Ashanti Linguist's Staff Depicting 3 People and a Coffin

Three figures huddle in conversation, backs to us, over something blue and white.

This linguist’s staff depicting 3 people and a coffin is Ashanti, from Ghana, West Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is carved & painted wood. Without a written language of their own, the Ashanti handed history and sayings down by word of mouth, and the article counts over 3,600 proverbs covering nearly every human situation. Three standing figures gather around a patterned blue and white object on a round gilded platform. One wears a bright red wrap flecked with black, another a brown wrap, and the third is bare to the waist. It is 6.5 inches wide, 6.25 deep and 65.5 high.

A secret circle, and the viewer is firmly outside it.