Mate Masie
Mate Masie, “what I hear, I keep”, is the adinkra symbol of wisdom, knowledge and prudence.
Meaning
Mate Masie is an Akan symbol from Ghana, stamped on adinkra cloth and carved on the African Burial Ground memorial in New York. J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, George Appiah and Melvin Nartey of KNUST give its meaning as “It pays to imbibe knowledge prudently”: the Akan, they write, think someone who hears something and keeps it for later intelligent and wise, and the symbol also teaches the keeping of secrets. The National Park Service glosses it as “Wisdom and Prudence”, and the design-tools table at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as “Wisdom, knowledge, and prudence”.
Two names
Sources name the symbol differently. Samuel Baah Kissi, Peggy Ama Fening and Eric Appau Asante of KNUST call it Ntesie, “I have heard and kept it”, and class it among the educational symbols, signifying “the need for imbibing knowledge, information, wisdom and prudence”. Most other sources, among them the National Park Service, call it Mate Masie.
Where you’ll see it
A photograph in Jasmine Danzy’s 2009 thesis at Stony Brook University shows it carved on a building at Legon. In New York it is one of the symbols carved inside the African Burial Ground memorial.
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsAnanse Ntontan (spider’s web)Ananse Ntontan, “spider’s web”, is the adinkra symbol of wisdom and creativity, after Ananse, the spider of Akan stories.
- The same shape in Knights Templar symbolsAgnus Dei on Templar sealsThe Lamb of God with its banner, which the Knights Templar in England, Provence and Aragon used on their seals.
See also
Hwe Mu Dua, Gye Nyame, Nyame Dua, Nsoromma (star), Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star), Sankofa.
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
- The philosophy behind some Adinkra symbols (Kuwornu-Adjaottor et al. 2016), J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, George Appiah and Melvin Nartey (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), “The philosophy behind some Adinkra symbols and their communicative values in Akan”, Philosophical Papers and Review 7, no. 3 (2016): 22–33, doi:10.5897/PPR2015.0117, Academic Journals, Some familiar Adinkra symbols: Mate masie
- 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, 2.1 Some sample Adinkra symbols (table)
- 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
- Adinkra Symbols: An Ideographic Writing System (Jasmine Danzy 2009), Jasmine Danzy, “Adinkra Symbols: An Ideographic Writing System” (MA thesis, Stony Brook University, 2009), Stony Brook University Libraries (SUNY Connect), List of illustrations
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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