Adinkra symbols

And, and one of the things that came up during the commercial break was folks talked about the fact in the comments section that this is also happening internationally.

And I shared that it was horrifying to me to be in Ghana seeing Black churches with Adinkra symbols on them and white Jesus in the stained glass.

One, it's just historically, historically e- not correct.

But two, when you look at what's happening politically, and this is something that I have said before, we got more Jesus than anybody.

Like that.

So I would say that seeing the regalia of the palace, seeing the symbols, Akan symbols, the, uh, the big umbrellas which unfold and all that, and the designs, Adinkra, and all these things, I think provoked my love for art.

You know, just hearing those words come out of you and talking about those symbols that we recognize on the continent so easily, you know, like those beautiful big umbrellas during ceremonial meetings and processions-

Yeah

Can you speak a bit about that in the Ghanaian context? You know, what roles do geography and language play in determining different regional patterns that you were seeing in, in Ghanaian food?

Yeah, and I think I gave a little bit of an insight in when I was connecting with the Sankofa or the Adinkra symbols.

There is so much in how life and culture and traditions and even values are communicated, language and food so synergistically together.

So for us, you know, in -- I've been trying to reconnect with food history, but because we don't have a culture of, like, a written language with our own traditional script, it's obviously you rely on what has been written now with, you know, English alphabets with some changes.

And the pristine nature of the body creates this incredibly eerie juxtaposition with what she is actually wearing.

The notes mention she is in a fashionable blue and white blouse and skirt featuring Adinkra symbols.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah.

Now, traditionally, Adinkra cloth was strictly funeral attire, right? It was this deeply communicative fabric used to honor the dead.

But over time, it's evolved into just everyday fashion.

The semiotics there, like the study of signs and symbols is really fascinating here.

The meaning of the Adinkra symbols has been kind of diluted by modern commercialization.

And he's a professor at University of Maryland, former scientific advisor to President Obama when he was in office.

And he discovered these Adinkra codes.

Yeah, of course.

And so you take these Adinkra codes, turn them into three-dimensional substructures.

You got mathematical codes in them, which end up being error-correcting codes.

Right.

OK, OK.

And there was this conference room, and I looked around the wall on the conference room.

Now, Billy, one thing I heard you talk about on another show is called the, please forgive me, the Andikraka codes?

The Adinkra codes.

Thank

you, the Adinkra codes.

Yeah,

okay.

I heard that, I was like, what

the