Nyame Dua
Nyame 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.
Meaning
Nyame Dua is an Akan symbol from Ghana, stamped on adinkra cloth. The name is the name of the altar it stands for: a three-pronged stake set up in a courtyard or in front of a house, holding between its forks a pot, calabash or brass basin of water and herbs for purification and cleansing rites. So J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, George Appiah and Melvin Nartey of KNUST describe it, and they give the symbol’s meaning as acknowledgment of the presence of God. The design-tools table at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has “God’s presence and protection”.
Origin and history
R. S. Rattray wrote in Ashanti (1923) that it was hardly an exaggeration to say that every compound in Ashanti held an altar to the Sky God, “in the shape of a forked branch cut from a certain tree”, which the Asante called Nyame dua. Between its short-cut branches stood a basin or a pot, and in it, besides the offering, there was generally a neolithic celt.
The altar is rarer now. The KNUST authors write that Nyamedua is no longer set up in courtyards, that Christians count putting one up in front of a house as idol worship, and that a few traditionalists still set them up in their places of worship. Anthony Zamblé (The Covenant Quarterly, 2023) also calls it “currently rare”.
On a president’s inaugural cloth
John Mahama wore Nyame Dua at his inauguration as President of Ghana in 2025, with Gye Nyame, Sankofa and Dwennimmen. The researchers who studied the outfit for Frontiers in Sociology write that participants read it “as a request for divine guardianship and spiritual legitimacy”.
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsNsoromma (star)Nsoromma, “child of the heavens”, is the adinkra star. It stands for guardianship.
- The same shape in Catholic symbolsAgnus Dei (Lamb of God)A lamb, usually with a halo and carrying a cross-staff with a banner: Christ as the Lamb of God, from John the Baptist’s words “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
See also
Gye Nyame, Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star), Sankofa, Sankofa (heart), Mate Masie, Ananse Ntontan (spider’s web).
Sources
- Ashanti (R. S. Rattray 1923), R. S. Rattray, Ashanti (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923), chapter on religion, Internet Archive (Digital Library of India scan), p. 142
- 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: Nyamedua
- 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), p. 25
- 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 crosses or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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