Nkyinkyim

Adinkra symbol of twisting: initiative, versatility and life's winding road.

Nkyinkyim means twisting, and the Adinkra symbol is a zigzag line that turns back and forth. It belongs to the proverb ɔbra kwan yɛ nkyinkyimiie, the road of life is twisted. The symbol stands for initiative, dynamism and versatility: the ability to keep going when the path bends, and to change direction without losing your way.

The message is realistic rather than gloomy. Life does not run in a straight line, and the person who expects it to will be thrown off course by every turn. The person who knows the road twists can prepare, adapt and keep walking. That is why Nkyinkyim is also linked to resilience and to the willingness to play many roles in a lifetime.

Like other Adinkra symbols, it is printed on cloth and carved and painted in many forms. It fits well beside Denkyem, the crocodile of adaptability, and Aya, the fern of endurance.

Many people in the diaspora recognise themselves in it: lives that crossed oceans, changed languages and countries, and still found a way forward.

Elders sometimes use the proverb to comfort the young: a detour is not a failure, and many who now walk calmly once lost their way more than once.

In dreams, a winding road, a path that keeps turning, a zigzag river or a staircase that twists can be read in an Akan way with this meaning. Such dreams often come when plans have gone differently than hoped, or when someone is between stages of life. Read with Nkyinkyim, the dream does not say the road is wrong, only that it bends. The question it asks is not how to make the road straight, but how to keep walking well on the road you are on.