Sankofa House makes apparel that carries Adinkra symbols — the visual proverbs of the Akan people of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Our designs follow the Asante cloth-stamping tradition, but the wisdom inside them belongs to every Akan family. Whether your people are Asante or Fante, Akuapem or Akyem, Bono, Kwahu or Baoulé, you will find something of home here.
Where our symbols come from
Adinkra began as cloth, not as a logo. It was stamped by hand with carved calabash stamps and a dark dye made from the bark of the badie tree, and was traditionally worn by royalty and spiritual leaders at funerals and other solemn occasions. Each stamp carried a proverb, so a cloth could speak without a single word.
Oral tradition traces the name to King Adinkra of Gyaman, a Bono kingdom on today's Ghana–Côte d'Ivoire border, whose defeat by the Asante in 1818–19 brought the craft to Kumasi. Historians note that a European visitor saw Adinkra cloth being made in Kumasi in 1817, so the art may be older than the story. Either way, it found its home in Ntonso, a village of stampers and dyers about 20 km northwest of Kumasi, where it is still made today.
Asante at the root
We keep one thing deliberate: every symbol we print is drawn faithfully from Asante source material, and named in Asante Twi. We don't redraw the symbols or invent new meanings. If a symbol looks the way it does on our tee, it is because that is how it appears in our Asante reference, not because we reinterpreted it.
Akan in every branch
Adinkra did not stay in Kumasi. The Fante, Akuapem, Akyem and other Akan peoples made the symbols part of their own lives, and the proverbs behind them are spoken in Twi, Fante and Bono alike. The same shared heritage shows up in Akan day names — a Kofi or an Ama is recognised from Kumasi to Cape Coast to Abidjan — in the abusua, our matrilineal clans, in Akan goldweights, in the carved staffs of chiefs' linguists, and in the proverb-filled Asafo flags of the Fante coast.
Some symbols go by different names or spellings in Fante or Bono, and some meanings shift from town to town. That is not a mistake — it is a living language.
If your family knows a symbol by another name, or reads it differently, we want to hear it. Email us at hello@sankofahouseshop.com — we would love to learn from you.
How we make it — plainly
We want you to know exactly what you are buying:
- Designed in Accra, printed on demand. Our designs are prepared in Accra, Ghana. Each item is printed or embroidered only after you order it, by established print-on-demand partners with production facilities in the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe, and shipped from the facility nearest to you.
- Not hand-stamped cloth. Our products are modern printed and embroidered garments and accessories carrying Adinkra designs. They are not traditional hand-stamped Adinkra cloth from Ntonso.
- Delivery time. Allow production time plus shipping time. See our shipping policy for estimates by region; the destinations and the exact shipping cost for every item are shown at checkout before you pay.
- Quality promise. If anything arrives damaged, defective or misprinted, we replace or refund it. See our refund policy.
Why “Sankofa”
The Sankofa proverb says it is not wrong to go back for what you forgot. For us that means carrying old Akan wisdom into everyday clothes — for those at home, and for everyone in the diaspora reaching back for it.
Business details
Sankofa House
4 Pine Court, Plot C9-51B, Phase 1, Lakeside Estates, Adenta Municipality, Accra, Ghana (GhanaPost GPS: GK-0936-9359)
Email: hello@sankofahouseshop.com · Phone / WhatsApp: +233 26 488 5835