Figurative Palanquin in Ghana

A figurative palanquin connected with the totem of its owner is a special kind of litter used in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. These palanquins called in the Ga language okadi akpakai belong to the royal insignias and are used only by the Ga kings or mantsemei and their sub-chiefs when they are carried in public at durbars and festivals like Homowo. With these figurative palanquins the Ga create ethnic differences between themselves and their Akan neighbours that only use simple boat- or chair-shaped litters.

A Ga chief whose clan uses the lion as a totem must therefore use a litter in the form of a lion. The totems and family symbols of the Ga represent animals, plants or objects. All of them are associated with the history of the clan and his ancestors.

When a chief is carried in such a figurative palanquin, using his totem symbol ensures protection by the spirits and the ancestors which are connected with the respective symbol. At the same time the totem's magical powers are transferred to the chief who is sitting in the figurative palanquin. In contrast to the conventional boat- or chair-shaped Akan litters, the figurative palanquins of the Ga also function as marks of distinction between themselves and their Akan neighbours, and they even denote differences between the different Ga clans.

In precolonial times, the Ga did not use litters, but carried their Chiefs on human shoulders. The ethnologist Margaret Field believes that the boat-shaped Akan litters were introduced in Accra by the Akwamu living there since the 17th century. In the course of the 19th century, when the Ga took over from the Akwamu parts of their military organization, they also adopted the use of palanquins. However, there are no exact sources describing when the Ga started to use palanquins in the form of their family symbols. The social anthropologist Regula Tschumi found only a short notice in the Gold Coast Independent 1925 indicating that the King of Accra, the so-called Ga mantse used an elephant shaped palanquin in those years. According to Tschumi, the use of figurative palanquins spread in the course of the 20th century from Accra to other coastal towns where these palanquins, to some extent, are still used today.

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