Weekend Talk: Adinkra points to God

It is now well known that God has deliberately deposited in every culture some things that point to him so that humanity would get to know him and draw close to him.

Some people describe these pointers as “living billboards” because they reveal God’s invisible qualities so that people would recognise and acknowledge him as the Creator beyond ourselves.

In the Akan tradition, one such pointer is the Adinkra symbols, many of which reveal God’s divine attributes such as sovereignty, authority, supremacy, providence, and spiritual dependence.

By their popularity and usage, the Adinkra symbols now transcend the Akan traditions into other cultures and are subscribed to by all Ghanaians to the extent that they have become national artefacts.

The symbols

We learn from history that Adinkra, which originated from Akan traditional societies earlier than the 1700s, are visual symbols that represent concepts and proverbs.

Back then, the symbols featured as prints on cloths which royals wore to important ceremonies, but they have since transcended these Akan origins.

With over 122 different symbols, Adinkra has become popular nationwide.

The fact that some Adinkra symbols point to God should not surprise Christendom, because the symbols exemplify the concept of redemptive analogy, which should interest every mission-minded Christian.

Redemptive Analogy

Redemptive analogy is the concept where we believe God has intentionally placed in our various cultures something that resembles his plan to redeem us and for us to relate to him.

These pointers are found in songs, dance, behaviour patterns, festivals, history, proverbs, folktales, symbols, artefacts, and belief systems.

For example, we learn from Psalm 19:1 that, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the works of his hands.”

So the environment, ecosystems, the atmosphere, the planets, galaxies, and cosmic events all point to God as the Creator.

Each of them constitutes a redemptive analogy.

Redemption

To properly situate this redemptive analogy concept means a resemblance to being redeemed or saved or rescued.

Simply put, Christians believe that God has intentionally placed in our various cultures something that resembles his plan of salvation.

So you are drowning in a fast-flowing river and someone drops a rope to pull you out, or a boat comes around and picks you up. Or you’ve become a slave and someone pays the penalty and redeems you.

Similarly, humanity was steeped in sin which so enslaved us that only eternal death awaited us, because the penalty for sin is death.

But God, who loves us, sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for our sin and redeems us.

So “redemptive analogy” means that, in order to make it easier for us to understand his salvation plan, God has placed in our cultures something that resembles this salvation plan. 

Five symbols

Here are five popular Adinkra symbols that point to God:

1.     “Gye Nyame” (Except God): This is the most widely known Adinkra symbol referring to God and teaches that he is supreme and omnipotent. To the Akan, no power exists above God.

2.    “Nyame, Biribi Wɔ Soro” (God, there is something in heaven). This symbol, which encourages faith, prayer, and hope, points to God as the ultimate source of help who intervenes in human affairs.

3.    “Nyame Nti” (By God’s grace). Before God, all humans must submit in humility and gratitude, because all achievements come through him. The persisting worldview is that human effort must align with divine favour.

4.    “Nyame Dua” (God’s tree or altar): It is said that traditionally the Nyame Dua was placed in the home as a sacred altar of prayer. Doesn’t this teach us the truth that God is ever present and accessible to humanity? This spiritual connection encourages us to seek God and relate to him.

5. “Nyame Yɛ Ɔhene” (God is King): This symbol shows that God's kingship surpasses human authority; every earthly king must be subject to him. The human soul resides in God, not in anything else, because God created it.

And the Adinkra symbols are examples of cultural artefacts that are redemptive in nature because of their reference to God.

Knowing Christ

I heard someone argue that the existence of the Adinkra symbols long before the coming of missionaries indicates that Africans knew God before the missionaries arrived.

That’s okay. God already wanted all people everywhere to know him anyway, so if the Adinkra symbols and other cultural artefacts helped the Akans to know God before the missionaries arrived, that’s fine.

God wants everybody to know that he exists.

But evangelical missionaries didn’t come preaching God; they came preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That is the Good News of redemption.

Therefore, if you believe in God, believe also in Christ.

Jesus said, “You believe in God; believe also in me!” (John 14:1). For when it comes to salvation, where our souls must be redeemed, Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.