The Socio-Cultural Significance of Akan Totemsin Textile Designs: A Means for Preservation of Wildlife in Ghana

Abstract

Throughout history, the clothing industry has gone through many developmental changes due to dynamism in fashion coupled with an unending variety of clothes. The international competitiveness of foreign industries has become a major concern to the Ghanaian government and to the business and labour communities because of low domestic export growth and rising imports.Manufacturing system in design is becoming increasingly complex due to new manufacturing processes, greater product variety, higher product quality standards, and shorter product life cycles which have contributed to high demand for more creative designs.This descriptive observational study investigates the socio-cultural significance of Akan totems and discusses the feasibilities of using totems as motifs in textile designs to create more innovative designs not only to meet the demand of the fashion industry but for preservation of wildlife and Ghanaian culture. The study revealed that totems have been important objects with human societies since time immemorial serving as identification emblems for families and clans. They also serve ascommemorative objects of ancestry and for that matter observed as a taboo to kill or eat totemic animals. Evidence of the study indicates that, totemic animals are disappearing from the society owing to inappropriate human practices such as bush fires and hunting with little or no pragmatic measures instituted to check their abuse. The use of totems in print designs is therefore recommended to create awareness of the socio-cultural significance of totems to societal members in order to foster clan or family identity and prestige, preservation of culture and wildlife as well as expansion of the scope of design concept of local prints.