Adinkra Cloth

CultureAkan peoples, Kwahu subgroup

Dateca. 1930

MediumIndustrial cotton fabric and vegetable dye

DimensionsOverall: 90 1/2 × 137 1/4 inches (229.87 × 348.62 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: The William W. Baker Revocable Trust

Object number2015.35.1

On View

Not on view

Collections

African Art

Terms

DescriptionThe cloth is a large beige fabric with black and brown patterns printed on it. It is composed by joining together several long, one-foot-wide strips edge-to-edge employing a distinctive embroidery technique that uses colored threads. Against the dominant beige background are several stamped motifs arranged in squares, also created with the stamps. The end-design is grid-like. During pre-colonial times, Adinkra cloths, as such cloths were called, were mainly associated with funerals. The term adinkra, “to give message”, meant that the Asante intended the cloth’s stamped motifs as message bearers; indeed each different motif had a specific meaning, so a finished cloth could be inscribed with multiple messages--personal, political, and philosophical. The expectation was that the deceased would carry the messages to relatives who have long departed.Provenance

Provenance

With John Akwasi Adu Agyei, Kenteland Enterprise, Accra, Ghana, 1995-2015 [1];

Purchased from John Akwasi Adu Agyei by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2015.

NOTES:

[1] According to John Akwasi Adu Agyei, Kenteland Enterprise, he acquired this cloth in the town of Mpraeso (Kwahu, Ghana) in 1995. The original owners informed him it was made in the Asante town of Ntonso, about 15 miles from Kumasi, the royal capital.

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