Ntonso - Adinkra

Symbolism. Symbolism. Symbolism.  

The layers of this society keep my mind endlessly spinning and analyzing the inner workings of everything. 
Adinkra symbols are adorned everywhere!  Fabrics, furniture, buildings, tro tros, jewelry, and so forth.  
The village, Ntonso, that we traveled to just outside of Kumasi, is famous for their production of Adinkra.  We were taught about the history and production of Adinkra.  The ink that is used for the stamps is produced from boiling down the bark of trees.  A dark liquid is extracted and the bark that is remained is strained through a basket.  The stamps above were carved out of the wood from palm trees. 

 

We all got to try our hand at stamping some Adinkra.  The symbol above that I chose is called Osram Ne Nsromma.  It is representative of a star and the moon.  It stands for faithfulness, harmony, and benevolence. 
The star is always waiting in the sky for the return of her partner, the moon.  

The symbol below, that I am holding is the AYA symbol. 
Aya is the Adinkra symbol that speaks the loudest to me.  It is the symbol and name of the center through which our program is run.  It resembles a fern and stands for defiance, endurance and resourcefulness; the strength that is necessary to stand against a system or commonly followed practices.