---
title: "Akan Adinkra Symbols — AP African American Studies Guide"
description: "Akan adinkra symbols are West African visual symbols representing values and proverbs, embraced during the Black is Beautiful movement to reconnect with Africa."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/akan-adinkra-symbols"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Akan Adinkra Symbols — AP African American Studies Guide

## Definition

Akan adinkra symbols are traditional visual symbols from the Akan people of West Africa that represent concepts, values, and proverbs; during the 1960s-70s Black is Beautiful movement, African Americans embraced them (especially the Sankofa bird) to express pride in African cultural heritage.

## What It Is

[Adinkra symbols](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/12-black-is-beautiful-and-afrocentricity/study-guide/5qqbeFoEWJcIvyxU "fv-autolink") are a visual language created by the Akan people of West Africa (in present-day Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire). Each symbol stands for an idea, a value, or a proverb. The most famous one on the AP exam is the **[Sankofa bird](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/sankofa-bird "fv-autolink")**, a bird looking backward to retrieve an egg, which means roughly "go back and get it." In other words, you have to understand your past to move forward.

For [AP African American Studies](/ap-african-american-studies "fv-autolink"), the symbols matter less as Akan art history and more for what they did in the United States. During the Black is Beautiful movement of the 1960s and Afrocentricity in the 1970s, African Americans adopted adinkra symbols on clothing, jewelry, art, and publications as a deliberate way to strengthen connections to Africa and reject the idea that Black identity had to conform to mainstream (white) standards. Per EK 4.12.B.1, adinkra symbols sit alongside afros, cornrows, dashikis, African naming practices, and Kwanzaa as concrete examples of Afrocentric aesthetics.

## Why It Matters

Akan adinkra symbols live in Topic 4.12 (Black Is Beautiful and Afrocentricity) in [Unit 4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4 "fv-autolink"): Movements and Debates. They directly support AP African American Studies 4.12.B, which asks you to explain how the Black is Beautiful movement and Afrocentricity influenced Black culture in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond. The symbols are one of the CED's named examples (EK 4.12.B.1) of how the movement turned a political idea, rejecting notions of Black inferiority, into visible everyday culture. They also feed into 4.12.A (the movement's emergence) and 4.12.C, since this embrace of African culture over [assimilation](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/assimilation "fv-autolink") helped lay the foundation for African American Studies and ethnic studies as academic fields. The Sankofa bird is almost a mascot for the discipline itself, because looking back to Africa to understand the present is exactly what the course does.

## Connections

### [Sankofa bird (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/sankofa-bird)

The Sankofa bird is the specific adinkra symbol the CED names by example. Its meaning, returning to the past to retrieve what was lost, captures the entire logic of the Black is Beautiful movement in one image. If a question shows or describes one adinkra symbol, it will almost certainly be this one.

### [Dashiki (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/dashiki)

Dashikis and adinkra symbols did the same cultural work in different forms. Both are listed in EK 4.12.B.1 as Afrocentric aesthetics, ways of wearing [African heritage](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/9-creating-african-american-culture/study-guide/kVreN4P4gnxqZrAH "fv-autolink") visibly instead of assimilating to mainstream fashion. Pair them in any FRQ answer about how the movement shaped everyday culture.

### [Kwanzaa (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/kwanzaa)

[Kwanzaa](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/kwanzaa "fv-autolink"), established in 1966, shows the same impulse on a bigger scale. Where adinkra symbols borrow Akan visual culture, Kwanzaa builds a whole holiday from African traditions. Together they show the movement creating new diaspora practices rooted in Africa, not just protesting American ones.

### Eurocentrism and cultural assimilation (Unit 4)

Adinkra symbols are the positive flip side of what the movement rejected. Embracing Akan symbols was a refusal of [cultural assimilation](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/cultural-assimilation "fv-autolink") and Eurocentric standards. But keep the 4.12.C critique handy: critics argue Afrocentricity can blur distinct African ethnicities together and become a substitute for Eurocentrism rather than a real challenge to it.

## On the AP Exam

Adinkra symbols show up in multiple-choice questions that test whether you can (a) identify them as West African visual symbols from the Akan people and (b) explain their significance, which is that African Americans used them to strengthen connections to specific African cultures and express African cultural pride. The wrong answers usually treat them as generic decoration or as something invented in America, so the move is always tying them back to the Akan and to the movement's rejection of inferiority and assimilation. On the free-response side, the exam loves African visual culture as stimulus material (the 2024 SAQ used a thirteenth-to-fifteenth-century Mali equestrian figure, for example), and adinkra symbols fit the same skill of connecting an African artifact or symbol to diaspora identity. They also make a strong specific example in any short-answer about how Black is Beautiful or Afrocentricity influenced culture.

## Akan adinkra symbols vs Sankofa bird

These aren't interchangeable. "Adinkra symbols" is the whole Akan symbol system, and the Sankofa bird is one symbol within it. The CED treats Sankofa as the flagship example, so if a question asks for the broader category of West African symbols, answer adinkra; if it asks about the specific backward-looking bird meaning "return and retrieve it," answer Sankofa.

## Key Takeaways

- Adinkra symbols are traditional visual symbols of the Akan people of West Africa, and each one represents a concept, value, or proverb.
- African Americans embraced adinkra symbols, especially the Sankofa bird, during the Black is Beautiful movement of the 1960s and the rise of Afrocentricity in the 1970s.
- Their significance on the exam is that they show African Americans strengthening connections to a specific African culture while rejecting notions of inferiority and mainstream beauty standards.
- EK 4.12.B.1 groups adinkra symbols with afros, cornrows, dashikis, African naming practices, and Kwanzaa as examples of Afrocentric aesthetics.
- The Sankofa bird's meaning, looking back to the past to move forward, mirrors the larger goal of Afrocentricity and of African American Studies itself.
- Know the critique too: Afrocentricity can blur distinctions among African ethnicities and risks substituting for Eurocentrism rather than challenging it.

## FAQs

### What are Akan adinkra symbols in AP African American Studies?

They are visual symbols from the Akan people of West Africa, each representing a value, concept, or proverb. African Americans adopted them during the 1960s-70s Black is Beautiful movement and Afrocentricity as expressions of African cultural pride.

### Did African Americans invent adinkra symbols during the Black is Beautiful movement?

No. Adinkra symbols are a traditional Akan creation from West Africa. The Black is Beautiful movement adopted and popularized them in the United States, which is exactly why they matter on the exam, as evidence of strengthening ties to a specific African culture.

### What's the difference between adinkra symbols and the Sankofa bird?

Adinkra is the broader system of Akan symbols; the Sankofa bird is one symbol within it. Sankofa shows a bird reaching back for an egg and means you must retrieve the past to move forward, which is why the CED singles it out as the key example.

### Why are adinkra symbols important to the Black is Beautiful movement?

They turned the movement's ideas into something visible. Wearing or displaying adinkra symbols rejected cultural assimilation and Eurocentric standards while affirming a concrete connection to Akan culture, alongside afros, dashikis, and Kwanzaa (established 1966).

### What topic and unit cover adinkra symbols on the AP exam?

Topic 4.12, Black Is Beautiful and Afrocentricity, in Unit 4: Movements and Debates. They support learning objective AP African American Studies 4.12.B on how these movements influenced Black culture in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.12 Black Is Beautiful and Afrocentricity](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/12-black-is-beautiful-and-afrocentricity/study-guide/5qqbeFoEWJcIvyxU)

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