What does the Gye Nyame symbol mean?

The centerpiece of the You Know I’m Dope design is the Gye Nyame symbol. Gye Nyame is an Adinkra symbol. These symbols are thought to have originated from the Akan people of the Gold Coast. Use of Adinkra symbols can be traced back to the early 1800s. The symbols usually are designed with either radial or reflective symmetry and they represent proverbs or aphorisms about wisdom, human nature, life and death. The Gye Nyame symbol literally means “except God”. This idea can be expanded on to say “This great panorama of creation dates back to time immemorial; no one lives who saw its beginning, and no one will live to see its end, except God.” Another use of the term is to signify the greatness of God as in ‘fear no one except God”. Because of how it is used, the figurative translation would be “God is supreme”. This is one of the reasons why it is so popular amongst people beyond Ghana and even Africa. It speaks to the deeply spiritual nature of the African Diaspora. You will find many people using Gye Nyame as a way to symbolize a sense of pride in having African ancestry. It is often seen on jewelry, decor, and even tattoos. It is this reason that we chose to incorporate it into the You Know I'm Dope logo because it is dope to have that confidence in your heritage and of course God is dope and we are created in his image.