Arquitetura e memória Akan: a herança da tecnologia Adinkra como expressão da resistência identitária e cultural

Abstract

The Republic of Ghana, as it configures itself today, has emerged from the heterogeneous composition of its people, with intergroup relations that shared traditions, wisdom, and technologies, culminating in the formation and development of multifaceted independent states. Building on this foundation, the formation of the Akan group, one of the ethnicities that make up Ghana, encompasses oral stories that reveal the genesis of a specific language, Adinkra, whose symbols, endowed with meanings, encapsulate the worldview and knowledge transmitted through generations, representing epistemological expressions of this people. The influence of these ideograms manifests in various fields of the arts, including traditional architecture. It is observed that through the invasions and exploitations of african territory by the europeans in 1471, the trade of various resources, including human beings and gold, intensified the sedentarization of the colonizers throughout the Gold Coast. Consequently, as the gold mines were depleted and the demand for enslaved individuals decreased due to internal conflicts, simultaneously, the success of gold mining in Brazil piqued the interest of sugar mil lords in west african people, who were referred to as “minas” due to their advanced knowledge of metallurgical techniques and their location of export, the Gold Coast. Thus, the African diaspora intensified, with violent capture and transportation to the Latin American country, where the struggle, resistance, and resilience of Black individuals against systematic attempts to obliterate their historical and cultural identities were expressed through the dissemination of unique elements of local African cultures. In this way, traces that point to the presence of Adinkra ideograms in Brazilian architecture, represented in iron railings, church medallions, among other forms, are exemplified. Therefore, with the aim of reaffirming, exalting, and preserving the intrinsic richness of these symbols, it is believed that the conception of a House of Memory, guided by the developed design guidelines, as well as based on reference studies and the territorial analysis of the intervention area where the project will be proposed, can be an effective instrument in achieving these purposes. This approach would allow for the establishment of new perspectives on this technology, grounded in critical appreciation and a profound understanding of the subject matter.