This compelling Asafo flag presents a figural scene centered on a male figure marked by a tall yellow European-style top hat, a potent symbol of authority, prestige, and colonial-era power within Asafo visual culture. Rendered in hand-cut appliqué on an aged cotton ground, the figure stands in a calm, frontal pose, the exaggerated hat serving as the primary indicator of status and gender rather than naturalistic anatomy.
Opposite him stands a second male figure holding a long horizontal object, likely a weapon or symbolic staff, establishing a moment of encounter, rivalry, or assertion. Above the figures floats a stylized airship or airplane, composed of simplified striped panels. As in many Asafo flags of the colonial and post-colonial period, modern machines function symbolically, referencing technological dominance, vigilance, and external power rather than literal narrative events.
The restrained palette of cream, ochre, muted reds, and dark linework emphasizes the graphic clarity of the composition and the directness of the appliqué technique. A border of alternating yellow blocks frames the scene, finished with a knotted fringe that shows the wear expected of a banner carried in procession.
Together, the imagery draws on Asafo traditions of visual wit and symbolic inversion, where European emblems of authority are appropriated and reinterpreted to articulate local identity, power, and civic pride.
In Fair condition with staining, tears in fabric, and holes from use.
Size: 3'10" x 4'1" [117cm x 125cm]
Age: Mid Century
Country of Origin: Ghana
Type of Textile: Asafo Flag
Material: Cotton
Pile Height: N/A
Condition: Fair, staining, tears in fabric, and holes from use
TX594
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