# Converted Gods: Lives and Travels of Asante Abosom and Asuman Figures

## TL;DR

This paper traces the journey of Asante shrine figures through colonial and post-colonial contexts, showing how their meanings and values changed over time.

## Contribution

The paper introduces the concept of 'cumulative conversions' to explain how artifacts accumulate multiple layers of meaning across different contexts.

## Key findings

- Asante shrine figures underwent transformations in meaning as they moved through colonial and cultural systems.
- The Catholic mission played a key role in redefining these figures as 'African art' in the 1960s.
- The paper highlights tensions between viewing these figures as heritage objects and as spiritually active entities.

## Abstract

The ethnographic collection of the Dutch Spiritans holds six Asante shrine figures, whose journey reflects entangled histories of colonialism, indigenous West African religions, missionary Christianity, and cultural heritage. Originating in the colonial Gold Coast, these abosom and asuman passed through the hands of West African spiritual entrepreneurs, colonial police, “tribal art” dealers, Catholic missionaries, and museum curators. Along the way, their meanings, values, and powers transformed and accumulated, shaped by different collecting logics, material assemblages, display regimes, and epistemological frameworks. This article explores these shifts, examining how spiritual assets were redefined as “fetishes,” “tribal art,” ethnographic specimens, and cultural heritage. The role of the Catholic mission in the 1960s in promoting “African art” as a category of collection and display is highlighted as both challenging and perpetuating colonial frameworks. The concept of “cumulative conversions” is proposed to understand the layers of significance and agency built up over these artifacts’ lifetimes as latent potentialities that can be activated or deactivated as they move into new contexts. Particularly salient is the tension between treating such figures as museum/heritage “objects” and as channels for active spirit forces, with implications for heritage restitution and their potential roles in contemporary Ghanaian society and diaspora.