Adinkra cloth and symbols
Telas y símbolos adinkra
- Date
- documentado en 1817 (origen anterior) · confidence medium
- Place
- Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana
- Credited to
- Asante and Gyaman peoples
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Cloth stamped with calabash-gourd stamps and plant ink, with symbols encoding proverbs and values. T. Bowdich described it in Kumasi in 1817, linked to mourning.
Tradition places its origin in Gyaman (Ivory Coast) and its arrival in Asante after the war of 1818; but Bowdich saw it already in 1817, so the oral and documentary accounts differ.
What it led to
- a symbolic language now used in architecture, logos and fashion
- Akan cultural identity
- the craft industry of Ntonso