Context (Production / use)
Carving of sasabonsam, who live at the top of the trees in the Forest
Event Date
Author: Sam Daisley

Context (CMS Context)
See Spooner photo no. 9 in Collection file for object in Spooner family home.
Event Date 26/10/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
A postcard in the collection file shows a photo of this object (or similar) being carved and reads on the reverse [in pink ballpoint]: 'Air Mail/15/10/50/This is a/picture of Osei/Bonsu the/wood carver/with love/Daddy.'
Event Date 26/10/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Description (Physical description)
Mahogany carving of 'Sasabonsam'. Anthropomorphic figure with a beard, long hairstyle and elongated torso. 'Wings' run from under the outstretched arms to the hip. The 'legs' are actually a second pair of arms which are carved in a spiral. Carved on an integral circular base. Two horns protrude from the head, both have been chipped. Right thumb and wing tip have broken off. A round circular white mark on the bottom of the base has the no.'16' written on it. Several white accretions on object ?paint.
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
The Spooner Collection was acquired by Arthur Casswell Spooner (1906-1996) during his colonial service in West Africa between 1929-1963, and also by his wife Sylvia from 1944. Following the Cambridge Colonial Service diploma (Clare College, 1928-9), he was posted to the Gold Coast in July 1929 as a Cadet in the Administrative Service. He was soon appointed Assistant District Commissioner and served in various areas of Ashanti and the Northern Territories until 1938. His tasks comprised office and court work as well as much travelling through the district.

In 1939 Spooner was seconded as Commissioner of the Labour Department in Kumasi, and in 1942 was appointed Assistant Director of Labour, General Headquarters West African Command, involved in raising Pioneer Groups in Sierra Leone and Nigeria primarily for the North African campaign. He was a member of the Gold Coast Defence Force and in 1942 appointed as a temporary Lieutenant Colonel. He married Sylvia Blest in Accra in 1944 and she accompanied him on all his postings. In 1945 he returned to the Administrative Service, and was appointed Senior District Commissioner, Ashanti, in 1946 and in 1951 Assistant Chief Commissioner of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast He retired in 1952, returning to the UK to work for Eastbury Estates Ltd.

He returned to Africa in 1956, working for the Gambian Government in the Establishments and Training Department until 1959. From 1961 to 1963 he was employed by the Government of Northern Nigeria to run the Resident's offices in Makurdi and Ilorin.

Following discussion with MAA from 2005 onwards the object and photograph collections were donated in 2015 by Sylvia's son Professor Edward T. Spooner per the Spooner family, with material also going to the teaching collections.

Arthur Spooner's correspondence and papers, 1928-95, are held at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Several items (including Konkomba dancing hats), copies of photographs and their associated copyright and a telegram relevant to the purchase of Sylvia Spooner's wedding ring were also given to the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum c.2008.
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Notes by Arthur Spooner typed by his wife, Sylvia
read: 'Again Osei Bonsu. Mahogany made for visitors’ ‘15-16- Two mahogany figures carved by Osei Bonsu, Ghana at the end of the war. He worked at Achimota. Sasabonsam who lived at the top of the trees in the Forest- can whisk people off the ground with his long legs'. Associated with a postcard also given by Edward Spooner identifying the carver as Osei Bonsu R. v.d. Velden, 22/09/2015.
Event Date 22/9/2015
Author: maa

Context (References)
Photographed as part of the Art UK Sculpture project, August - September 2019. The project aims to create a free-to-access online photographic showcase of publicly owned sculpture. The three-year project focuses on sculpture dating from the last 1,000 years, held in public collections and outdoor locations across the UK



Event Date 3/6/2020
Author: rachel hand

Conservation (Assessment Only)
CON.2022.5460 | Assessment Only
Event Date 14/10/2022
Author: Kirstie French

Context (Amendments / updates)
A similar example by Osei Bonu, comissioned by Capt Robert P Wild while resident in Ghana is in the British Museum Af1935,1212.1, and is noted as 'carved from a native hardwood called sapelle (pers. comm. Marti Dean, 2017). The sasabonsam is a superhuman figure partially based on the Christian devil image. However, it is rooted in traditional Ghanain beliefs. Inhabits the bush and lives in the tallest trees. Frequently depicted as red and hairy with bat-like wings, long beard, horns, ape-like body, snake legs. Believed to be ally of witches and dangerous to humans.'
Event Date 15/11/2022
Author: rachel hand

Loan (Exhibition)
Fitzwilliam Museum (UCM), 25/7/2023 to 7/1/2024, Enslavement & Resistance: Cambridge & the Black Atlantic
Event Date 25/7/2023
Author: rachel hand