The Kente Cloth

Just like many other African creations, the Kente cloth or fabric also has its roots from West African, Ghana. It is one of the most uniquely made cloths in the region and it symbolizes culture, heritage, pride, and other peculiar values.

The word kente comes from the word kenten which denotes basket. It dates back 380 years,in a village called Bonwire. history indicates textile production among the Akan and Ewe peoples began as early as 1000 B.C.

Kente cloth as we know it today with its rich bold colors emerged among the Asante during the seventeenth century A.D., as Chief Oti Akenten (from whose name Kente derives – “basket” in Twi) established trade routes from the Middle and Far East bringing into the Asante Empire a variety of foodstuffs, gems, dyes, leather goods, and silk fabric.

According to legend, Kurugu and Ameyaw, two brothers from the village, went hunting one afternoon and came across a spider spinning a web. Amazed by what they saw, they studied the spider's web and from that came the idea of kente weaving. 

Men traditionally wear Kente wrapped over their shoulders in the style of a Roman toga while women wear it in two pieces, an ankle-length dress and a shawl that could double as a baby sling.

Originally, the use of kente was reserved for Asante royalty and limited to special social and sacred functions. Even as production has increased and kente has become more accessible to those outside the royal court, it continues to be associated with wealth, high social status, and cultural sophistication. Kente is also found in Asante shrines to the deities, or abosom, as a mark of their spiritual power.

Kente is more than just a cloth. It is an iconic visual representation of the history, philosophy, ethics, oral literature, religious belief, social values, and political thought of West Africa. Kente is exported as one of the key symbols of African heritage and pride in African ancestry throughout the diaspora. In spite of the proliferation of both the hand-woven and machine-printed kente, the design is still regarded as a symbol of social prestige, nobility, and cultural sophistication.

Dr. Courtnay Micots, "Kente cloth," in Smarthistory, July 18, 2017, accessed August 10, 2019, https://smarthistory.org/kente-cloth/.