AR_0001 - Nana Apt - Field Spirits of the Fante Collection

Elements area

Identifier

AR_0001

Title

Nana Apt - Field Spirits of the Fante Collection

Creator

Nana Araba Apt

Contributor

Richard Douglass, Ph. D.

Contributor

Marian Sylvia Horowitz

Date(s)

  • 1870 - 1940

Description

These objects, linked to a period of approximately 1870-1940, offer a glimpse into the subtle influence of colonial oversight. Field spirits were crafted to protect women and children, homes, crops, domestic animals, and providers (hunters) and also displayed warnings to those venturing onto protected lands, fields, homes, or pilfering from the property owner. The reliance on such objects indicates that longstanding conversion to Christianity among the Fante did not replace traditional beliefs about the security of homes, crops, domestic animals, and people.

These examples of field spirits are rare because they were tools, not created to be objects of art, but crafted to offer specific protection and security for the people who placed them in the fields. Environmental exposure and insects, particularly termites, destroy wooden objects in West Africa very quickly. It is precisely because such field spirits were normally left in the fields that very few remain.

Subjects

Types

    Format

    Wood

    Source

    Objects available on the Museum Artifacts Site Below

    https://www.mebacollections.com/s/digitalarchive/item-set/468

    Languages

      Relation (isLocatedAt)

      MEBA Archival Collection

      Coverage (spatial)

        Rights

        Florida A&M University Meek-Eaton Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum

        Accession area