Asante catfish gold weight
Gold Coast (Ghana), nineteenth or twentieth century
ORCS.4.05.01

Timothy Garrard, in his Akan weights and the gold trade (London, 1980) records that popular proverbs associated with catfish included ‘If the catfish in the stream grows fat, he does so for the crocodile [who eats him]’ and ‘If the catfish in the stew drinks the soup, he only improves the stew for his master.’ Both conveyed the idea that a servant’s prosperity was to be encouraged and welcomed as also benefiting his master.