Design And Production of A Visual Document Depicting The Chronological Develoment of The Asante Kingdom

Abstract

The Asante kingdom is one of the famous and surviving kingdoms in sub-Saharan Africa. The kingdom came on the world stage in the late 16th century and gradually expanded its territorial boundaries through wars to cover almost the present day Ghana and some portion of Togo and Cote d'Ivoire. Oratory was one of the major means the Asante preserved their rich history before they were introduced to a written document. Modernization and education are gradually affecting their oratory culture. This research looks into the ancient methodology of preserving historical facts to design and produce a mural that would serve as an alternative to available sources in gathering historical facts about the Asante kingdom and also to safeguard its rich historical facts just like what the Ancient Egyptian society did with their hieroglyphics. Qualitative research design approach was used and the descriptive and studio-based research methodologies were employed. The history of the Asante kingdom was explored from the 16th to the 21st century to encode the salient facts about their transformational development into a mural of symbols and pictorial imagery, using sketching and repoussage technique. It was found that organized symbols and imagery together with text can be used to present historical facts which people can easily decipher. Also, intricate visuals can be repoussage unto a large metal surface using 0.8mm copper thickness upon a suitable working support.