Double Gong
Fante peoples, Ghana
Wood, iron
Anonymous gift, 93.360 (cat. 26)

Twin gongs, like this example, are primarily used in drum ensembles of the traditional warrior groups. Sometimes the gongs perform functions similar to those of the master drummer of the group. They may call the members to action, urge them on, and keep up their morale. Two-tone gongs (with male and female voices) can literally reproduce the tonal language of Twi speakers, delivering messages ranging from martial praises and boasts, to oaths and insults.

Among all Akan zoomorphic representations, the kind of horizontal S-shaped tail seen on this feline is unique to the lion. It is part of the nineteenth-century European legacy of heraldic lion imagery that permeates much of the elite arts of southern Ghana.