AKAN
AKUNINTAM
AKAN CLOTH ADINKRA KENTE KENTE CLOTH & MOTIFS WAX & NONWAX PRINTS ASAFO FLAGS AKUNINTAM
Akunintam is the cloth of the great people. The imagery in the akunintam comes from a central theme in Akan art: the twinning of a proverb and a visual image. Pictograms and ideograms are used in the akunintam as part of cultural exhibitions and spectacles of royal regalia to underpin systems of authority. The Akan have several thousand proverbs some of which are used in akunintam. This visual 'vocabulary' allows different groups to 'read' the messages in these cloths. The akunintam uses the appliqué technique. Appliqué technique is decorative work in which one piece of cloth is sewn or fixed onto another cloth. Pieces of cloth having different colors and patterns are first cut and then sewn together. Sewing these pieces on a plain cloth creates a composite piece of fabric. Garments created through this process have bright colors and are decorated with rich indigenous motifs. This technique is also used in making asafo flags. Generally drawn from a huge repertoire of known patterns, the designs used by the cloth designers are the same as those used on other forms of Akan art. These patterns have names and meanings derived from the various genres of Akan oral literature such as proverbs. The craft involves embroidering and stitching of small pieces of colored cloth with motifs of flowers, animals and other objects.
SAMPLES OF AKUNINTAM |
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| Dated last updated: 10/14/2009 | |||
The
late Asantehene Nana Opoku Ware II wearing akunintam at a public
ceremony.
