Fante Frankaa or Asafo Military Flag

Ghana had no standing army among the Akan. It had the asafo.

The asafo, or people’s militia, was a well established social and political organization based on military principles. Each group is identified by a name, a number, and a set of symbols displayed prominently on its flag. This one is a Fante frankaa, cotton, 20th century, about fifty-eight inches by thirty-nine. Proverbs, a significant facet of Akan culture, appear as colored cutout figures appliqued on the cotton ground.

You read a flag like this the way you read a sentence.

Hang it where a banner would go, and expect to be read.