By Stephen Asante
Accra, Oct. 14, GNA – The Patakro Asante Traditional Building (ATB), one of Ghana’s traditional sites on the World Heritage List, located in the Adansi-North District of the Ashanti Region, is on the brink of collapse.
The facility, a significant part of the few last material remains of the great Asante civilization, which reached its high point in the 18th century, has lost a significant part of its structural integrity and cultural relics due to varied reasons.
These include repeated burglary at the site, and the changing climatic conditions, bringing the endangered edifice under the mercy of the weather.
“The current damage caused by the recent rainstorm posed a serious threat to both the outstanding universal value and local values, which make the site relevant to the global and local community,” Mr. Francis Kwarayire, the Site Manager, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Accra.
Some visible disturbing developments currently at the site ranged from collapsed walls at the old palace, damaged roofs at the shrine section, mausoleum area and old palace, eroded bas-reliefs at the mausoleum to other minor defects.
According to the Site Manager, who is also the Regional Manager of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), the property was nominated onto the 2022 World Monuments Watch – to draw attention to the present bad state of the facility.
The Patakro ATB is among the only 10 surviving examples of the traditional architecture of the Asante Kingdom and its once sophisticated and extensive building tradition.
It houses one of the most powerful oracles in Asante worship called ‘Adansi Bonsam’, and aside from the complex cosmological and unique architectural layout of the facility, there are a series of significant statutes of old chiefs and fetish priests, including Okomfo Anokye, which dates to 1958 and situated near the entrance of the shrine building.
“This place is an important part of Asante heritage and is of high spiritual relevance to traditional authority of the Asante Kingdom,” Mr. Kwarayire told the GNA.
Per the World Monuments Watch list for 2022, a selection of 25 heritage sites of worldwide significance whose preservation is urgent and vital to the communities surrounding them, were listed.
These sites significantly demonstrate pressing global challenges of climate change, imbalanced tourism, underrepresentation, and recovery from crisis – all underscoring the need for greater action to support heritage places and the people who care for them.
The World Monuments Watch is a project run by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), a non-profit organisation that spotlights threatened historic and cultural sites from across the globe.
Every two years, the WMF adds new spots to its watch list, bringing awareness and helping garner funds for the sites’ protection.
“The Asante Traditional Building at Patakro is in a poor state of conservation.
“The current condition of the facility poses an additional imminent danger of severe depletion of attributes that convey the outstanding universal value of the property,” Mr. Kwarayire stated.
He said given the fact that the Ashanti Region was a humid area, where storms and heavy rains occurred regularly, this presented a major challenge for effective maintenance of the heritage site, especially at the roof level to protect the decorated walls from rainwater.
“Because of this, the Asante Traditional Buildings are extremely vulnerable to the onslaughts of the weather,” the GMMB Regional Manager observed.
He said conservation of the property was critical as damaged or displaced roofs posed a water infiltration problem which had the potential to cause further destruction to the remaining mud walls and bas-reliefs.
In his recommendations, Mr. Kwarayire said there was the need to reconstruct all collapsed or broken walls at the old palace and mausoleum sections.
He said it was also important to replace all damaged or displaced roofs at the old palace, shrine complex and mausoleum unit, repair eroded mural decoration at the shrine and damaged reliefs at the mausoleum, reconstruct damaged floor surfaces and replace all doors to enhance security at the property.
GNA