A Conceptual Shift in Educational Logo Designs: The Impact of Kwame Nkrumah’s Cultural Policy on Ghana’s Educational Philosophy

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptual shift in educational logo designs as an indirect result of Kwame Nkrumah’s cultural policies on Ghana’s educational philosophy. The study was an Art Historical research situated within the qualitative research paradigm and the data collection instruments used were interviews, field notes, observation and discussions. It had a population of a defined class of cultural policy makers, art historians, traditional rulers, nationalists, visual artists and Ghanaians resident both in and outside Ghana. The study was concerned with qualities and non-numerical characteristics of the data. The data collection techniques used was observation and structured interviews and the data collected was in the form of narrations. The study examined how the ideologies of the founding fathers of the formal educational institutions established in Ghana both before and after political independence. It identifies the significance of the ethnic insignias and Adinkra symbols used in capturing their visual corporate identities as against the reorientation of the thinking of the “new” Ghanaian. The selected educational institutions used for the study are Adisadel College - Cape Coast, Wesley Girls' Senior High School - Cape Coast, St. Augustine’s College - Cape Coast, Ghana National College - Cape Coast, University of Cape Coast - Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology – Kumasi and University of Education, Winneba – Winneba.

Keywords: Adinkra, Ideologies, Kwame Nkrumah’s cultural policies, Philosophy of Africa’s formal education.