Adinkra Symbols:

made for them. So when they defeated the Denkyira nation, which included the Dormaa,
these theorists believe the Asante learned from craftsmen that were captured during the
war. However it was not until the Asante-Gyaman war of 1818 that additional
technological improvements were made to the textile industry (Arthur 25). These
improvements were obtained from King Adinkra Kofi’s son, Adinkra Apaa, who was
spared during the war and forced to teach the Asante more about Adinkra. Oral accounts
have attested to the fact that Adinkra Apaa taught the process to a man named Kwaku
Dwaku in a town near Kumasi (Willis 30).
Quarcoo also explains how the oral accounts that place King Adinkra Kofi as the
introducer of Adinkra cloth may have gotten mixed up. During the Asante-Denkyira war
in 1701 when Quarcoo theorists believe the Asante were first introduced to Adinkra, the
King of the Gyaman, Dormaa at that time, was Adinkra Panin. The name Adinkra Panin
and Adinkra Kofi obviously share adinkra in the name which is most likely why oral
accounts have mistaken Adinkra Panin, who ruled at the same time as the second king the
Asantehene Opuku Ware in the late 17 th century, for Adinkra Kofi. However, this is all
speculation considering there are only oral historical accounts of events (Willis 30).
According to another theorist Danquah, the name Adinkra may have not come
from Adinkra Kofi or Adinkra Panin. Danquah believes that the word ‘Adinkra’ comes
from the Akan word nkra or nkara meaning message or intelligence since the Asantes
believed that the ancestors carried messages to and from God. Therefore the symbols may
have been named Adinkra because the Akan believed the Adinkra cloth the dead wore
were messages to God. Also Adkinra could have come from the exile of the Asantehene,
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