Adinkra cloth is native to Asante, and the art was developed at Asokwa in Kumasi, and made popular at Heman in Kumasi. Some historians with anti-Asante agenda posit that the Asante 'borrowed' the craft of stamping fabrics with meaningful symbols from the Gyaman tribe during the Adinkra war of 1818. This is untrue. Adinkra cloth was in popular use in Kumasi Asokwa before 1818. The British missionary, Thomas Edward Bowditch, indeed, had deposited a bolt of the remarkable cloth in the British museum long before the Adinkra war.
The true history is that one of three triplets, called Ntansa, married a woman at Heman and moved to settle at Heman. At Heman, he began to practice the stamping of more complex symbols into fabrics by using yam peels dried in the sun. Into the dried yam peels he used sharp objects to etch symbols which he initially dipped into white clay and stamped the symbols onto the body of his wife whenever she gave birth to a baby. The white clay symbolized victory over death. Subsequently, Ntansah began to stamp the symbols into cloth. That was how Adinkra stamped cloth was popularized in Asante.
The chief of Asokwa is the chief responsible for the development of Adinkra cloth for the Asantehene, the King of Asante.
The Adinkra war of 1818 came about because a chief of Gyaman made for himself a replica of the Golden Stool against a law laid down by Okomfo Anokye that it was a taboo for any person to make a replica of the Golden Stool of Asante. Indeed, the legendary magician Anokye had warned that no person or chief should decorate his chair or stool with gold. Much earlier, an uncle if Adinkra had made a golden Stool for himself. The stool had been confiscated by the Asantehene, Nana Opoku Ware. So when word reached Kumasi that chief Adinkra had subsequently committed the same offence of his grand uncle, King Bonsu Panin sent his linguist Butuakwa on a mission to confiscate it. Chief Kofi Adinkra relinquished the stool and Butuakwa took it away to Kumasi. Shortly after, the wife of chief Adinkra poured her ire on Adinkra that he was a coward. This made Adinkra make a second gold stool which he refused to give up. This led to the Adinkra war in which Adinkra was defeated and killed.
Adinkra cloth was developed and popularized at Hemang but the products were put on sale at the nearby town, Ntonso - the most popular production and sales centre in Ghana.
