Kente is a prestigious royal cloth of Ghana’s Asante people, part of their historical and cultural heritage. But there’s a debate about where it originated: the Bonwire community or the Adanwomase community in the Ashanti Region. The Conversation Africa spoke to African art and culture researcher Dickson Adom about the origins of this world famous textile.
What is Asante kente and why is it unique?
Asante kente is a cloth that embodies the cultural heritage and history of the Asante people. The Asantes are a major ethnic group in Ghana with a history dating back centuries. The cloth is known for its construction and the interlacing of the warp yarns of different colours. It is made on a hand-operated loom.
This creates a design iconography that reflects Asante philosophy, moral values, historical episodes, belief systems and religious ideologies.
What evidence is there that this tradition can be traced to a particular region in Ghana?
Scientific studies on the practice of the Asante kente weaving craft at Bonwire are either flawed or not comprehensive. I therefore carried out a study from June 2020 to March 2021 for anthropological (historical, cultural and physical) evidence. I spoke to elders, weavers, traders, chiefs, and all other important stakeholders in the Asante kente production at Bonwire.
My findings affirm that the Asante kente at Bonwire is distinctly Asante. The popular view that it is a generally African cloth is flawed.
My study found that the historical origins of Asante kente in the town of Bonwire were associated with a spider weaving its web. Locally referred to as Ananse, the spider was observed by two hunters who were also brothers, Opoku Kuragu and Kwakye Ameyaw, around 1720 as it skilfully wove its web. They observed how the spider interlaced various strands to produce its web. After careful observation, the two reproduced the woven web using raffia fibres. The first known cloth was black and white.
Anthropological evidence, including hunting guns and lamps that were used for the hunting expedition and found in the brothers’ family building, affirms this folklore. I found that rituals are performed annually in the rooms of Opoku Kuragu and Kwakye Ameyaw in their family house to solicit their blessings and sustain the weaving tradition in their lineage. The first king of the Asante, Otumfuo Osei Tutu I, created royal stools (titles) in the traditional cabinet of his kingdom for the lineage of the two brothers. They were tasked to weave kente cloths for all Asante kings. This is historical evidence of their significant contributions to the craft.
Other residents of the town of Bonwire who contributed to the Asante kente weaving were Ota Kraban and Nana Osei Kuffour. Ota Kraban engineered the first loom, which was a hand-operated device made from wood known as Nsadua Kofi. He is also credited with introducing different coloured yarns such as yellow, green and black. Nana Osei Kuffour later introduced the varieties of geometric weave patterns into Asante kente. These weave patterns have interpretations that relate to the moral values, political thoughts, historical traditions and culture of the Asantes.
Examples include “Obi Nkyee Obi Kwan Mu Si” (no one shows you how to chart your path) and “Nkyimkyim” (the path of life is not always smooth and straightforward but could be crooked). Like Kuragu and Ameyaw, Ota Kraban and Nana Osei Kuffour were also given special titles and stools in the traditional cabinet of the Asante kingdom in recognition of their innovative contributions to the weaving craft.
During visits to the town of Bonwire, I observed various functioning looms as well as old, non-functioning ones in several homes. On average, 8 out of 10 indigenous homes and 5 out of 10 modern homes in the community had Nsadua Kofi looms aged between 50 and 80 years old. There were also over 40 shops set up for trading activities around Asante kente.
The views expressed by the local people indicated that Asante kente is a home craft passed on and taught to children from the age of five years as a main or auxiliary skill. I observed the resolve of the Bonwire people who were weavers to pass on the cherished kente home craft to the young and unborn generations.
Why does tracing this heritage matter?
There have been various arguments about the origin of Asante kente at Bonwire. For instance, the late Ephraim Amu, considered the father of Ghanaian traditional music, composed a song titled Asante Bonwire Kente (I have not seen anything that can be compared to the Asante kente from Bonwire). But there was no robust evidence for the origins of the cloth at Bonwire and the unique contribution of their kente production to Asante history and culture.
This traditional weaving craft has served as a main or auxiliary income generating avenue for the people of Bonwire and its neighbouring communities for over 300 years. Recently, Unesco has recognised this world famous cloth on the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. Hence the need for a scholarly probe into its historical origins and design iconography.
What rituals continue to be carried out today marking the tradition?
Annual rituals are performed in the room of Opoku Kuragu and Kwakye Ameyaw in their family house. This is to call for their blessings to sustain the Asante kente weaving craft within the family.
A kente festival is organised annually at Bonwire to mark the origin of the weaving craft. During the festival, special visits and homage are paid to their ancestors. A delegation from the Bonwire Traditional Council leads special visits to all the places that Opoku Kuragu and Kwakye Ameyaw went to. Special libations are poured at these sites, with special recitations and incantations to hail and extol the brothers’ achievements. During the event, the contributions of Ota Kraban and Nana Osei Kuffour are also described and hailed for the younger generation. This is to encourage them to expand the Asante kente weaving tradition in new ways.
Dickson Adom (Ph.D.) receives funding from Gower Street Foundation, U.K., and Botanic Gardens International, U.K. He works as a Senior Member in the Department of Educational Innovations in Science and Technology at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He is affiliated with the INTI International University in Malaysia as a Research Fellow. He is the convener of the Rights of Nature Ghana Movement.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
