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.
Meaning
Dwennimmen is an Akan symbol from Ghana, stamped on adinkra cloth and carved on the African Burial Ground memorial in New York. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art holds a stamp of it carved from gourd, four scrolls and a lozenge at the centre, and its label gives the meaning: “a symbol of humility combined with strength, just as a ram will fight fiercely yet tamely be slaughtered by man”. The National Park Service glosses the carving in New York as “Humility and Strength”, and the design-tools table at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gives the same two words. The museum also holds a stamp with the pattern doubled, which it calls “Dwennimmen ntoasoc”, double ram’s horns.
A different saying
Not every source gives the humility reading. Anthony Zamblé, writing in The Covenant Quarterly in 2023, names the symbol Dwannini, “the ram”, and gives a different saying: “If you see a ram who bullies others with his horn, it is not because of the power of his horns, but rather because of what is in his heart.” He takes its meaning to be “Power does not corrupt; the one wielding it does.”
On a president’s inaugural cloth
John Mahama wore Dwennimmen at his inauguration as President of Ghana in 2025, with Gye Nyame, Sankofa and Nyame Dua. The researchers who studied the outfit for Frontiers in Sociology write that the symbol is often read as humility, and quote one participant: “It is a lesson in leadership, true strength lies in humility.”
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsDenkyem (crocodile)Denkyem, the crocodile, is the adinkra symbol of adaptability: it lives in water, yet breathes air.
- The same shape in Christian symbolsSacred HeartA heart wreathed in thorns, with flames rising from it, a cross above and a wound in its side. Catholics honour it as the heart of Jesus and the sign of his love for people.
See also
Adinkrahene, Gye Nyame, Nyame Dua, Nsoromma (star), Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star), Sankofa.
Sources
- Adinkra stamp Dwennimmen (National Museum of African Art 2010-10-384), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, adinkra stamp, Akan artist, Ghana, object 2010-10-384, catalogue record and label text, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, description and label text
- 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
- 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, 4.1 Religious interpretations
- A Reconstruction of African Religion through Adinkra Symbology (Anthony Zamblé 2023), Anthony Zamblé, “A Reconstruction of African Religion through Adinkra Symbology”, The Covenant Quarterly 81, no. 2 (2023): 18–31, The Covenant Quarterly (North Park Theological Seminary), pp. 26–27
- 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
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves or diamonds.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
Added .