Golden Stool

The Golden Stool (Ashanti-Twi: Sika dwa; full title, Sika Dwa Kofi "the Golden Stool born on a Friday") is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Asante people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante.

[2] Such seats were traditionally symbolic of a chieftain's leadership, but the Golden Stool is believed to house the spirit[3] of the Asante nation—living, dead and yet to be born.

In 1900, Sir Frederick Hodgson, the Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded[5] to be allowed to sit on the Golden Stool, and ordered that a search for it be conducted.

[12] Its entire surface is inlaid with gold, and hung with bells to warn the king of impending danger.

Replicas have been produced for the chiefs and at their funerals are ceremonially blackened with animal blood, a symbol of their power for generations.

Each stool is made from a single block of the wood of Alstonia boonei (a tall forest tree with numinous associations) and carved with a crescent-shaped seat, flat base and complex support structure.

The Golden Stool on its throne, the hwedom dwa (1935)
Flag of the Asante people depicting the Golden Stool in the middle.
An Akan stool believed to be for a Queen mother, 1940–1965, in the collection of the Children's Museum of Indianapolis