Adinkra at Aba House

Adinkra cloth is made from stamping dye made from Badia tree bark with stamps carved from the calabash gourd. Adinkra symbols are used to convey different meanings and sentiments from the wearer to the viewer. We spent time learning the Adinkra process at Aba House yesterday with David, who is an Ashanti and Adinkra stamper--he accompanied us to his village last week where we learned about the process of making Adinkra cloth.

We started by getting a feel for the comb and creating borders for our pieces using a 6-toothed comb and drawing it as evenly as we could from one edge to another. Within the borders we created, we stamped different symbols using the calabash stamps. As with everything, it was harder than it looked and my signature began to be the additional drips that accompanied the symbols. We each managed to get a piece done and worked on a collaborative piece together: David, Madeline, me and Tamara from NY State and Swarthmore College.

Staying at Aba House is an experience in and of itself. Aba is Ellie Schimelman, a former art teacher from the US who lives near us in Boston and also has a house in Nungua. She operates the Cross Cultural Collaborative, which is an organization that connects Obrunis like me with artists from all over Ghana. On any given night, after a delicious dinner cooked by Talk True, the resident chief, you might find yourself deep in conversation about the state of Education in Ghana with the Minister of Education, mudcloth and hanging out with Pygmies with Patrick, an artist and teacher from Cameroon, or debating the right to bear arms with Talk True and Musah. At Aba House, we were always sure to have a rich experience.