Adinkra; the dye is called adinkra aduro; the symbols themselves are adinkra symbols
The hand-carving of calabash-gourd stamps and their application in dark, bark-based dye to print symbolic Adinkra motifs onto woven cotton cloth, practiced by the Asante people of Ghana and centered on the village of Ntonso, northeast of Kumasi. Adinkra symbols are ideographic designs communicating proverbial principles and concepts, originally reserved for royalty and initially associated with mourning and funerals, now worn broadly across Ghanaian society. The distinctive black dye, adinkra aduro, is produced by soaking the bark of the badie tree in water for a week, pounding it, and boiling it with iron slag until it reaches the consistency of coal tar; stamps carved from calabash gourd sections, fitted with raffia-and-cloth handles, are dipped in the dye and pressed onto pre-divided cloth sections in a rocking motion, since the stamp face is slightly rounded. Adinkra is documented as the only African cloth-printing tradition of pre-colonial origin.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not independently inscribed
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