UAC Nkanea

UAC Nkanea means "UAC lights". It is the symbol of technological advancement.

Several of the symbols in the adinkra cloths record social changes that have been brought about by both external and internal factors.

For example, the Aban (Castle, Fortress), Kuronti ne Akwamu (Council of State), Ohene Tuo (King’s Gun), UAC Nkanea (UAC Lights), Benz, Television, Kookoo Dua (Cocoa Tree), and Sedee or Serewa (Cowrie Shell) symbols record specific technological developments and historical events that led to particular changes and factors that influenced the direction of such changes in the Asante (Akan) and Ghanaian society.

We will use the 5 pixel grid to trace out this image. The image of this is shown below:

The plan to draw this shape is given below:

1. Set the pensize to 40 pixels
2. Lift the pen up
3. Starting with the part of the symbol in the upper left quadrant, change the heading to the heading for the starting point in that quadrant
4. Move it to the starting point for the quadrant
5. Place the pen down
6. Move forward by 90 pixels
7. Turn right by 90 degrees
8. Move forward by 170 pixels
9. Turn right by 90 degrees
10. Move foward by 120 pixels
11. Move backward by 30 pixels
12. Turn left by 90 degrees
13. Move forward by 90 pixels
14. Repeat steps 2 to 12 changing the heading for the quadrant

Using Turtle Graphics

We will use the template.py file and rename it to uac.py.

The code for step 1 is shown below:

turtle.pensize(40)

Steps 2 to 13 repeat so we will use a function that draws the portion of the shape in a quadrant.

The code for the function is shown below:

def drawInQuadrant(x, y, heading):

    turtle.penup()

    turtle.setposition(x, y)

    turtle.setheading(heading)

    turtle.pendown()

    turtle.forward(90)

    turtle.right(90)

    turtle.forward(170)

    turtle.right(90)

    turtle.forward(120)

    turtle.backward(30)

    turtle.left(90)

    turtle.forward(90)

The code to call the function is shown below:

drawInQuadrant(-170, 80, 90)

The generated image is shown below:

To draw the remaining parts of the symbol, we need the coordinates of the remaining points and their respective headings.

Moving in a clockwise fashion, they are:

1. (80, 170) with heading 0
2. (170, -80) with heading 270
3. (-80, -170) with heading 180

The code to call the functions is shown below:

drawInQuadrant(80, 170, 0)

drawInQuadrant(170, -80, 270)

drawInQuadrant(-80, -170, 180)

The generated image is shown below:

Conclusion

At the end of this section, we have successfully drawn the UAC Nkanea symbol.

This post is part of the series: Drawing Adinkra Symbols using Python. The goal is to draw 40 Adinkra symbols using the Python programming language.