Aesthetic strategies: the politics of a royal ritual

The article explores both the meaning of Odwira , the royal ritual which annually cleanses the community of pollution, and the way the rite is used to negotiate the shifting configurations of power in Akuropon and the kingdom of Akuapem. In a small society where consensus is required in public and conflict is covert, where kings formerly had the power to reduce opponents to slavery and still today can deny them a position and a home, opposition must be circumspect. Rituals and symbols are good for making a political statement, since an in-built ambiguity makes them a safe medium for political aggression. For this reason, although the Odwira ritual of purification is thought to be unchanging in its performance and symbolic structure, i n practice the community's volatile politics are also reflected in the ad hoc modifications made each year to the lengthy ceremonial process.