Time for a picture!
Queen Mother, Akropong, Ghana.
We haven’t had one in awhile, and it’s time. This will serve as a nice respite between the heavy-duty posts we’ve had recently and the heavy-duty posts we have coming up, assuming I ever get around to writing them.
It’s also a break from the tax thing. For those of you ‘cross the pond, it’s tax filing season here in ‘Murka. Normally taxes are due on April 15th, or the next business day if the 15th falls on the weekend, but occasionally the IRS gets a little wild and crazy and throws in an extra day. Nobody knows why; could be the peyote they like to smoke up there at headquarters. At any rate, this year tax returns are due on Tuesday, April 17th. Every single human being in the United States has spent the past weekend working on their tax returns, which is the sole reason the troll level on the Duke case has been at a manageable level.
But back to the picture: I’m posting this one just because I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit for the past few weeks. I came across it when I was searching for some detailed information on gold jewelry in Ghana. As you know, Ghana is just chock full of gold, so much so that the colonial Brits dubbed it The Gold Coast. Hell of a name for a country, if you ask me, though it certainly got right to the point. Like naming a country “Coal Mine” or “Uranium Deposit.” But hey, why futz around with proper names? You’re a colonial power and you’re there to pillage; just name the country after whatever commodity you’re stealing from it. Simple and to the point.
Anyway, the royal folk in Ghana have always loaded themselves with magnificent gold ornaments, rather the way Russian aristocratic ladies used to cover themselves with diamonds. I was captivated by this picture in particular because it is rare to find a photo where you can see the jewelry in such clear, close detail. Look at the beauty of the stuff! Look at the delicate spidery filigree! And in real life I’ve never seen gold so yellow. That’s probably because in real life I’ve never seen gold so pure.
But it’s not just the jewelry; I love the whole picture. I haven’t been able to find out the lady’s name or the date of the photo; the only information I have is that she is a Queen Mother* in the town of Akropong. She’s so gorgeous, so blooming and radiant. I love her navy and white silk gown, the blue and gold beads in her hair, the glittering gilt filigree of her jewelry. I love the feeling of warmth and humor and beauty emanating from her. It’s a wonderful image.
*****
*”Queen Mother” is an unfortunate but standard translation; really these women are simply Queens Regnant. Akan society has a dual-gender royalty system with a male king and a female queen (the so-called Queen Mother) who is typically not the king’s mother nor his wife; she is just the senior woman in the parallel, female line of royal descent.
11 Responses to “Time for a picture!”
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Infidel says:
http://www.thestatesmanonline......newsid=633
people will say Afe hyia pa (meaning a good meeting of the year or happy New Year) you would answer Afe nko mmeto yen (Let’s enter the New Year) or Afe sesee na ye te ase (may we still be alive by this time next year).
April 16th, 2007 at 10:06 am EST -
Infidel says:
But more likely Nana Ekua Bri II.
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sam says:
Can you smoke peyote? I thought it was eat-only.
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Violet says:
Hey, you’re right! I thought people smoked it but I was wrong. Just looked it up and found that the notion that peyote is smoked is a “common misconception.”
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Infidel says:
Peyote
The peyote cactus contains buttons that can be cut from the root and dried. The buttons can either be chewed or soaked in water to produce an ingestible liquid.12 Peyote buttons may also be ground into a powder and then “smoked with a leaf material, such as cannabis or tobacco.”13
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sam says:
Anyone know the difference between eating and smoking? Do you still get stomach ickies from smoking peyote or is that unpleasantness avoidable?
I’m asking to satisfy a friend’s curiosity, of course.
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Violet says:
Sam, this page seems to have good information on various methods of consuming peyote and which ones might prevent the nausea.
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sam says:
thank you
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simply wondered says:
i think catching the peyote as it roams the desert howling at the moon could be tricky, but i like the thought of the buttons…
‘what these? oh, they’re peyote buttons … was wandering in the mojave … heard a bit of howling …stunned the bugger with a well-aimed stone … cut his knackers off and now i’m using them as buttons. go particularly well with the plaid dontchaknow.’
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simply wondered says:
‘As you know, Ghana is just chock full of gold, so much so that the colonial Brits dubbed it The Gold Coast.’ – hey, we didn’t start that one! how pissed off were those happy german subjects of the roman empire when they realised their nice town had been renamed ‘colony’. nobody ever went out of business underestimating the imaginative powers of yer average roman – a bunch of blokes so lacking in aesthetic sense they went round their empire converting all those boring greek amphitheatres from that silly round shape to a nice squared-off design, getting rid of them ponces in the masks and chucking in some lions and tigers. that’s entertainment, as mr weller would say.
whatever happened to them, eh? probably running hollywood. -
Violet says:
how pissed off were those happy german subjects of the roman empire when they realised their nice town had been renamed ‘colony’.
This cracked me up.
