Adinkra symbols

Symbols and meanings

Adinkra symbols do two things at once. They decorate a surface, and they carry a message. Many of them stand for a proverb, so one stamped shape can hold a whole piece of advice. Others point to an animal, a plant, a drum, a star or something in the world around them. Because of this, they turn up on more than cloth. They are painted on walls, pressed into pottery, used in logos, carved on stools kept at home and in rituals, and cast on the small brass weights once used to weigh gold dust. The philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah wrote that they helped carry a body of practice and belief that is complex and full of shades of meaning.

Origins and debate

One account told in Akan oral tradition says the symbols began with the Bono people of Gyaman, whose king, Nana Kwadwo Agyemang Adinkra, gave them his own name. In that telling, his cloth was worn by the Gyaman court, and after Gyaman was defeated, craftsmen were made to pass the skill on to the Asante. The king's eldest son, Apau, is said to have taught a man named Kwaku Dwaku near Kumasi. This story has a problem: the war it describes ran from 1818 to 1819, but Thomas Bowdich had already seen adinkra cloth being made in Kumasi in 1817. Other traditions point to Denkyira. The exact origin is not settled.

The oldest cloths

Two early pieces survive. The older one was made in 1817 and carries fifteen stamped patterns, among them stars, double dono drums and diamonds. Its maker used stamps cut from calabash and a dye taken from plants. Thomas E. Bowdich brought it to Britain, and it has been kept at the British Museum since 1818. The second cloth left Elmina Castle in 1825, sent to a royal collection in The Hague, most likely arranged by Major Friedrich Last for William I of the Netherlands, which explains why the Dutch coat of arms sits at its centre. Its other motifs are older adinkra patterns. It is now shown at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden.

Making adinkra cloth

The stamps are cut from the base of a calabash. Each is five to eight centimetres square, with a handle on the back, and the face is slightly curved so the printer can roll it over the cloth rather than press it flat. The dark ink, Adinkra aduro, is made from the badie tree, Bridelia ferruginea. Material from the trunk and roots is soaked, crushed and boiled over a wood fire; once the colour has come out, the liquid is strained and then boiled again for hours until it thickens. Ntɔnso, about 20 km northwest of Kumasi, is the present centre of traditional production, and cloth is also made in Ivory Coast.

Wearing and change

In the past, adinkra cloth belonged to royalty and to spiritual leaders, and it was worn at funerals and on other special days. Pieces were hand printed on cotton that was left undyed or dyed red, dark brown or black, according to the occasion and the wearer's place. Factory printing now puts the patterns on lighter, brighter cloth as well. Visitors have also pushed the symbols into new uses: T-shirts, jewellery and other goods made for sale. In 2020 a school board in York, Pennsylvania, in the United States, barred a children's colouring book that used the symbols. The ban was later reversed.

How Adinkra symbols is kept

Adinkra is kept by Akan craftspeople and by the families and chiefs who wear the cloth. Work starts with the stamps, cut from calabash shells, and with the dye, boiled from the badie tree. Printers lay the cotton out and roll the stamps across it by hand. The finished cloth is worn mainly at funerals, where it marks mourning and respect, and at other serious gatherings. The same symbols are carved on stools, cast on goldweights and painted on walls. Visitors now buy smaller items carrying the patterns.

When and where

There is no fixed date. Adinkra cloth is worn for funerals and other special occasions, and in earlier times it was reserved for royalty and spiritual leaders. The oldest surviving cloth dates from 1817, and the cloth was already being made in Kumasi by then.

The tradition belongs to the Akan peoples of Ghana, among them the Asante, Fante, Akuapem and Akyem. Ntɔnso, about 20 km northwest of Kumasi, is the present centre of traditional production, and cloth is also made in neighbouring Ivory Coast. Early examples are held in museums in Britain and the Netherlands.

What Adinkra symbols means

Each adinkra symbol is a short statement. It may carry a proverb, a warning, a praise name or a remark about the natural world, and because the meaning is fixed, the same shape says the same thing wherever it appears. Wearing the cloth at a funeral therefore says something without words. For the Akan, the symbols are a way of holding on to wisdom and handing it down through the generations.

Questions people ask about Adinkra symbols

See also

Shell moneyTraditional currency made from cowries, ground clam beads, and carved sea shellsFantasy coffinsCustom hand-carved burial caskets shaped as animals, tools and symbols in southern GhanaAgbadzaAn Ewe music and dance, born of war songs and kept for funerals, weddings and festivalsDamba festivalA Ghanaian celebration of royal authority, ancestral memory, music and dance

Good reading and sources

• Adinkra symbols on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.