Reading 36

The following passage is adapted from an article titled “Threads of Imagination” by Tom Stable (© 1998 by Tom Stable).

1. Kente, the traditional fabric
2. of Ghana’s Asante people has
3. evolved into a symbol of
4. many meanings – political
5. and cultural, African and
6. American, honorary and
7. everyday. “What is called
8. kente is many things,” says
9. Doran H. Ross, director of
10. the Fowler Museum of
11. Cultural History, though he
12. notes its origin is Ghana’s
13. strip-woven cloth. But Ross
14. says kente appears just as
15. widely today in Western-
16. style tailored clothing and
17. in other ways that make it
18. the most recognizably
19. African textile.
20. Kente is much more than
21. just a beautiful piece of cloth.
22. Textiles can reflect the
23. accumulated knowledge of a
24. society or the status of
25. members of the society.
26. Kente is a reflection of the
27. religious, political, and social
28. values of Asante society.
29. Commissioned by the kings
30. of the Asante peoples of
31. south central Ghana in the
32. late seventeenth century –
33. who wanted to create a rich
34. official regalia – the kente-
35. weaving developed roots in
36. the Asante village of Bonwire,
37. which today remains its
38. undisputed home. For
39. centuries since, the Asante
40. have worn kente as a
41. garment of celebration to
42. commemorate the
43. importance of an event or
44. time of year, donning it as
45. toga-style robes for men
46. or as skirts, tops, and
47. headdresses for women.
48. Kente is special by design;
49. making even one narrow
50. strip requires considerable
51. effort. Never mind the
52. complexity of constructing
53. the wooden loom itself –
54. which a neighboring Asante
55. village has adopted as its
56. own specialty – or the years
57. of training and practice that
58. weaving apprentices must
59. log to properly operate the
60. mechanism. Using mainly
61. silk, the weavers work on
62. strips that are generally
63. three to four inches wide
64. and seven to ten feet long,
65. with the shorter pieces
66. meant for women’s garments
67. (eight to ten strips) and the
68. longer ones for men (twenty
69. to twenty-five strips). The
70. completed strips are sewn
71. together by hand – or
72. sometimes today by machine
73. – to create the robes or other
74. garments and products using
75. kente.
76. The length of time it takes to
77. complete one strip varies by
78. the complexity of the chosen
79. pattern, which can distinguish
80. itself by the number of
81. horizontal versus vertical
82. patterns. The simplest strip
83. uses mostly vertical, or “warp”
84. patterns with just a touch of
85. horizontal, or “weft” patterns,
86. and an experienced weaver
87. can make several of those in
88. one day. But a “single-pick”
89. strip brings more complexity:
90. more weft and fewer warp
91. patterns. A “double-pick,”
92. with nearly all weft patterns,
93. and the warp pattern hardly
94. visible, requires the most work
95. of all, and can take up to four
96. days to complete an individual
97. strip.
98. On a technical level, Asante
99. kente-weaving does not depart
100. significantly from other West
101. African weaving traditions,
102. including cloths made by the
103. E’we people. But Asante kente
104. patterns have distinguished
105. themselves in other ways—
106. their appearance, their
107. cultural significance, and their
108. quick spread in popularity
109. around the world. The
110. enthusiastic use of color and
111. intricate work of its patterns
112. has made kente a recognizable
113. symbol, but the colors each
114. have their own meanings in
115. Asante culture. Green is fertility
116. and new harvest, gold is royalty,
117. black is aging and spirituality,
118. white is purity.
119. The patterns, meanwhile, are
120. far from haphazard. To mark
121. the significance of the choices,
122. the weaver names the pattern,
123. adding another level of import
124. to the kente tradition, because
125. the names often honor people,
126. historical events, or cherished
127. Asante proverbs.
128. One prominent pattern is
129. Oyokoman, which uses the red,
130. gold and green colors that the
131. Asante kings chose for their
132. garments. Another is Abusa Ye
133. Dom, which celebrates “positive
134. attributes of the extended
135. family system,” according to the
136. writings of Howard University
137. professor Kwaku Ofori Ansa,
138. who has published his research
139. on the meanings of patterns in
140. both books and on the Internet.
141. “In its many variations and
142. background colors, Abusa Ye
143. Dom symbolizes strong family
144. bond, the value of family unity,
145. collective work, and
146. responsibility.”