Otumfuo Wuo Ye Ya Meaning: An Adinkra Symbol Made for a King
AURYN Editorial
Otumfuo Wuo Ye Ya is a modern Adinkra symbol with a precise origin. Otumfuo, "the powerful one", is a title of the Asantehene, the king of Asante, and the name is usually read as "the death of the king is painful". The symbol was created to mark the death of the Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II in 1999.
A symbol for a king's death
Research from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology records that the design was created by John Kofi Nsia, an Adinkra maker of Ntonso, the village near Kumasi famous for the craft. It expressed the grief of the Asante nation at the death of its king, in the very medium, mourning cloth, in which Adinkra has always spoken.
How Adinkra grows
Otumfuo Wuo Ye Ya shows that Adinkra is a living tradition. Makers continue to create symbols for new occasions, sometimes to honour a particular person, and the best of them enter the shared vocabulary. It stands beside ancient symbols as proof that the language is still being written.
Otumfuo Wuo Ye Ya in jewellery
An Otumfuo Wuo Ye Ya design honours Asante kingship and the continuing creativity of Adinkra makers.
