Representation of the Court of Select Audience-Costume, and the Ceremony of Swearing Fidelity to the British Government
This engraving shows a British government envoy sent to the Kumasi, in the Asante kingdom. This reception included the Asantehene under umbrellas and his royal entourage before three large thatched-roof verandas in the Voltaic region. This court scene shows a ceremony of Asante swearing loyalty to British diplomats. Joseph Dupuis (1789–1874) was Consul and Vice-Consul for the British Government between 1811 and 1842. He made several trips to Africa, including a meeting with the Asantehene Osei Bonsu in 1820 in an effort to solidify trading arrangements and resolve territorial disputes following British abolition of the slave trade in 1807.
Image Title
Representation of the Court of Select Audience-Costume, and the Ceremony of Swearing Fidelity to the British Government
RegID
SI-OB-884
Date
1824
Title
Representation of the Court of Select Audience-Costume, and the Ceremony of Swearing Fidelity to the British Government
Source
Joseph Dupuis, Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, comprising notes and researches relative to the Gold Coast, and the interior of Western Africa, chiefly collected from Arabic mss. and information communicated by the Moslems of Guinea; to which is prefixed an account of the origin and causes of the present war (London: Henry Colburn, 1824), frontispiece.
Language
English
Item sets
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Voltaic--Kumasi
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
2007; 29-Aug-19
Identifier
B023