THE DISTINCTIVE SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF ADINKRA


Now to Adinkra.

The Adinkra forms are at times described in terms that suggest symbolic associations and at times suggest the character of signs. But one quality that stands out with them which is perhaps one of their greatest points of value, is their often non-representational character. They often do not depict, or even incorporate material forms into an ultimately nonnaturalistic framework, as in combining natural elements in creating something that does not exist in nature, although the forms they depict can at times be found in nature. Their combinations, however, more often do not denote or suggest any natural form. They are also at times geometric forms, but suggest geometries different from conventional forms. These geometries could be close to what are understood as fractal forms. This largely non-representational character enables the Adinkra forms to mean anything to anybody. To evoke the free play of the human mind in an even more radically independent way than poetry, which still operates in terms of the manipulation of socially agreed symbols represented by language.

It is on account of its evocative possibilities that I think that the interpretations of Adinkra I have encountered so far need to be re-examined in relation to the possibilities of this artistic and to some degree, mathematical form.

I am not advocating an expansion of possibilities of interpretation to embody a fixed canon of meanings, no matter how complex, how diverse. No.

I am suggesting that the Adinkra forms are excellent structures for contemplation. And the more they are used in this manner, with or without reference to their Classical or traditional meanings, the more they will yield fruit in ideas of particular relevance to each person contemplating them, and, by inference, to others, who are likely to find some resonance with others sensitivities in the reflections inspired in other people by Adinkra. I am arguing in sum for the use of Adinkra as contemplative supports, as aids to letting the mind roam to those spaces that we at times find so difficult to enter into on account of the walls created by our social and embodied existence, but which prove so refreshing for our embodied and socially conditioned worlds in the soothing of our emotions, the emergence of empowering ideas, among other aspects of value.

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