Denkyem (crocodile)
Denkyem, the crocodile, is the adinkra symbol of adaptability: it lives in water, yet breathes air.
Meaning
Denkyem is an Akan symbol from Ghana, stamped on adinkra cloth and carved on the African Burial Ground memorial in New York, where the National Park Service glosses it as “Adaptability”; the design-tools table at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gives the same meaning. The proverb behind it is an old one. R. S. Rattray recorded it in Ashanti Proverbs (1916): “The crocodile lies in the water, but it also drinks (breathes) the air.”
Often confused with Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu
Another adinkra symbol has crocodiles in it: Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu, two crocodiles that share one stomach, the symbol of unity in diversity. Denkyem is the single crocodile, drawn here as the African Burial Ground carving has it, seen from above with its legs bent out to the sides.
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsFawohodieFawohodie means “independence”. It is the adinkra symbol of independence, freedom and emancipation.
- The same shape in Christmas symbolsCandy caneA hooked stick of peppermint candy, white with red stripes, hung on Christmas trees. The story that it was made as a J for Jesus, white for his purity and red for his blood, is a modern legend: no record supports it.
See also
Nkyinkyim, Funtunfunefu Denkyemfunefu (Siamese crocodiles), Gye Nyame, Nyame Dua, Nsoromma (star), Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star).
Sources
- 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, list of the symbols in the memorial
- Adinkra Symbols (Culturally Situated Design Tools), Culturally Situated Design Tools (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with the National Science Foundation), “Adinkra: Symbols”, Culturally Situated Design Tools, table of symbols
- Ashanti Proverbs (R. S. Rattray 1916), R. Sutherland Rattray, Ashanti Proverbs (The Primitive Ethics of a Savage People) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1916), Internet Archive (University of Toronto scan), No. 134
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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