7," Bowdich explained, "is a part of a piazza, which lines the interior of the wall secluding the palace from the street. The piazza is 200 yards long and inhabited by captains and other attendants on the King; above is a small gallery. Piles of skulls, and drums ornamented with them, are frequent in this piazza. The figure is a common soldier of the Ashantee, his belt ornamented with red shells, and stuck full of knives." The bottom image is another piazza view. "No. 8, is the upper end of the piazza, which is more ornamented, and appropriated to the superior captains, who have each a suite of rooms, marked by the small doors under the piazza. A woman is dancing whilst a man plays the flute and rattle.", Two plates 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. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A2896

Title: Part of Adoom street [No. 9]
Description: As the title suggests, the plate shows part of Adoom-street in Gaman (now part of Ghana). In the accompanying text, Bowdich wrote, "No. 9, is a view of part of Adoom-street: each open front denotes the residence of a captain, being used for talking palavers, receiving strangers, observing or superintending customs, and evening recreation The dwelling is entered by the small door at the side, which generally leads through a narrow passage or court to a large area like No. 6, and thence by various intricate ways to smaller and more retired areas like No 4. and No. 5. A fetish woman has just quitted the centre house; she has on a white cloth, and various pieces of rich silk are hanging round her girdle, her breasts are confined with a scarf, a fillet encircles her head, in each hand she waves a horse's tail, and she continues yelling and swinging round and round until she is quite stupified. A weaver and loom are on her right, and a market woman under her shed on the left.", 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. 308., Fels Afro-Americana Image Project, Africa: Images, Maps, and Geography.
Date: Dec. 2, 1818
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Books & Other Texts | Rare *U Afri Bowd 12983.Q p 308, https://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3A3141

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