# Transcript

NARRATION:
This is an old design - and remember, they had access to black and white, the original Kente designs were black and white. The cotton used at that time was grown as ….. here. And the black, the indigo as on these colours, were also coloured, that were locally available dyed colours, available here.
The weaver had no contact with the rest of the world, so he had no access to the variety of colours that we have today.
We are told it was when the, the Gold Coast, then Gold Coast, weaver was in touch with the Europeans and so, certain material that they started to unravel, the Europeans, and started using, what they call silk.
I’m not very certain whether it was pure silk or not.
Well, as far as I am concerned, and I’ve been weaving, you know, for the past forty years or more, I have never in my lifetime seen silk being used in any of the weaving villages.
What was available some thirty, forty years ago, was a kind of spun reel (?) which was so beautiful you could rub it on your fingers and have a certain feeling of silk.
Akwasi Akwaboa
With modernisation, everything is changing. In the past we used black, red and gold. Nowadays more colours are available.
Nana Asante PTC
These are the colours you see today are new colours, colour that is not exact. And we have used them in producing traditional designs, in order to make people attracted.
We have used what you call ‘metallic’, when you wear it to a party in the night it reflects, you see. It’s metallic, yeah?