THE CIRCLE AS EVOCATIVE OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FREEDOM AND DISCIPLINE

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ADINKRA AS AN INTEGRATIVE MATRIX FOR AFRICAN SYMBOL SYSTEMS

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The point that led to this challenge I now face to my existence emerges from my effort to integrate the various African symbol systems I had encountered in terms of the symbolism of Adinkra, a symbol system developed by the Akan of Ghana. It is s system of evocative visual designs, each of which is related a proverb, and at times to a story. Along with Kente symbolism, it is one of the best known symbol systems of the Akan. Like Kente, its use began from being woven on clothes. It is also used for a variety of purposes, from architecture to the contemporary use in the design of web sites. Its appeal lies in its combination of compelling visual power and profound symbolic meaning, ranging from the social to the metaphysical and spiritual. Within the conventional understanding of these visual symbols, however, it conceals a depth of possibility, however, which I stumbled upon and which has led to my present tragic condition. Akan Kente and Adinkra symbolism represent forms that that ...
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THE MATHEMATICAL SYMMETRIES OF ADINKRA AS MENTAL VEHICLES FOR THE EXPLORATION OF THE UNKNOWN

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The mathematical symmetry of Ifa and Adinkra take me into the exploration of shapes and patterns, patterns that describe the world without and the world within, real and imagined, visual and mental, static and dynamic, abstract patterns, numerical patterns, patterns of shape, patterns of motion, patterns of behaviour , from the material and the social worlds, from the depths of space and time, from the inner workings of the human mind [1] . Adinkra are visual symbols of which there are hundreds of distinct examples. Each one has a distinctive shape associated with a distinctive symbolic meaning. One Adinkra I find particularly intriguing is known as Kuntunkantan. It combines most evocatively the correlation of mathematical, literary, philosophical and religious possibilities that the multivalent African systems demonstrate. Kuntunkantan is particularly intriguing on account of its evocation of universes of association in amplifying the symbolic possibilities of a circle by co...
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KUNTUNKANTAN'S DESIGNS AS AMPLIFIYING THE EVOCATIVE POWER OF THE CIRCLE

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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...
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