Asafo Flags

A man fires at a steamer while three vultures wait their turn. Asafo flags, or frankaa, are the appliqued cotton banners of the Fante military companies of coastal Ghana. Asafo companies carried their flags in processions and festivals, and the images, often built on proverbs, boasted of a company’s strength and taunted its rivals. The flags here are mostly 20th century Fante work, with one Ashanti example, and flags of the colonial era often carry a Union Jack in the corner.

Motifs include men shooting at three fish, a woman in a tree, two men with a cow in a cooking pot, and a dingo beside a white tree full of fishes. Hang one flat on a large wall, or stretch it over a linen panel in a stair hall where the color carries. The proverbs were pointed, and the rival companies were meant to get the point.