Rites of passage play a central role in African socialization, demarking the different stages in an individual’s development (gender and otherwise), as well as that person’s relationship and role to the broader community. The major stage in African life is the transition from child to adult when they become fully institutionalized to the ethics of the group’s culture. Rites of passage are for this reason critical in nation building and identity formation.

The word Dashiki comes from the Hausa word Yarciki which means shirt. Usually it is worn with a Kufi cap which is worn in Islamic communities in Africa and the African Diaspora along with pants. Today Modern African clothes are associated with dashiki of West Africa although African clothes, as the name suggest, is any indigenous clothes of any African culture.

African symbols known as adinkra are ubiquitous in Ghana, a beautiful West African country on the Atlantic, situated between Cote d’Ivoire and Togo. On cloth and walls, in pottery and logos, these Asante tribe symbols can be found everywhere.