Textile (kente)

Strip-woven kente from Ghana is undoubtedly the best-known African textile in the world. Adopted by Americans, especially African Americans, kente gained worldwide attention in 1957 when Kwame Nkrumah, then president of Ghana, the first independent country in sub-Saharan Africa, wore it for his official portraits and during an official visit to the United States. Kente cloth subsequently became a symbol of pan-African identity and a symbol of Black Pride. A half century later, handwoven kente remains a successful export product that is used as is or to make Western-style clothing and accessories. African Americans wear kente to celebrate their African ancestry; Americans wear it as a sign of solidarity.(43) It is not unusual for African American clergymen to wear a tippet made entirely of or simply decorated with handwoven or printed kente (fig. 66). At commencement exercises, high school and college students wear colorful kente strips that display the initials or insignia of their school or social organization with their cap and gown. Factory-printed cloths are used for everything from domestic linens to haute couture; for example, a woman's suit with peplum design by the late Patrick Kelly was also derived from a Ghanaian model.(44)

Kente has probably been woven in Ghana since at least the sixteenth century, when cotton yarns dyed with natural indigo were used. Silk kente dates from about the eighteenth century, as indicated by the first published account by a Danish envoy to the court of King Opoku Ware I. The envoy reported that the African "artists" unraveled imported taffeta cloth to obtain the silk threads, which they wove into cloth.(45)

Among the Asante, kente is a prestigious cloth that has traditionally been worn by kings and chiefs. The king, who reserves certain kente designs for himself, can grant the privilege to others. Kings wear kente made of silk, rayon, or cotton on state occasions, are transported to the events in kente-covered palanquins, and shielded from the sun under giant umbrellas decorated with kente accents. Asante kings are traditionally buried in this prestigious cloth.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat.

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NOTES:

43.For example, the former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman wore kente cloth at an inaugural event at the Newark Museum of Art; photograph in Ross, Doran H., ed. Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. Los Angeles: University of California, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1998. p. 247.

44. Ibid. pp. 150-289.

45. Ludvig Rømer, quoted in ibid. p. 151.

See also Rømer, Ludvig Ferdinand. The Coast of Guinea. 1706. Translated from the Danish by K. Bertelsen and repr. Legon, Ghana: Insitute of African Studies, 1965.