...the traditional military companies of the Fante, called asafo, are best known through the profusion of applique flags (frankaa) which were discussed most recently on these pages by Kwame Labi (2002), and considered elsewhere through the enormously popular traveling exhibition/publication Asafo!: African Flags of the Fante (Adler and Barnard 1992). (2) The latter project was so popular, in fact, that it has led to asafo flags becoming one of the most frequently faked of all Ghanaian art forms, right up there in the pantheon of duplicity with Akua'ba.

As has been detailed in multiple anthropological and historical studies, the asafo (sa, war, and fo, people) were the warrior groups or armies of the traditional Akan states. (3) With their military roles almost fully usurped by the administration of the British Gold Coast Colony beginning in 1872, the asafo were forced to redirect their energies. This they did with considerable success, and they thrive today as potent social and civic organizations with significant political, ritual, and performance roles in most Fante states. Depending on whom you read, there are from seventeen to twenty-four traditional Fante states (Christensen 1954:14 lists nineteen) with up to fourteen asafo companies per state. Within a state, each company is identified by a name and number, usually followed by the town or village in which it is located: e.g. Asafo Kyirem No. 2 Company, Mankesim, a group that we will return to a number of times below. (4)

Considerably less kinetic and much less collectible than flags are the often spectacular cement shrines of the asafo called posuban, but more commonly referred to by the Fante themselves with the English words "post" "fort" or "castle" (Cover, Figs. 1-2). These have frequently caught the attention of visitors to Ghana largely due to their perceived playfulness and to what is assumed to be their totally incongruous presence in the Ghanaian architectural milieu. (5) A posuban may be materially defined by something as simple as a cane-fenced tree (Fig. 3) and/or a sacred mound or rock designating a god, typically covered with the shell of a giant marine turtle (Fig. 4). It is generally assumed that both the cane fence and the turtle shell provide protection for the gods, but one elder said the presence of the shell indicated "there was big meat inside," i.e., the god was powerful and sustaining. Still, the shrines that attract the most attention are those that are artistically embellished and range from a painted cement-block fence around a tree (Fig. 5) to a freestanding sculpture-laden, multi-storied extravaganza (Fig. 6). For the sake of distinction, I refer to these more elaborate structures as monumental posuban.

[FIGURES 1-6 OMITTED]

During the course of research from 1974 to 2006 I have documented with varying degrees of thoroughness more than seventy monumental posuban in the Central Region of Ghana. (6) Many of these shrines are in fact somewhat self-documenting, with their identity proclaimed in inscriptions on their facades. At the bare minimum the writing contains the name and number of the company and the town in which it is located. In addition, it frequently includes the date it was originally "outdoored" (ceremonially revealed to the public for the first time), often a date of renovation and, on many shrines, a declaration of the cost of construction. Company mottoes and the names of important asafo leaders past and present may also be inscribed. For example, on the shrine of Kyirem No. 2 Company, Mankesim (Fig. 24), the following inscriptions were recorded in September 2006:

WANA BABA

COME AND TRY WHO EVER WILL

NO. 2 ASAFO COY. ROYAL STREET

MANKESSIM

KYIREM ASAFO

ERECTED 3rd NOV. 1891

RENOVATED 8th SEPT. 1979

Despite the information provided, these inscriptions cannot he taken at face value, since in this case the renovation was, in fact, virtually a total reconstruction.

Regardless of scale and configuration, each posuban is multifunctional and serves as a locale for at least one of its respective company's gods and as a site for ritual sacrifices and offerings. It is also embraced as a locus of company activities and comes into play during installations of company officers, during funerals of its members, and in the observation of a variety of festivals. Larger shrines might also serve as storage areas for sacred drums, gongs, flags, and other asafo regalia, while the very largest have sufficient interior space to hold meetings and other gatherings.

There have been at least three proposed etymologies for the word "posuban." Referring to the cane-fenced tree also called "posuban," E.J.P. Brown writes:

The pesu-ban was originally a hencoop or pen made of bamboo or the petiole of the palm, the top of which was covered with the same material. The name was given to the Asafu fence owing to its construction being somewhat similar to the hencoop. Pesu is derived from pie, a room, and su, form; that is, in the form of a room (1929 I:206).

Brigid Sackey maintains, "The word came from the verb si posu, to meet or assemble, while iban means protective structure" (1998:75, n.18). There is general agreement that iban or aban is used to identify a substantial (sometimes fortified) building, generally made of stone or brick (see Christaller 1933:6). In popular use it may refer to both the palaces of chiefs and to the forts and castles built by Europeans along the coast. With this in mind, Christensen considers posuban to be "a combination of the English 'post' and Fanti 'iban; or fortification" (1954:112), an interpretation that has been generally accepted.

CONCEPTUAL MODELS

The early development of asafo posuban is unclear, but there are several potential conceptual and structural prototypes. The most readily apparent of these views the shrines as Fante replications of the European forts that line the coast of the Central Region of Ghana. Christensen takes this for granted: "[t]hey are obviously stylized copies of the European castles and forts that appeared on the coast. The opinion may be hazarded that the African, noting the impregnable structures of the white man, adopted this as a symbol of military strength" (1954:112). Early records, however, suggest that these "copies" may be more than symbolic. William Bosman was on the coast for fourteen years ending in 1702 and, referencing a drawing of Cape Coast town, he writes:

Under the English Fort you may observe a House, not unlike a small Fort, with a Flag on it and some Cannon; this is inhabited by an English Mulatto, by Name Edward Barter, who hath a greater Power on the Coast, than all the three English Agents together.... He is become so considerable that he can raise a large number of Armed Men; some whereof are his own Slaves, and the rest of Free-Men, that adhere to him (1705/1967:51).

DeGraft Johnson states that Edward Barter was the organizer of Akrampa No. 6 Company, Cape Coast (1932:309-310). Many oral traditions state that the first asafo companies were of "mulatto" composition and Bosman may have been describing one such company. His reference to private or African-owned forts is not unique. In 1798, John Kabe, a local Fante leader, constructed a fortified house in Kommenda and armed it with guns acquired from the British forts at that location (see Henige 1977). There is no question that the monumental posuban are readily identified with the European forts and indeed at least two shrines include "castle" as part of the inscriptions on their facades (Figs. 7-8) and three others "post" (see Cover). Indeed, the single most common sculptural motif of the shrines is cement cannons (often along with sculpted cannon balls and kegs of gunpowder) and in half a dozen examples actual European ordnance. And at least three posuban resemble the polygonal bastions of forts, complete with crenellation (Fig. 9). Nevertheless, in terms of the architectural details of most posuban, the European forts seem to offer only a small part of the story.

[FIGURES...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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