Kente Cloth of the Ashanti

by

and

September 22, 2024

Kente Cloth and its Weavers

The Yorubas are known for their Aso-oke and Adire cloth, the Igbos are known for their Akwete and Isiagu cloth, and the Maasai of Kenya are known for their shuka cloth as well. And the Ashantis of Ghana are known for their kente, but there is more to the kente cloth than meets the eye. There are more fascinating secrets than one could ever know.

First of all, kente cloths are woven cloths often used by the Ashantis and the Ewes of Ghana and were cloths worn only by royals back in the day. The kente cloth is special to the culture of the Ashantis and the Ewes so much so that each of these tribes holds festivals known as the Kente Festival to showcase the rich culture of kente cloths. These festivals celebrating the brilliance of the kente cloth are mostly celebrated in two different parts of Ghana.

One place is known as Bonwire in the Ashanti Region, and the other place is known as Agotime in the Volta Region of Ghana. The Ewe people of Ghana, rather than call it the Kente Festival, call it the Agbamevo Festival; Agbamevo translates to Loom-cloth.

Within these festivals, an interesting competition takes place known as the Kente Weaving Competition to find out who weaves the fastest and best kente cloth.

The war of who brought kente into existence has transpired between the Ewes and the Ashantis since each has its own stories of how the kente cloth came into being.

However, we are going to delve into the Ashanti traditional art of weaving kente. According to the stories of how the Ashantis came to master the art of kente weaving, it is said that a certain man known as Ota Kraban traveled to the city of Gyaman, now known as present-day Ivory Coast, and brought along with him the first loom, setting it up at Bonwire in Kumasi.

While there is a myth that one hunter learned the art of weaving from a spider in the forest, whatever the case, there really is one conclusion to the matter.

Therefore, it can be clarified now that the Ashantis were not the originators of the art but rather learned it from somewhere still unclear and perfected it.

Weaving, according to the Ashantis, is an art confined only to men according to Ashanti tradition; therefore, it is a taboo for women to weave. However, the cotton used in the weaving of the kente cloth is handpicked from the cotton fields, especially by older women who have gone through menopause.

They are also responsible for the planting, plucking, and spinning of the cotton into threads. Now, after these cottons have been spun into threads on a spindle, that is where the men take over from here.

Women, especially young women, are not allowed into the art of weaving due to the belief that their menstrual cycle makes them unclean, and the art of weaving by the Ashantis is regarded as sacred.

After the older women have passed the threads on the spindle to the men, the second step in weaving the kente cloth is to wind off the cotton from the spindle to spools, which would then go into the shuttle to be used later for weaving the weft; the weft threads are threads held horizontally stationed in the loom while weaving.

A bobbin spinner is used in the layering of warp threads, which are the vertical threads in the loom.

The weaver, having a particular design in mind, would have to prepare a warp thread for that. If the design is rather a simple kente design, the weaver would only weave the creativity of it from his head. If it is complex, he would have a sample showing the color schemes, exact number of threads, and their order of the complex designed kente cloth.

Religious Beliefs of the Kente Weaving According to the Ashantis

Bonwire, a village in Kumasi, was the great center of weaving for the kings of Ashanti. However, the Ashantis have their strong beliefs when it comes to the weaving and wearing of kente, and they do not take it lightly.

One rule is that women are not allowed to be weavers, as stated earlier. Another is that no piece of weaving may ever be started or completed on a Friday because, according to them, it was on a Friday that Ota Kraban set up his very first loom.

Looms and weavers of the Ashanti follow many taboos. Another taboo is that a woman during her period should never touch a loom; a woman in this condition should not even address her husband directly but must speak through someone, especially her child.

It is also believed that an old kente loom must not be burned or broken up. If the loom is broken by mistake, a fowl should be sacrificed on it.

If a weaver commits adultery with another weaver’s wife, a sheep must be sacrificed to the loom and another on ancestral stools.

These and many other beliefs govern the sacred art of kente weavers and their looms.

Statuses and Patterns of Kente Cloths

According to the Ashanti, designs on the kente cloth were standardized; each pattern in a cloth had its own unique name. Therefore, it can be said that there are different styles and types of kente cloth, each with their true names based on their design patterns.

The design of the cloth usually represented clans, social status, or even the sex of the one wearing it, or sometimes even proverbial sayings.

In the past, unlike today, the Ashanti king held the copyright of all new designs woven by the weavers, and with these, he would either keep a kente cloth for himself or gift it to great men in the kingdom; these designs then became their sigils or tartans.

Throughout the Ewe and Ashanti areas, young boys became apprentices to master weavers who trained them as weavers and sold their work. In exchange, the masters housed and fed them for several years until they mastered the craft and became individual weavers of their own. The parts of the loom and the styles and techniques used in weaving the kente cloth are very complex since they involve the constant movement of the legs, the careful intertwining of weft and warp threads, as well as using beaters to arrange the numerous threads while weaving.

Master weavers can weave at an extremely fast pace, finishing a cloth in an hour. Therefore, the kente cloth is seen only as a cloth adorned gracefully by royals.