Akan Brass Goldweights: How a Tool for Weighing Gold Dust Became Art

In eastern Côte d'Ivoire (in West Africa, French-speaking, the world's largest cocoa producer) and neighbouring Ghana, the Akan peoples once used gold dust as a medium of exchange. To weigh it fairly, they cast vast numbers of brass weights. These small objects, often only a few centimetres across, are now held in museum collections around the world — and offer a way into Akan values.

A precise system of measurement

The National Museum of Ireland explains that these brass weights, called abrammuo (plural) in the Akan language, were used by the Akan peoples of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to weigh gold dust. Gold dust long served as an important currency in West Africa; only at the end of the 19th century, when the British colonial government made the pound sterling the main currency, did the weights gradually lose their purpose and become collectors' items.

The Princeton University Art Museum estimates that Akan goldsmiths cast some three million weights between about 1400 and 1908. Weighing gold required a full kit, called futuo, including scales, small spoons for moving the gold dust, scoops and boxes for storing it. A complete set of weights could number several hundred pieces; in a transaction, each party used their own weights and equipment to ensure fairness.

From geometry to proverbs: how the forms evolved

Early weights were mainly geometric, such as cubes, rectangular blocks and pyramids. The Princeton University Art Museum notes that from the 17th to the 19th century, craftsmen began adding human figures, animals, plants and objects, and these images were mostly linked to well-known proverbs. If you are in Abidjan, the collection of the Museum of Civilisations of Côte d'Ivoire also includes goldweights.

The Brooklyn Museum gives the example of the sankofa bird: this bird looking back over its shoulder stands for the idea that "to move forward, you must look back at the past". In other words, a weight was both a unit of measure and a maxim that could be "seen" on the trading table.

What to look for

• Size and detail: many weights are only two or three centimetres long, yet they render the ridges of a bird's feathers or a figure's gesture — look closely at the fineness of the casting.
• Surface and signs of use: museum pieces often show patina and wear, both clues that they were once in use.
• The story behind it: when you come across a human or animal figure, ask the seller or guide which proverb it corresponds to; even if the answer is uncertain, the question itself draws you into Akan oral culture.

The newly cast "goldweights" sold in large numbers today are mostly decorative contemporary crafts. There is nothing wrong with buying them to enjoy, but there is no need to treat them as antiques; if a seller claims a piece is old, you should look further into its provenance and the export rules.

One line for Asian readers

Akan goldweights remind us that fair trade and shared values can be cast into the same small object; if you collect a weight, collect the saying behind it too.

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References: Circuits touristiques d'Abidjan (AMUGA); National Museum of Ireland — Brass weights from the Museum collection; Princeton University Art Museum — Gold-weight (abrammuo); Brooklyn Museum — Gold-weight (abrammuo): bird