Akan Weights and the Gold Trade

A well-researched and authoritative history of the Akan peoples goldweights. The Akan people were a meta-ethnicity people of the former Gold Coast region, in what is today the nation of Ghana; Akans also make up the majority of the populace in the Ivory Coast. Akan goldweights are made of brass used as a measuring system by the people of West Africa, particularly for weighing gold dust which was the currency until replaced by paper money and coins. The weights are miniature representations of West Africal culture items, such as plants, animals and people.