Adinkra are symbols from the Akan people of Ghana that represent concepts or aphorisms. Adinkra are used extensively in fabrics, logos and pottery. They are incorporated into walls and other architectural features. Adinkra symbols appear on some traditional Akan goldweights. The symbols are also carved on stools for domestic and ritual use. Tourism has led to new departures in the use of the symbols on items such as T-shirts and jewellery.
Adinka symbols have a decorative function but also represent objects that encapsulate evocative messages conveying traditional wisdom, aspects of life, or the environment. There are many symbols with distinct meanings, often linked with proverbs. In the words of Kwame Anthony Appiah, they were one of the means for "supporting the transmission of a complex and nuanced body of practice and belief".[1]
History
Adinkra calabash stamps
One oral tradition states that Adinkra symbols were originally created by the Bono people of Gyaman.[2] The Gyaman king, Nana Kwadwo Agyemang Adinkra, originally created or designed these symbols, naming it after himself. The Adinkra symbols were largely used on pottery, stools etc. by the people of Gyaman. Adinkra cloth was worn by the king of Gyaman, and its usage spread from Gyaman to Asante and other Akan kingdoms following its defeat. It is said that the guild designers who designed this cloth for the Kings were forced to teach the Asantes the craft. Gyaman king Nana Kwadwo Agyemang Adinkra's first son, Apau, who was said to be well versed in the Adinkra craft, was forced to teach more about Adinkra cloths. Oral accounts have attested to the fact that Adinkra Apau taught the process to a man named Kwaku Dwaku in a town near Kumasi.[3][4][5][6][7][8] Over time, all Akan people including the Fante, Akuapem and Akyem all made Adinkra symbols a major part of their culture.
This oral tradition of a Gyaman origin however has been directly disproven, as the Gyaman-Asante war in which tradition recounts the Asante learning Adinkra symbols from Gyaman started in 1818 and the campaign ended in 1819. Two years before this in 1817, Thomas Bowdich visited Kumasi and had personally seen and written about Adinkra cloth being produced in the Asante capital of Kumasi. He also brought back a physical example of Adinkra cloth from Kumasi which is still in the British Museum today. The name of the cloth being Adinkra is explained by an informant from Asokwa that related to Kojo Arthur that King Adinkra's body was found in a pile of dead people and when it was retrieved, his body was found to be covered in Ntiamu Ntoma (Stamped cloth). From then on Ntiamu Ntoma became known as Adinkra cloth. Which suggests that the cloth was known before 1818 and became associated with Adinkra after the war. In the Asokwa and Ntonso areas Adinkra cloth is still referred to as Ntiamu Ntoma.[9][10]
There are other hypothesis and oral traditions for the origin of Adinkra cloth and its name, such as it originating in Denkyira, though these have not been disproven they all have their respective issues and the exact origin of Adinkra cloth is not something that is clear.[11]
The oldest surviving adinkra cloth was made in 1817. The cloth features 15 stamped symbols, including nsroma (stars), dono ntoasuo (double Dono drums), and diamonds. The patterns were printed using carved calabash stamps and a vegetable-based dye. It has resided in the British Museum since 1818, when it was donated by Thomas E. Bowdich.[12][13][14]
In November 2020, a school board in York, Pennsylvania, banned "a children's colouring book that featured African Adrinkra [sic] symbols found in fabrics, logos and pottery."[16] The decision was subsequently overturned.[17]
Adinkra cloth
In Akan (Twi), the term adinkra refers to not symbols, but a particular type of cloth.[18][19]Adinkra cloths were traditionally only worn by royalty and spiritual leaders for funerals and other very special occasions. In the past they were hand-printed on undyed, red, dark brown or black hand-woven natural cotton fabric depending on the occasion and the wearer's role; nowadays they are frequently mass-produced on brighter coloured fabrics.[3]
The present centre of traditional production of adinkra cloth is from Ghana, Ntɔnso, 20km northwest of Kumasi and in Ivory Coast.[20] Dark Adinkra aduro pigment for the stamping is made there, by soaking, pulverizing, and boiling the inner bark and roots of the badie tree (Bridelia ferruginea)[21] in water over a wood fire. Once the dark colour is released, the mixture is strained, and then boiled for several more hours until it thickens. The stamps are carved out of the bottom of a calabash piece. They measure between five and eight centimetres square. They have a handle on the back, and the stamp itself is slightly curved so that the dye can be put on with a rocking motion.
1817 Adinkra mourning cloth
1825 Adinkra cloth
Anthony Boakye uses a comb to mark parallel lines on an adinkra cloth in Ntonso, Ghana.
Anthony Boakye prints an adinkra cloth with a calabash stamp in Ntonso, Ghana.
Sample of symbols listed
Adinkra symbols recorded by Robert Sutherland Rattray, 1927Adinkra alphabet is a phonetic writing system derived from adinkra symbols
Recorded sample of 53 adinkra symbols and their meanings.
List of symbols and information
Number
Symbol Name
Literal Meaning
Further Details
Related Symbols
1
Aban
a two-storied house, a castle
This design was formerly worn by the King of Asante alone.[22]:265
what the yellow-flowered fofoo plant wants is that the gyinantwi seeds should turn black
An Asante saying. One of the cotton cloth designs bears the same name. The fofoo, the botanical name of which is Bidens pilosa, has a small yellow flower, which, when it drops its petals, turns into a black spiky seed. Said of a jealous person. According to Ayensu (1978), the gyinantwi also refers to Bidens pilosa.[23]:266[24]
37
Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu
Siamese crocodiles
They share one stomach yet they fight over food
38
Gyawu Atiko
the back of Gyawu's head
Gyawu was a sub-chief of Bantama who at the Odwira ceremony is said to have had his hair shaved in this fashion[22]
The (large number of) people who do good prevents us knowing who really are Mohammedans
as adherents of Islam are enjoined to do good works in the community, and increasing numbers of non-Muslims are also doing so, we can no longer use that criterion to distinguish those Muslims living amongst us[23]:266
49
Kuntinkantan
bent and spread out
nkuntinkantan is used in the sense of 'do not boast, do not be arrogant'[22]
50
Obohemaa
Queen of stones
copied from Europeans adopted by Akans to define Gold Coast's diamond mining, which began in 1919[25][23]:267
Non listed
Kwatakye atiko
at the back of Kwatakye's head
Kwatakye was a war captain of one of the Asante kings; at the Odwira ceremony he is said to have cut his hair after this fashion[23]:267
a cloth with this design stamped upon it lay beside the sleeping couch of the King of Asante, and every morning when he rose he placed his left foot upon it three times[23]
referring to the saying: Oba Nyankon soroma te Nyame so na onte ne ho so, 'Like the star, the child of the Supreme Being, I rest with God and do not depend upon myself.' / the pattern was on the King of Asante's pillow[23]:267
71
Ma te; Masie
I have heard (what you have said); I have hidden it
this extols the virtue of being able to keep a confidence[23]:267
Non listed
Nyame, biribi wo soro, ma no me ka me nsa
O God, everything which is above, permit my hand to touch it
the pattern was stamped on paper and hung above the lintel of a door in the palace. The King of Asante used to touch lintel, then his forehead, then his breast, repeating these words three times[23]
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) clickable image on right links to description
↑ Christaller, Johann Gottlieb (1881). "adiṅkărá". A Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language Called Tshi (Chwee, Tw̌i). Basel: The Evengelical Missionary Society. p.84.
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