  About the Artwork
  
  
  Adinkra cloths boast a complex visual vocabulary of geometric and figurative motifs, each of which encapsulates a widely understood, specific meaning. The Asante people of what is modern-day Ghana made adinkra primarily as funeral cloths. Indeed, the name adinkra means “to send a message,” suggesting that the living created them to communicate via the newly dead to long-departed souls in the world beyond. 

The owner of the cloth often specified their message preferences, which the manufacturer would stamp onto fabric using patterns carved from a gourd and dipped in vegetable dye. This cloth’s sixteen designs include gye nyame (“except god”) and dwennimen (“ram’s horns”), which symbolize humility, strength, and wisdom.
The oldest adinkra in existence was collected by John Bowdich in 1817 and now resides in the British Museum, London. A second, commissioned by the Danish governor of Ghana, entered the Danish national collection around 1850. With its uniquely carved symbols, this cloth likely dates before 1900.
  
  
  Title
  Adinkra
  
  
  Artwork Date
  early 20th century
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  African
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  Akan
  
  
  Medium
  Cotton fabric, vegetable dye, and colored threads
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 132 × 89 inches (3 m 35.3 cm × 226.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Textiles
  
  
  Department
  African Art
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase with funds from Friends of African and African American Art
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2005.30
  
  
  Copyright
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