Kente Cloth

This weekend we finally managed to visit the town of Bonwire which is famous around these parts for being the home of Kente cloth. Kente cloth is the traditional cloth of this Ashanti area, and in particular, it is the cloth the Ashanti king wears - and the weavers for his cloth are all in Bonwire. Now the Ashanti king is the most important of all the different tribes kings, so essentially is one of the most powerful men in Ghana. So Kente cloth is really the symbollic cloth of Ghana.

The cloth comes in lots of different colours and designs, and each one has a name and a meaning. For example, we bought some called "Family is unity" and another called "All hands are not the same" (I think that means everyone has their own special talents). The cloth is always used for traditional dress - so the women have it made into a cabba top and slit skirt, and the men wear it draped around their body and over their shoulders, so it is only sold in 6 or 12 yard lengths! Although I suspect we might be using it for table runners, wall hangings or pillow cases (don't tell anyone though!)

I had a try of weaving it also which was fun - see the look of concentration on my face! But I now understand why it takes such a long time to make - most pieces take about three months to finish. Hence, it isn't cheap to buy either (between $30 - 50 dollars per metre, depending upon the quality). And the people are therefore desperate to sell it too - I haven't been hassled so much to "buy buy buy" since I was in Bali last! Eventually we had to jump in the car and speed off down the road! Bye bye Bonwire!