File:Brooklyn Museum 74.218.68 Gold Weight (2).jpg

English: Cast brass weight in shape of an antelope with long ringed horns that extend to the back end of the animal. It has three legs. It has a very dark patina. Condition: Good.

English: Gold was extremely important in the economic and political life of the Akan kingdoms of southern Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Until the mid-nineteenth century, gold dust was the primary form of currency in the region. In order to measure precise amounts of gold, an elaborate system of weights, usually made of cast brass, developed by the seventeenth century. Gold weights took many forms: simple geometric shapes; animals, such as leopards or birds; objects, such as chairs or swords; and human figures. The figures, animals, and objects are often associated with proverbs. The sankofa bird, with head turned backward, represents the proverb “One must turn to the past to move forward.”