Nsoromma (star)
Nsoromma, “child of the heavens”, is the adinkra star. It stands for guardianship.
Meaning
Nsoromma is the star among the Akan adinkra symbols of Ghana. The design-tools table at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute translates the name as “child of the heavens”, stars, and gives the meaning “Guardianship”; the National Park Service glosses the star carved in the African Burial Ground memorial in New York the same way.
Origin and history
Stars are stamped on the adinkra cloth that Thomas Bowdich collected on his journey to Kumase (Kumasi), the Asante capital, in 1817, and gave to the British Museum in 1818. Its catalogue entry, as the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Fashion History Timeline quotes it, describes 35 squares stamped with Nsroma (stars), Dono Ntoasuo (double dono drums) and small diamonds. Adrian Anagnost, writing in British Art Studies in 2025, dates the cloth 1817; the timeline’s caption gives 1818, the year it reached the museum.
Often confused with Osram ne Nsoromma
The star also appears with a crescent in Osram ne Nsoromma, “the moon and the star”, a separate symbol of love and faithfulness. Nsoromma is the star alone.
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsOsram 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.
- The same shape in Tarot cardsFive of PentaclesThe five of pentacles in the tarot's Minor Arcana: two beggars in a snowstorm passing a lighted window. A. E. Waite read it as material trouble and destitution.
See also
Gye Nyame, Nyame Dua, Sankofa, Sankofa (heart), Mate Masie, Ananse Ntontan (spider’s web).
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
- Adinkra (Fashion History Timeline), Julianna Horn, “Adinkra”, Fashion History Timeline, Fashion Institute of Technology (SUNY), History of Art Department (published 10 August 2022), quoting the British Museum’s catalogue of cloth Af1818,1114.23, Fashion Institute of Technology, quotation of the British Museum’s description (Fig. 4)
- Woven, Inscribed, Enfolded, Encased (Adrian Anagnost 2025), Adrian Anagnost, “Woven, Inscribed, Enfolded, Encased”, British Art Studies, issue 28 (November 2025), British Art Studies, introduction and Figure 4 caption
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or stars.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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