Field Spirits of the Fante Collection

Field Spirits of the Fante

AR_0001

Richard Douglass, Ph.D.
Nana Araba Apt
Marian Sylvia Horowitz

1870-1940

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.

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

Collection of the Meek-Eaton Southeastern Regional Black Archives Research Center and Museum, Gift of Nana Araba Apt, Marian Sylvia Horowitz, and Richard Douglas, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. The use of any part of these objects and photographs transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of MEBA is an infringement of the copyright law.

en On Display

Field Spirits of the Fante

wood

African Agriculture Ghana 1870-1940

Ghana, Africa, West Africa, South West regions of modern-day Ghana

African Artifacts and Objects

Agriculture
Labor
Spirituality
Superstitions
African Culture
Indigenous Religion
Farming