Africans have had cultural tattoos since time immemorial. Tattoos in Africa are not merely for aesthetic purposes but also for substantive purposes. Some of the important messages conveyed through tattoos include personal identity, status identity, and relationship identity. Traditional Africa was rich in symbolism as there was no written alphabet. Thus, drawings, carvings, and tattoos used to be stores of memory. It was the way knowledge and tradition could easily be transmitted from generation to generation.
10 African Tatoos and Their Cultural Meanings
The Ankh: Symbol of Eternity
Everyone has own manifestation of this life form. Who would be there without life? Would eternity exist without it? Ankh is a symbol of eternity by the ancient black Africans that occupied Egypt under their Pharaoh."Key of life" redirects here. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a triliteral sign, representing a sequence of three consonants, Ꜥ-n-ḫ. This sequence was found in several Egyptian words, including the terms for "mirror", "floral bouquet", and "life". The symbol often appeared in Egyptian art as a physical object representing either life or related life-giving substances such as air or water. The ankh was a widespread decorative motif in ancient Egypt, also used decoratively by neighbouring cultures. Copts adapted it into the crux ansata, a shape with a circular rather than droplet loop, and used it as a variant of the Christian cross.
In ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the ankh was a triliteral sign: one that represented a sequence of three consonant sounds. One of the common uses of the word Ꜥnḫ was to express a wish that a particular person live. For example, a phrase meaning something like "may you be healthy and alive" was used in polite contexts, similar to the English phrase "if you please", and the phrase Ꜥnḫ wḏꜣ snb, meaning "alive, sound, and healthy", was used as an honorific for the pharaoh when he was mentioned in writing. The same consonants were found in the word for "mirror" and the word for a floral bouquet, so the sign was also used in writing these words. The three consonants also compose the word for a looped rope-like object found in illustrations on many coffins from the Middle Kingdom.Early examples of the ankh sign date to the First Dynasty. There is little agreement on what physical object the sign originally represented. Many scholars believe the sign is a knot formed of a flexible material such as cloth or reeds, as early versions of the sign show the lower bar of the ankh as two separate lengths of flexible material that seem to correspond to the two ends of the knot. These early versions bear a resemblance to the tyet symbol, a sign that represented the concept of "protection".
Hieroglyphic writing used pictorial signs to represent sounds, so that, for example, the hieroglyph for a house could represent the sounds p-r, which were found in the Egyptian word for "house". This practice, known as the rebus principle, allowed the Egyptians to write the words for things that could not be pictured, such as abstract concepts. Gardiner believed the ankh originated in this way. He pointed out that the sandal-strap illustrations on Middle Kingdom coffins resemble the hieroglyph, and he argued that the sign originally represented knots like these and came to be used in writing all other words that contained the consonants Ꜥ-n-ḫ. Gardiner's list of hieroglyphic signs labels the ankh as S34, placing it within the category for items of clothing and just after S33, the hieroglyph for a sandal. Gardiner's hypothesis persists; James P.Various authors have argued that the sign originally represented something other than a knot. Some have suggested that it had a sexual meaning. Victor Loret, a nineteenth-century Egyptologist, argued that "mirror" was the sign's original meaning. A problem with this argument, which Loret acknowledged, is that deities are frequently shown holding the ankh by its loop, and their hands pass through it where the solid reflecting surface of an ankh-shaped mirror would be.
Andrew Gordon, an Egyptologist, and Calvin Schwabe, a veterinarian, argue that the origin of the ankh is related to two other signs of uncertain origin that often appear alongside it: the was-sceptre, representing "power" or "dominion", and the djed pillar, representing "stability". According to this hypothesis, the form of each sign is drawn from a part of the anatomy of a bull, like some other hieroglyphic signs that are known to be based on body parts of animals. In Egyptian belief semen was connected with life and, to some extent, with "power" or "dominion", and some texts indicate the Egyptians believed semen originated in the bones. In Egyptian belief, life was a force that circulated throughout the world. Individual living things, including humans, were manifestations of this force and fundamentally tied to it.
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Life came into existence at the creation of the world, and cyclical events like the rising and setting of the sun were thought of as reenactments of the original events of creation that maintained and renewed life in the cosmos. Sustaining life was thus the central function of the deities who governed these natural cycles. Therefore, the ankh was frequently depicted being held in gods' hands, representing their life-giving power. The Egyptians also believed that when they died, their individual lives could be renewed in the same manner as life in general. For this reason, the gods were often depicted in tombs giving ankh signs to humans, usually the pharaoh.As the sign represented the power to bestow life, humans other than the pharaoh were rarely shown receiving or holding the ankh before the end of the Middle Kingdom, although this convention weakened thereafter. By extension of the concept of "life", the ankh could signify air or water. In artwork, gods hold the ankh up to the nose of the king: offering him the breath of life. Hand fans were another symbol of air in Egyptian iconography, and the human servants who normally carried fans behind the king were sometimes replaced in artwork by personified ankh signs with arms.
Decorative and Amuletic Uses
The ankh may have been used decoratively more than any other hieroglyphic sign. Mirrors, mirror cases, and floral bouquets were made in its shape, given that the sign was used in writing the name of each of these objects. Some other objects, such as libation vessels and sistra, were also shaped like the sign. The sign appeared very commonly in the decoration of architectural forms such as the walls and shrines within temples.In contexts such as these, the sign often appeared together with the was and djed signs, which together signified "life, dominion, and stability". In some decorative friezes in temples, all three signs, or the ankh and was alone, were positioned above the hieroglyph for a basket that represented the word "all": "all life and power" or "all life, power, and stability".
Amulets made in the shape of hieroglyphic signs were meant to impart to the wearer the qualities represented by the sign. The Egyptians wore amulets in daily life as well as placing them in tombs to ensure the well-being of the deceased in the afterlife. Ankh-shaped amulets first appeared late in the Old Kingdom (c. 2700 to 2200 BC) and continued to be used into the late first millennium BC, yet they were rare, despite the importance of the symbol. Ankh signs in two-dimensional art were typically painted blue or black. The earliest ankh amulets were often made of gold or electrum, a gold and silver alloy.
Adoption by Other Cultures
The people of Syria and Canaan adopted many Egyptian artistic motifs during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1950-1500 BC), including hieroglyphs, of which the ankh was by far the most common. It was often placed next to various figures in artwork or shown being held by Egyptian deities who had come to be worshipped in the ancient Near East. It was sometimes used to represent water or fertility. Elsewhere in the Near East, the sign was incorporated into Anatolian hieroglyphs to represent the word for "life", and the sign was used in the artwork of the Minoan civilization centered on Crete.Artwork in the Meroitic Kingdom, which lay south of Egypt and was heavily influenced by its religion, features the ankh prominently. Use of the ankh persisted in Israel into the Iron Age. In 2015, a clay seal (or bulla) belonging to King Hezekiah of Judah (c.
Christian and Modern Usage
"Crux ansata" redirects here. The ankh was one of the few ancient Egyptian artistic motifs that continued to be used after the Christianization of Egypt during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. The sign resembles the staurogram, a sign that resembles a Christian cross with a loop to the right of the upper bar and was used by early Christians as a monogram for Jesus, as well as the crux ansata, or "handled cross", which is shaped like an ankh with a circular rather than oval or teardrop-shaped loop. The staurogram has been suggested to be influenced by the ankh, but the earliest Christian uses of the sign date to around AD 200, well before the earliest Christian adoption of the ankh.The earliest known example of a crux ansata comes from a copy of the Gospel of Judas from the 3rd or early 4th century AD. According to Socrates of Constantinople, when Christians were dismantling Alexandria's greatest temple, the Serapeum, in 391 AD, they noticed cross-like signs inscribed on the stone blocks.
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Much more recently, the ankh has become a popular symbol in modern Western culture, particularly as a design for jewelry and tattoos. Its resurgence began when the counterculture of the 1960s stirred a greater interest in ancient religions. In the 21st century it is the most widely recognized symbol of African origin in the Western world, and it is sometimes used by people of African descent in the United States and Europe as a symbol of African cultural identity.
Gye Nyame: God's Supremacy
Africans are inherently religious. Religion is deeply etched in African culture and permeates all facets of life. Well, “I am who I am” so says one of the ancient manifestations. God’s exceptionalism. The Gye Nyame is used by the Songhoi cultural tradition to give reverence to the almighty God of the Songhoi people. That is the essence of Gye Nyame - God’s supremacy.The following table highlights the key aspects of some African symbols discussed:
| Symbol | Cultural Origin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ankh | Ancient Egypt | Life, eternity, air, water |
| Gye Nyame | Songhoi | God's supremacy |
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