I spent time with villagers that
specialised in hand-printing Adinkra cloth. This was a technique developed by
the Ashanti people to make cloths for royalty. The printing blocks are carved
from calabash and each design is highly symbolic. The black ink used for
printing is called Adinkra Aduru and is made from the bark and roots of the
badie tree which are pulverised in large mortar and pestles and then boiled and
strained several times until it is the right consistency for printing.
In
this piece a
woman is pounding the bark and some of the Adinkra symbols are showcased on the
right.
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