Akan goldweight, cast in the form of a pistol.

The Akan are a group of related peoples who live in central and southern Ghana and the eastern part of Côte d’Ivoire. From the late 14th century, when they imported the technique of metal casting from North Africa, the Akan developed a system of weights for measuring gold dust, which was their main currency. By the 17th century the Akan also began producing weights that related to European standards based on the ounce. During the 18th and 19th centuries, gold weights developed as an art form as well as units of measure. They remained in use until the late 1800s. Weights were often made from brass, and represented a wide range of artefacts in use in Akan society. These examples, in the form of guns and cannon, depict the weaponry imported by Europeans to West Africa.