page_title: Litter (vehicle)
section_title: Ghana
hierarchical_section_title: Litter (vehicle) / In Africa / Ghana
caption_attribution_description: English: Drawing by Ataa Oko, 2009 Deutsch: Zeichnung von Ataa Oko, 2009 Français&#160;: Dessin d'Ataa Oko, 2009 Italiano: Disegno di Ataa Oko, 2009
context_page_description: The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more people. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters either place the carrying poles directly upon their shoulders or use a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulders.
context_section_description: In Southern Ghana the Akan and the Ga-Dangme carry their chiefs and kings in palanquins when they appear in their state durbars. When used in such occasions these palanquins may be seen as a substitutes of a state coach in Europe or a horse used in Northern Ghana. The chiefs of the Ga (mantsemei) in the Greater Accra Region (Ghana) use also figurative palanquins which are built after a chief's family symbol or totem. But these day the figurative palanquins are very seldom used. They are related with the figurative coffins which have become very popular among the Ga in the last 50 years. Since these figurative coffins were shown 1989 in the exhibition "Les magicians de la terre" in the Centre Pompidou in Paris they were shown in many art museums around the world.
caption: A figurative palanquin. Drawing by the Ghanaian artist Ataa Oko.
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