Adinkra stamps are true ethnographic items – they are literally stamps for printing a variety of fabric known as Adinkra.  Adinkra cloth is made primarily by the Asante/Ashante people of Ghana, in West Africa and can be traced back to the 17th century.

The word "adinkra" means goodbye because originally clothes adorned with Adinkra symbols were only worn during ceremonies to honor the dead. The symbols worn on the mourner's clothing expressed the qualities attributed to the deceased.

The Ashante people living in the modern African countries of Ghana and the Ivory Coast, stamp Adinkra symbols on cloth. The symbols are created by cutting a stamp out of the thick skin of a calabash gourd. The stamp is dipped in dye, made from tree bark, and then repeatedly pressed onto cloth to create patterns. Each of the stylized patterns has a name and meaning based on a proverb or historical legend. The shapes of humans, animals, plants, and objects inspired the geometric forms of the symbols. The number of symbols continue to grow.  One of the more common stamps, for example represents both God and also stands for “Nothing is greater than God.” Some scholars attribute up to 2,200 different designs with individual meanings.

Today Adinkra cloth is widely worn at social occasions in Ghana and the symbols are used to decorate objects. In modern times, they are used worldwide for every-day wear, bridal, formal and special occasions.
Each stamp is a one-of-a-kind hand crafted piece of art. While the stamps are beautiful, they also are functional on several levels: while they are used as stamps to transfer dyes to fabric, each design also has a specific meaning.
 

The making of adinkra cloth is a traditional art form in Ghana, West Africa, among the Asante people. It was worn originally at funerals as a sign of personal mourning, and almost all Asantes own at least one hand-made Adinkra cloth for this purpose.  Today Adinkra is made in many colors used for special events, both joyous, celebratory as well as for the traditional mourning.

To make the ink that the stamps are dipped in to, bark from the badee tree is peeled off and soaked overnight in water. It is pounded and boiled again in the same water. Large tins are used.

Each day the liquid is boiled in the same water for a week or more. In the last few days an iron stone is placed in the tin drum to give the dye its characteristic black color. When cool, the white of an egg is added to the dyestuff to give it a glossy appearance.

Master carvers create the stamps. Calabashes or gourds (similar to pumpkins) are harvested while still fresh and then the outer shell of the gourd is cut into rough-sized pieces.

After a design has been decided upon, the calabash pieces are then carved in a way as to allow for raised areas that will print as a positive. Negative areas are cut away and a tripod of splinters are pushed into the back of the gourd tied to the stamp as a handle.

To print the fabric, hand woven fabric is stretched taut over a level, horizontal wooden board that is covered with a padding of burlap. The calabash stamp is dipped into the dye then pressed onto the fabric. Sometimes a wooden comb is used to draw borders and lines around areas. Repeating a pattern is optional. Different stamps are often used on the same fabric.

After printing, the fabric is allowed to dry in the sun. There are two types of Adinkra: plain and embroidery (nwomu), where strips of fabric are attached by handstitching, or by embroidery with bright, primary colors. The original Adinkra cloth consisted of black glossy Adinkra designs (each with its symbolic meanings) printed on black, red or brown cloth.

Zanzibar Trading Company’s adinkra stamps are all used, true ethnographic items. We carefully hand select them and offer them to you as a truly unique treasure! Use them or just display them, they will definitely be a conversation piece!

VIEW OUR CURRENT INVENTORY OF ADINKRA STAMPS FROM GHANA (BULK QUANTITIES AVAILABLE)

SAMPLES OF SOME ADINKRA STAMP SHAPES AND THEIR MEANINGS:

please note this is a sampling and as there is some variation (and controversy) of actual names and meanings of adinkra stamps from region to region within Ghana and by various "experts" and researchers and authors (as well as over time), thus the below stamps are for reference only.  For a more detailed description of Adinkra stamps and their meanings, we recommend the following book: 

The Adinkra Stamp book, Cloth As Metaphor, by G.F. Kojo Arthur, catalogues over 700 Adinkra symbols and and their variations and discussing various themes encoded in the texts of proverbs, aphorisms and other verbal expressions related to these symbols, available at Amazon.com

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