Ghana Gold Jewelry: A Legacy of Craftsmanship and Culture

Nov 07, 2025 0

Ghana's history has significantly shaped the use of jewelry for symbolic and ceremonial purposes, and jewelry continues to play an important role in Ghana's culture today. Individuals use jewelry as part of both traditional and modern dress, with details that vary according to a person’s gender, generation, and status, as well as the occasion. This article explores the rich history and cultural significance of gold jewelry in Ghana, highlighting the traditions, techniques, and symbolism associated with this exquisite art form.

Map of Ghana showing its regions. Source: Wikipedia

The Ashanti Empire: A Golden Legacy

The Ashanti Empire, also known as the Asante Empire, is renowned for its history of creating elaborate jewelry. Members still wear gold, bronze, and beads in special ceremonies today. Founded by the Akan people, who migrated to Ghana from the Sahel and Sahara, the empire's power fluctuated over three centuries, eventually controlling most of modern-day Ghana in the 19th century.

They had access to gold and contact with Islamic artists and traders. They encouraged the production of gold jewelry because they believed it had supernatural abilities or spiritual power. They used objects made from gold to protect the power of the empire or the safe spiritual travels of the deceased. This contrasts with some other societies that see gold as a negative force and therefore make jewelry from silver.

In addition, the Ashanti would demand tribute from conquered people, whose artists would sometimes introduce new methods of working with metal, such as lost-wax casting and special hammering techniques. They used these techniques to produce brass and gold jewelry, as well as weights, beads, and urns.

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Lost-Wax Casting: A Time-Honored Technique

The technique of lost-wax casting was originally North African but is still used today by artisans in Ghana. It involves sculpting an image in wax and surrounding it with an encasing mold that has an inlet, which is then used to pour in molten bronze. The wax melts and flows away when it comes into contact with the bronze. Many people find the technique challenging because imperfections are often not evident until the process is complete. Lost-wax casting also disallows exact reproduction because each wax model can only be used one time.

Royal Regalia and Ceremonial Use

The Ashanti Kingdom still uses gold jewelry for royalty and ceremonial use today. Distinguished members of the royal court wear a ceremonial heavy gold badge around their neck. The asantehene (the king) and the paramount chiefs sometimes wear so much gold jewelry on their arms at important ceremonies that they require assistants to help support the weight.

Some traditional objects have been repurposed as jewelry in the modern era. In the precolonial era, artisans produced copper-alloy goldweights to be used on scales weighing gold dust. Artists still produce goldweights in a variety of shapes (such as animals, plants, and people) today and many people wear them as jewelry.

To mark important occasions, paramount chiefs will don ceremonial clothing along with gold and silver jewelry. Their jewelry might include rings, beaded bracelets, and necklaces; they will also use pieces to decorate their heads and sandals. In addition to decorating the chief for an important occasion, often each piece of clothing or jewelry reveals something about the chief and the history of the clan. Clothing, jewelry, and other accessories can signify the wisdom, wealth, and power of a leader.

Beads are another symbol of wealth and status that are sometimes also used as a form of spiritual protection. During naming ceremonies, adults decorate a child’s arms and legs with beads and other jewelry. At ceremonies for the deceased, family members will dress their loved one in expensive cloth and jewelry. In some groups, young girls wear a string of small beads around their waist as a protective device and to indicate their age and marital status. Among the Dangbeli, a subgroup of the Ga-Dangbe ethnic group, priestesses indicate their role, rank, and deities by wearing a certain number of nyoli and tovi beads. Chiefs also use beaded bracelets to indicate their position in a tribe.

Akan and Baule Gold Pendants: Cultural Significance

Akan and Baule gold pendants are a traditional form of jewelry worn by the Akan and Baule people, ethnic groups found in Ghana and Ivory Coast. Although Baule are a different ethnic group than the Akan, they share similar cultural and regalia traditions. Cast in gold using the lost wax technique, the pendants feature intricate designs and patterns that are specific to Akan and Baule culture.

The Akan and Baule people have a long history of goldsmithing and metalworking, and their jewelry is known for its intricate designs and skilled craftsmanship. The gold pendants may feature a variety of designs, such as human or animal figures, geometric shapes, or abstract patterns. Pendant masks are believed to represent the spirit of the wearer, a loved one or ancestor, and are often worn during important ceremonies and events, such as weddings, funerals, and religious festivals. They are also believed to have protective properties, warding off evil spirits and bringing good luck to the wearer.

In addition to their decorative function, their gold pendants also have cultural and symbolic significance often referring to proverbs. They are often given as gifts to mark important occasions, such as weddings or funerals, and may be passed down through families as heirlooms. The pendants may also be imbued with spiritual or religious meaning, and may be used in traditional rituals and ceremonies.

Here are some examples of Akan gold pendants and their symbolism:

Coiled Snake: In Akan and Baule proverbs, the coiled snake often symbolizes femininity and fertility.
Snake Devouring an Animal: This motif signifies triumph through patience, with the message that the snake "triumphs through patience."
Ram's Head: Baoulé and Lagoon region goldsmiths explain that rams' heads symbolize the chief, representing power, intelligence, and wisdom.

The quality of the casting will surprise people who assume that high technology is the only way to cast fine detail. The filligree work pictured rivals the best in the world, fine granulation and wire solderings producing incredibly complex patterned surfaces.

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There are numerous photographs too of Baule gold leaf work where a gold foil has been applied to carved wooden objects, often speakers staffs or fly whisk handles. All these photos are really wonderful quality, careful side lighting to pick up surface detail, warm, glowing studio photographs showing the best of the objects pictured.

Baule bead necklaces are unique collections of finely detailed gold beads in simple shapes, rectangles, circles, things like fine-toothed buzz saws all in thread-like textured wires of gold -somehow very modern looking, quite contemporary in Western terms, though centuries old in African ones.

The Influence of Global Culture

Although Ghana is the second largest producer of gold in Africa, its jewelry industry accounts for very little percentage of the world production total. This observation is partly attributed to the extent to which the Ghanaian jewellery products have been influenced by global culture. There are new innovations in the production of old aphorisms and symbols that has been influenced by global culture. This is reflected in the usage of brand names and their logos as well as the initials of customers’ names in making jewellery. The craftsmen were of the view that technological advancement and the use of modern equipment, as well as global fashion have contributed immensely to this observation.

The British Museum and Asante Regalia

The British Museum cares for important objects from the Kingdom of Asante, today located within the West African Republic of Ghana (formerly part of the Gold Coast Colony). This includes more than 200 items of Asante gold regalia comprising personal jewellery and royal insignia worn by the Asantehene (king of the Asante people), as well as the emblems and badges of authority worn or carried by his many attendants and court officials. These objects are variously made of solid, cast or sheet gold with some covered in delicate leaf gold. This is the largest collection of Asante regalia in the UK and one of the most significant assemblages outside the Republic of Ghana.

The Asante Kingdom's wealth was significantly based on gold-mining and trading in gold, as well as agriculture. While gold was a key element of Asante's trade with Europeans on the coast, from the beginning of the 1700s the Asante also supplied enslaved people to British and Dutch traders. In return they received luxury goods and firearms which they used to support their territorial expansions and the consolidation of their power. Enslaved people formed part of the Asante internal economy, providing labour in the fields and in the mines, though the precise nature and extent of this human exploitation and its relationship to the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade remains debated.

Items of regalia and other objects were looted by British troops during three of the Anglo-Asante Wars (1873-4, 1895-6 and 1900-1). The British authorities also extracted indemnity payments in gold from the Asante rulers. This material was sold to several cultural institutions and collectors around the world.

In January 2024, a new partnership between the British Museum and Manhyia Palace Museum was announced. This will deliver a major long-term loan to Kumasi as part of exhibitions to celebrate the Asantehene's Silver Jubilee in the same year, as well as commemorations to mark the 150th anniversary of the 1874 Anglo-Asante War and the 100th anniversary of the return of Asantehene Prempeh I to Kumasi following his exile to the Seychelles by the British in 1896.

Objects from Ghana, including Asante, are on display at the Museum in Africa (Room 25), The Sainsbury Galleries; Enlightenment (Room 1); the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world (Rooms 42-3), Europe 1800-1900 (Room 47) and Money (Room 68), where they are seen free of charge by visitors from across the globe who come to the Museum each year.