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AFRICA DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ADRRI) JOURNAL
ISSN: 2343-6662 ISSN-L: 2343-6662
VOL. 25, NO. 12(3), OCTOBER, 2016
PUBLISHED BY AFRICA DEVELOPMENT AND RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE
1
ADRRI JOURNALS (www.adrri.org)
ISSN: 2343-6662 ISSN-L: 2343-6662 VOL. 25, No. 12 (3), October, 2016
Adinkra Cloth Production in Retrospect
Abraham Ekow Asmah1, Vincentia Okpattah2, Effie Koomson3
1, 2 Department of Integrated Rural Art and Industry, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana.
1E-mail: [email protected]; 2E-mail: [email protected]
3Department of General Art Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
(KNUST), Kumasi-Ghana. E-mail: [email protected]
1Correspondence: [email protected]
Available Online: 31st October, 2016
URL: https://www.journals.adrri.org/
[Cite article as: Asmah, A. E., Okpattah, V. and Koomson, E. (2016). Adinkra Cloth Production in Retrospect.
Africa Development and Resources Research Institute Journal, Ghana: Vol. 25, No. 12 (3), Pp. 1-14, ISSN: 2343-6662,
31st October, 2016.]
Abstract
Evolving and reconnoitering new ways for Adinkra cloth production is fast dominating the Ghanaian
traditional textile landscape and catching the attention of prominent personalities in Asante kingdom.
The growing disposition to this emerging trend of Adinkra production gives a new fashionable outlook
to chieftaincy. The study discusses current drifts from calabash relief-stamped Adinkra prints to screen
prints through to bold sketched machine design embroidered Adinkra cloth production. It employs a
developmental study of descriptive research to consider the existing status of singularities to the new
changes that has taken place since the introduction of the machined embroidered Adinkra cloth. The
study establishes the contrast in technique between indigenous Adinkra print designs and the new
design concept of Adinkra cloth production. It brings to the fore the new potentials of the Adinkra
embroidered cloth production in some communities in the Ashanti region. The study offers the
understanding of this current production of Adinkra cloth and recommends further research into the
indigenous Adinkra duro (dye) production for its sustenance. Furthermore, the traditional design
concepts should be encouraged in vocational, colleges and tertiary institutions to advance and cradle this
new development.
Keywords: indigenous Adinkra print designs; contemporary embroidery techniques; Adinkra symbols; Adinkra cloth production.
http://www.adrri.org/mailto:[email protected]:///F:/EFFE%20Collaboration%20Journals%202016/[email protected]://www.journals.adrri.org/

ISSN: 2343-6662 ISSN-L: 2343-6662
VOL. 25, NO. 12(3), OCTOBER, 2016
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INTRODUCTION
Ghanaian traditional Adinkra cloth like Asante culture, has experienced rapid developmental
change. The current Ghanaian traditional textiles are merely the integration of indigenous and
foreign design techniques, an evidence of acculturation (Asmah, 2014). These techniques used
in Asante textiles are a living perception via the convergence of cultural changes through the
production techniques of Western and Islamic cultures. The translation of these techniques is
currently displayed on some traditional textile fabrics produced for chieftaincy in Asante in the
area of weaving, embroidery (Fig. 12), appliqu (Fig. 13), printing (Fig. 17a), dyeing (Fig. 19 &
20), and patched fabrics (Fig. 13). With the advancement in technology, traditional textile fabrics
as well as its techniques have gone through several modifications and developments. Among
the traditional textile decorative techniques that have survived through their inception in
Asante is Adinkra cloth production.
For a cloth to be called Adinkra, it must have the Akan proverbial symbols stamped,
embroidered or appliqued in a design pattern (Adinkra Cloth, 2010). In the light of the above,
the study objectively traces the developmental progression and achievements of Adinkra cloth
production in terms of techniques from the use of traditional to contemporary technology in the
Ghanaian textile traditional landscape with special reference to Ashanti Region. The question
now is, can this developmental progression and achievements of Adinkra cloth production
technology be evidently traced in the Ghanaian textile traditional landscape? In answering the
above question of the study offers significantly a clear chronological understanding of the
evolving and emerging trend of Adinkra cloth production technology, which mirrors its
products by the currently fashionable fabric ornamentation outlook of chiefs and dignitaries.
The arrival of Adinkra tradition among the Asantes according to Bowdich, (2013 and Oduol,
(2012) indicates that the art of Adinkra existed before the traditional starting date of 1818 at the
end of the Asante-Gyaman War. Bowdich, (2013 indicates that he, obtained a piece of Adinkra
cloth in Kumasi which featured fifteen stamped symbols, now located in a British Museum
(Adinkra Cloth, 2010). Of these symbols included traditional elements of Asante festivities like
the drums (dondoo). Other oldest piece of Adinkra cloth now on display in the National
Museum of Ethnology in Leiden seems to introduce the design concept of the cloth and its
features in its inventive state.
Uncertain as the history of Adinkra cloth may be, several accounts of its origin and past, points
to the facts according to Delaquis, (2013) that Adinkra symbols were borrowed and new
meanings invented to suit them by the Asantes. The probability perceptibly may have come
from the Islamic religion, who originated the signs and symbols of the Tuareg Arabs in the area
of embroidery (Kwami, 1994) and also in the formation of Adinkra symbols like Mmra Krado,
Pepeni amma yahu Kramo, and so on. A close observation of the recorded Adinkra symbols by
Rattray (1959), reveals a certain level of mystical influence, especially on a symbol like the
Akoma (the heart), with a cross in the centre.

ISSN: 2343-6662 ISSN-L: 2343-6662
VOL. 25, NO. 12(3), OCTOBER, 2016
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Obviously the probable introduction to such a symbol would have been their engagement with
the Muslim merchants whose connections extended across the Sahara to North Africa and
beyond (Delaquis, 2013). Again, the origin of Adinkra cloth, according to a popular account
may have come from the chief of Gyaman on Ivory Coast, King Adinkra, who wore special
symbolic patterned clothes. This rival monarch insulted the King of the Asante then Nana Osei
Bonsu by copying the design of the sacred golden stool. For this obstinacy against the Asante
King, King Adinkra was slain in early 1800s. According to Boateng, (2011), the kings cloth was
taken and introduced to the Asante Kingdom as Adinkras cloth. Ironically the word Adinkra
in the Akan language means goodbye, and so the cloth became the mourning cloth for royalty
and spiritual leaders during funeral services and important sacred rituals. It remains the only
African stamped traditional cloth of pre-colonial source (Polakoff, 1982; Picton & Mack, 1989). It
is also believed that the first Adinkra designs may have been taken from motifs found under the
golden leaf of the Gyaman stool (Kumah, 2009).
Production Centres
Ntonso and Tewobaabi, the twin villages, 18 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kumasi in the
Kwabre District of Ashanti Region on the Asante Mampong Road are the production centres of
this historic cloth well known for their symbolic hand printed cloth. Technological
advancement and the us

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