KUNTUNKANTAN

Letter to the Wole Soyinka Society Yahoo Discussion Group wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com googlemail.com I had earlier drawn attention in this forum to what I have described as a breakthrough in Adinkra research. Adinkra is a system of graphic symbols created by the Akan of Ghana and developed in succeeding centuries to the present day. The symbols primarily represent social philosophy and metaphysical conceptions. They are used in both sacred and secular contexts, on clothing, in architecture and as variety of design roles beyond those. Google search would suggest that it is one of the most pervasive of African communication systems since it emerges in various countries and contexts in and outside Africa. My earlier posts had presented claims by Kofi Abua-Iyen,a lecturer at the University of Legon to have developed a exploration of Adinkra symbolism that incorporates and extends significantly its symbolic potential. Certain paradoxes emerge, however,

The depth at the centre of Kuntunkantan becomes for Atua Kofo the matrix where the splinters of this Face are encountered.The play of darkness in Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks becomes an expression of the notion of Blasphemy at the heart of existence, but blasphemy, not as a defiance of the sacred but as an affirmation of a mode of being that is totally Other in terms of the criteria by which human understanding of order is organised. The lady at the extreme right of the painting, supposedly St.Anne, purportedly pointing at the Child Jesus, to Atua Kofo, has an angularity of posture that suggests that beneath the elegant folds of the exquisitely coloured drapery is hidden, not the body of a woman but the body of a centaur, having the body of an animal but the face of a human being, as attested by the animal crouch of the body, or at least something that only seems to be human but in reality is something that if we were to see in its true nature, would repel sight with an abhorrence

The womb of Iya Nla, the chthonic power which resonates in the cosmic force of the Odu, is the emptiness at the centre of the tray which is the physical template of Ifa divination and which represents the dialogue between various forms of being in Ifa. An Emptiness both physical and NonPhysical, seemingly void yet alive with intense fecundative power. This LivingVoid is the space at the centre of Kuntunkantan where the convergence of the dance of circles constitutes the play of the possibilities of being, where the movement of the sea, the rhythms of earth, sky, rain, sun and moon, the oscillation between Life and Death, the patterns shaped by the transformations of all beings, within and beyond life, human and animal, plants and spirits, and those enigmatic beings who are neither human, animal, plant, nor spirit, but who, at times, are related to them, resonate in tune with the drumming, dancing, and feasting going on in the rambling palace of Iya Nla . Gbogbo ilu ni mbe l’

The interlaced circles of Kuntunkantan, to Atua Kofo, represented a sublime home for the flexible and yet vast intersection of possibilities that is Ifa. The dance of circles emerges as the dialogue between the selves of the human being through the Odu. The entire structure of circular forms in unceasing motion around a centre that integrates them all evokes the play of meanings between the human self in its double but united selves and between these and the universe of possibility represented by the human world, and the world beyond the world immediately accessible to human beings but which shapes it, the world where dwell the Orisa, the underlying animating forms of the universe. She also visualised the circles of Kuntunkantan as representing the actualisation of human possibility through the four basic lines from which all possibilities in the Ifa system are developed. Extrapolating from the traditional framework, Atua Kofo saw these four basic lines as evoking the divisions of

Or Ifa could be understood as a book, which contains within it all possibilities of existence. Each chapter represents a particular structure of possibilities. But what book is made up of chapters which are words developed from the symbolic significance of numbers along with being alive and conscious? The chapters are not simply an inert compilation of words but are themselves living forms, entities which have their own sense of direction, and whose origin and the larger part of their significance is unknown to their human collaborators, the Ifa priests. How was she to represent, in a memorably simple but graphic manner, Ifa’s dialogue between various universes of being? Its symphony of voices speaking across various worlds of existence which speak to each other though the instruments of the system, the Odu, instruments which are wondrous in being both forms of the human mind and non-human forms? How does one recall with graphic force the fact that in Ifa, the various selves o

A keen sensitivity to the architectonic power of Ifa, the sense it gives of a form extending into infinite space but which is shaped into intelligibility through numerical and verbal configurations, led Atua Kofo to interpret the Ifa system in terms of Kuntunkantan so as to integrate her understanding of Ifa through a simple but powerfully evocative symbol, a symbol recalled with ease but which would encapsulate Ifa’s vast universe of explicit and implicit meanings. She had been pondering her experiences with Ifa and was amazed by the manner in which the system developed a complex architecture of meaning, like a building with an infinite number of rooms, but, which, paradoxically, can be viewed as a single building, whose outline could be discerned and its structure mapped and explored, if one looked at it from a particular angle. What she also found particularly impressive was the development of vast complexity, of infinite possibility of meaning and interpretation, from a very s

The Odu of Ifa encapsulates a conception of a relationship between Wisdom understood as both timeless and time bound. The Wisdom that exists in relation to the earth and the cosmos as developments within time, works in relation with the Wisdom of timelessness that precedes the creation of the cosmos when all secrets of existence were yet to be. The presence of this primordial Wisdom at the origin of being, of time and matter, enables a universal knowledge that is synchronised with the time based, materially focused knowledge of the Odu, which is cosmic but concrete, to create system that surveys and categorises all existence, from concrete forms to abstractions, from terrestrial forms to the stars. The primordial, timeless Wisdom is Ifa, Father, the primordial progenitor and anchor in the Before-Time, and the cosmic, time related wisdom, which enables the wisdom of timelessness to be correlated with the time structured framework of human existence is Odu, the Wife of Ifa, Mot

Nana Atuan, an Adinkrahen, was in the habit of addressing Kuntunkantan the way one addresses a an interlocutor to whom was one was grateful for precious time given. At the conclusion of her contemplation of Kuntunkantan she would address the Adinkra symbol mentally, from one mind to another mind, as it were, and say “Thank You”. She saw the symbol as representing a confluence of possibilities, and that her addressing it as an entity that was relating with her enabled her to express her gratitude at participating in the liberation of mind, the freedom from immediate concerns, from the energy sapping creepers of the mind, enabling the ease of body she enjoyed through the contemplation of the profoundly evocative design. She claimed that this act of articulated gratitude, of addressing the symbol as if it were living, led to a sense of personality emerging from the symbol, a welling forth of a presence in relation to it that suggested a sense of warmth, a sense of being enclosed within

Letter to the Wole Soyinka Society Yahoo Discussion Group wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com 16 Nov 2007 18:45 googlemail.com In response to my drawing attention to the claims about a breakthrough in Adinkra research announced by Kofi Abua-Iyen ,a specialist in the ideational values of visual culture at the University of Legon in Ghana, in his book Adinkra as Integrative Hermeneutic which the author claims integrates Classical African systems of thought, as well as broad range of cognitive systems in different cultures in term of the Akan symbols of Adinkra , some correspondents have expressed their perplexity at not finding any information about Kofi Abua-Iyen at the University of Legon or any information about his book from any source. Some, writing from Ghana, claim that the intellectual magazine, Gye Nyame , which I wrote I got the information about Abua-Iyen's book from, does not exist in Ghana. I appreciate their perplexity but I wonder if

In relation to this, Okrapon Bosomafi sees the origin of Adinkra as possibly the outcome of meditations on the imprint on the o kara , of the “small bit of the Creator that lives in every person’s body”, as described by Busia,of the intelligence or message the person brings with them from Otweaduampon Nyame when taking leave of Nyame, to adapt Danquah’s words. Whatever the origins of Adinkra might be, Kuntunkantan can be used in evoking a sense of ultimate purpose, and the integration of the disparate endeavours of ones life into a unity, a unity related to the evocation of the totality of one’s possibilities as springing from the ground of ones being. This understanding of human possibility is correlated with the two hundred and fifty six Odu of the Yoruba Ifa and the Dahomean Fa,to represent an understanding of the variety of ways of organising one’s life in terms of a centre of purpose, one central concept being represented by one Odu. All the Odu representing not one unique

The understanding of Otweaduampon Nyame as the pivot of the cosmos is symbolised in Akan drum language by the expanse of the terrestrial and celestial worlds. Kwabenia Nkentia’s translation of Akan drum poetry illustrates this: Otweaduampon Nyame, the Ancient God, The Heavens are wide, exceedingly wide, The Earth is wide, very, very wide. We have lifted it and taken it away, We have lifted it and brought it back, From time immemorial. Within the esoteric level of meaning often encoded in Akan drum language and not previously accessible to the uninitiated, the notion of lifting the earth, taking it away and bringing it back, evokes the process of combining various interpretive possibilities of phenomena, deconstructing and reconstructing them. The transformative processes made possible by human cognitive capacity become a lever for “lifting” the earth, taking it away and bringing it back, metaphorically speaking. The earth is conceived here as the cognitive image tha

Kofi Abua-iyen argues that the impetus for the development of this symbol in terms of macrocosmic relationships with conceptions of the human person emerged from contacts between Akan traders and Fulani pastoralists. The pastoralists introduced to Akan traders their sophisticated methods for generating conceptions of integration between discrete units in their environment with increasingly larger units so as to arrive at an integrated conception of the universe. The genius of this integrative technique constituted, among other striking factors, in its use of classifications of the various patterns in the coats of their cattle. These patterns were elaborated in terms of a symbolic scheme where they served as templates for integrating a broad range of observations of and conceptions on the nature of the universe, from the materiel and non-material constitution of the human person to the metaphysical constitution of the cosmos. Akan thinkers eventually developed in abstract terms this t

Kuntunkantan came to represent the totality of possibilities in relation to a system. This could imply the totality of knowledge within a system. This knowledge could be realised and actual or potential. In terms of potentiality, it refers to the totality of knowledge possible in relation to a system. In terms of actual or realised knowledge, it refers to various degrees of explicitness of knowledge in or in relation to that system. Two major systems are posited. The first is the individual. The second is the totality of being. In reference to the individual, the symbol refers to the individual’s knowledge or the totality of their potential for knowledge. What are the boundaries of this? What are its shaping factors? To what degree and through what methods can this potentiality for knowledge be fully realised? What is the relationship between this potentiality for knowledge understood in relation to the epistemological structures and processes that are dominant in terms of ea

A similar conception of relationships between circumscription that makes disciplined and productive activity possible and the freedom that enables creative development is represented by Aquinas’s conception of the ground of being as the end, agent and exemplar of existence and as the source of the “activity called freedom”. Along those lines, the social and material structures of individual life make that life possible as a biological and human development, but within or in relation to the circumscription created by biology, society, the limitations of space and time, a degree of free will is enabled through which the distinctive development of every human being is realised. Encapsulating a similar conception as Aquinas, Pascal describes God as a circle with its circumference everywhere and its centre nowhere. The emptiness of the centre suggesting plenitude. Of opportunity suggested by empty space where possibilities are yet undefined. A plenitude of creative possibilities suggested b

The design of the Adinkra symbol called Kuntunkantan represents significantly those qualities of Adinkra that make many of its designs uniquely suited for mediation. By meditation I refer to a process whereby the mind focuses on a particular subject to the exclusion of everything else. This subject could be an idea or a form which could appeal to any of the five senses or to more than one at the same time. This form could be a visual image, a smell, a sound, the feel or taste of something or even a feeling. This process of concentration facilitates a range of mental processes. One of them is that is facilitating the coordination of ideas already present in the mind in more effective than if the effort were carried out purely by ratiocinative effort working directly on the ideas themselves. It is a also claimed that the process could lead to an entry into levels of awareness that are not normally accessible to consciousness but which exist as the root of consciousness. These levels

The design of the Adinkra symbol called Kuntunkantan represents significantly those qualities of Adinkra that make many of its designs uniquely suited for mediation. By meditation I refer to a process whereby the mind focuses on a particular subject to the exclusion of everything else. This subject could be an idea or a form which could appeal to any of the five senses or to more than one at the same time. This form could be a visual image, a smell, a sound, the feel or taste of something or even a feeling. This process of concentration facilitates a range of mental processes. One of them is that is facilitating the coordination of ideas already present in the mind in more effective than if the effort were carried out purely by ratiocinative effort working directly on the ideas themselves. It is a also claimed that the process could lead to an entry into levels of awareness that are not normally accessible to consciousness but which exist as the root of consciousness. These levels

Letter to the Wole Soyinka Society Yahoo Discussion Group wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com 7 Nov 2007 23:51 googlemail.com From the 7th November 2007 edition of the Ghanaian intellectual magazine Gye Nyame : BREAKTHROUGH IN ADINKRA RESEARCH Abua Kofi-Iyen,a specialist in the philosophical implications of visual forms at the University of Legon, announced yesterday at a lecture held to promote his new book, Adinkra Symbolism as Integrative Hermeneutic , that his research project of twenty-nine years into Adinkra has uncovered conclusive evidence that this symbolic system represents a visual language that integrates a broad range of symbol systems in sub-Saharan Africa. He claimed that his research demonstrates that the symbolism conventionally attributed to Adinkra, a famous system of visual symbols developed by the Akan, represents only a top layer of a complex network of associations to which the conventional meanings give access, b