The Pride of Kente

Alan and I have become a bit obsessed with Kente, a form of weaving which is common to two tribes in Ghana, the Ewe and the Ashante.

                                   

                                   

The cloth has been used for years and years in traditional tribal ceremonies and the two tribes produce very different versions of the weaving.  We have grown to love the Ewe style which uses more pleasing colors (at least to our eyes) whereas the Ashante Kente is generally in bright yellows, greens and oranges.

This is a photo I found on the Internet featuring Bill and Hillary Clinton wearing the Ashanti style of Kente.
                                      
For reference, the Ewe come from the Volta region of Ghana and the Ashanti come from the Ashanti region.
                                                       
We have a pretty large personal collection of Ewe Kente placemats and table runners that are produced by some amazing Kente weavers based in Accra. We got to know them when we first moved here and used to visit their small workshop on the military base in town. But they've since moved to the neighboring port city of Tema, which is about 30 minutes drive from Accra. In the last few months, as our time in Ghana has slowly been drawing to a close, Alan and I decided that we would share this amazing work with others and would bring back loads of Kente table settings to sell.  We have worked with two producers of Ewe Kente based in the area and have about 400 placemats and 30 table runners to sell when we depart Ghana.  How we sell will depend on where we relocate but I hope people get as excited about them as we do...and if they don't, well, our friends and family will be receiving Kente table settings as gifts for many years to come!
                                          
This week I went out to our supplier in Tema to have him teach me a little more about how Kente is woven.  I have a new appreciation for the process of creating these weavings.  It is incredibly time consuming and tedious, not to mention monotonous work.

The weavers take an entire day to set up one very long piece of Kente...or what will become Kente.  It begins with tiny cotton threads stretched over a long distance from one side of the workshop to the other.

 The weavers, always men who've learned the tradition from their fathers, sit at one end of the threads and use a loom, operated with their feet, by pushing pedals made of coconut shells.

 The loom separates two layers of threads allowing them to toss a spool of thread through the layers

                                     

They use a tool to lock the woven thread into place and continue with the same procedure over and over again.

Then they meticulously weave in these traditional symbols and designs.

It takes them 2 days of hard work to complete one strip which is then cut and sewn into the cloth.

Now we just have to find a market for this beautiful cloth and sell, sell, sell! Stay posted for ways you too can become Kente owners! We'll be sure to post more about how we plan on selling the table settings. Oh, and we'll also be selling baskets and napkin ring holders made from these beautiful Ghanaian beads.