Adinkra symbols
The designs stamped on adinkra cloth by the Akan of Ghana, each tied to a proverb or saying, and what Ghanaian scholars, printers and museums record of their meanings.
Test yourself: Adinkra symbols quiz
God and the sky
- Gye NyameGye Nyame means “except God”. It is the adinkra symbol of the supremacy of God, from the Akan of Ghana.
- Nyame DuaNyame Dua, “God’s tree”, is the adinkra symbol of God’s presence and protection. It stands for the forked post that held an altar to God in Akan compounds.
- Nsoromma (star)Nsoromma, “child of the heavens”, is the adinkra star. It stands for guardianship.
- Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star)Osram ne Nsoromma, “the moon and the star”, is the adinkra crescent with a star above it. It stands for love and faithfulness.
Learning and knowledge
- SankofaSankofa means “go back for it”. Drawn as a bird turning its head back to an egg, it is the Akan symbol of learning from the past, and it is widely used in the African diaspora.
- Sankofa (heart)The heart-shaped Sankofa is the abstract form of the Akan symbol Sankofa, “go back for it”. It means the same as the bird: learn from the past.
- Mate MasieMate Masie, “what I hear, I keep”, is the adinkra symbol of wisdom, knowledge and prudence.
- Ananse Ntontan (spider’s web)Ananse Ntontan, “spider’s web”, is the adinkra symbol of wisdom and creativity, after Ananse, the spider of Akan stories.
- Hwe Mu DuaHwe Mu Dua, the “measuring stick”, is the adinkra symbol of examination and quality control.
Leadership and strength
- AdinkraheneAdinkrahene, “chief of the adinkra symbols”, is three concentric rings. It stands for greatness, charisma and leadership.
- Dwennimmen (ram’s horns)Dwennimmen, “ram’s horns”, is the adinkra symbol of humility together with strength: a ram fights fiercely, yet goes meekly to slaughter.
- Denkyem (crocodile)Denkyem, the crocodile, is the adinkra symbol of adaptability: it lives in water, yet breathes air.
- FawohodieFawohodie means “independence”. It is the adinkra symbol of independence, freedom and emancipation.
- NkyinkyimNkyinkyim, “twisting”, is the zigzag adinkra symbol of initiative, dynamism and versatility: the road of life twists and turns.
Love, unity and the home
- Akoma (the heart)Akoma, “the heart”, is the adinkra symbol of patience and endurance. Its saying is nyaakoma, “take heart”.
- Akoma NtosoAkoma Ntoso, “linked hearts”, is the adinkra symbol of understanding and agreement.
- Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu (Siamese crocodiles)Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu are the Siamese crocodiles, two crocodiles with one stomach that still fight over food. The adinkra symbol stands for unity in diversity.
- Ese ne TekremaEse ne Tekrema, “the teeth and the tongue”, is the adinkra symbol of friendship and interdependence: the two work together, and sometimes clash.
- Bese SakaBese Saka, a bunch of kola nuts, is the adinkra symbol of affluence, abundance and unity.
- Duafe (wooden comb)Duafe, the wooden comb, is the adinkra symbol of beauty and cleanliness.
About adinkra symbols
Adinkra is a cloth of the Akan of Ghana, and the name of the designs stamped on it. Philip Owusu of the University of Ghana calls it traditionally a mourning cloth, and sets it beside kente: kente is woven, adinkra is stamped. Each design is tied to an Akan proverb or saying. The researcher Mato identified as many as 218 of them; the pages here take twenty of the best documented, from Gye Nyame, “except God”, to Sankofa, “go back for it”.
How the cloth is printed
The printer cuts each design in relief on a small piece of calabash gourd and stamps it, inked, on the cloth in a grid. The ink, adinkra aduro, is made by boiling the bark of the badie tree, sometimes with slag left over from iron smelting, Adrian Anagnost writes in British Art Studies. In Ntonso (Ntonsu) it is told that a hunter named Kojo of the Boakye family found the dye when the badie tree stained his cloth, and that his discovery began the family trade the town still practises. Ntonso and Asokwa are the two main centres of adinkra printing, Owusu writes; the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has shown the work of Joseph Nsiah of Ntonso, one of the best known stamp carvers in Ghana. Cloth is also screen-printed now, and British companies once printed it by machine.
Who wears it
Historically, the Smithsonian notes, adinkra was reserved for the Asante kings; it then spread to the Akan population at large, who wear it on important occasions, above all funerals. G. F. Kojo Arthur’s Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems lists funerals, the swearing-in of a new king and naming ceremonies, and festive wear in bright colours, the designs always in black. A study of 2025 in Frontiers in Sociology finds the symbols now national markers in Ghana, on textiles, buildings and official emblems.
How old it is
Thomas Bowdich, who went to Kumasi with a British mission in 1817, wrote in 1819 of painted cloth he was sending to the British Museum, and a stamped cloth he collected has been there since 1818. For the KNUST lecturers Samuel Baah Kissi, Peggy Ama Fening and Eric Appau Asante, that cloth shows adinkra in Asante a year before the war of 1818 with Gyaman, whose defeated king, Kofi Adinkra, some artisans name as the source of the designs. Owusu records other accounts: that the first craftsmen learned the designs from God, and R. S. Rattray’s suggestion of an Islamic source. Another early cloth went from the Asantehene to Holland around 1825.
In the diaspora
Adinkra is also carved inside the memorial of the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York, where the National Park Service lists the meanings of Nsoromma, Dwennimmen, Denkyem, Mate Masie and the heart-shaped Sankofa among others. Owusu calls Sankofa a symbol of history and identity taken up by Africans in the diaspora, and at the University of Michigan the Program for Research on Black Americans bases its logo on Fawohodie, independence.
Sources
- Adinkra Symbols as Multivocal Pedagogical/Socialization Tool (Philip Owusu 2019), Philip Owusu (Senior Assistant Curator, Institute of African Studies Teaching Museum, University of Ghana), “Adinkra Symbols as ‘Multivocal’ Pedagogical/Socialization Tool”, Contemporary Journal of African Studies 6, no. 1 (2019): 46–58, doi:10.4314/contjas.v6i1.3, Contemporary Journal of African Studies (University of Ghana), pp. 47–49
- Woven, Inscribed, Enfolded, Encased (Adrian Anagnost 2025), Adrian Anagnost, “Woven, Inscribed, Enfolded, Encased”, British Art Studies, issue 28 (November 2025), British Art Studies, “Woven: Asante Consolidation” and Figure 4
- Inscribing Meaning: Adinkra (National Museum of African Art), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, “Inscribing Meaning: Adinkra”, exhibition pages for Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art (2007), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, introduction and captions
- Adinkra Cloth Symbols (Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems), G. F. Kojo Arthur and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems (CEFIKS), Akan Cultural Symbols Project, “Adinkra Cloth Symbols” (2001–2010), Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems, whole page
- The Philosophy of Adinkra Symbols in Asante Textiles (Kissi et al. 2019), Samuel Baah Kissi, Peggy Ama Fening and Eric Appau Asante (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), “The Philisophy of Adinkra Symbols in Asante Textiles, Jewellery and Other Art Forms”, Journal of Asian Scientific Research 9, no. 4 (2019): 29–39, doi:10.18488/journal.2.2019.94.29.39, Asian Economic and Social Society, 1. Introduction and 2. The Adinkra in clothes
- Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (T. E. Bowdich 1819), T. Edward Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee (London: John Murray, 1819), notes to the table of trade goods, Internet Archive, notes to the trade table
- Adinkra Symbols Explained (African Burial Ground National Monument), National Park Service, African Burial Ground National Monument, “Adinkra Symbols Explained” (last updated 30 June 2021), U.S. National Park Service, opening paragraphs
- Sociological and religious interpretations of Adinkra symbols (Mensah et al. 2025), Ronald Osei Mensah, Anthony Bordoh, Andrews Acquah, Eric Bruce-Amartey Jnr and Papa Kofi Nunoo, “Sociological and religious interpretations of Adinkra symbols: qualitative analysis of the 2025 inaugural outfit of Ghana’s president”, Frontiers in Sociology 10 (2025), doi:10.3389/fsoc.2025.1642863 (authors at Takoradi Technical University, the University of Education, Winneba, and the University of Ghana), Frontiers in Sociology, 1. Introduction
- Meaning of PRBA Logo (Program for Research on Black Americans), Program for Research on Black Americans, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, “Meaning of PRBA Logo”, University of Michigan, whole page
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research