RSS feed for Textiles in Ghana

Introduction

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This course looks at the way meanings and values are assigned to textiles. You will examine how a piece of cloth can define wealth, status, and, in the past, office.

This OpenLearn course provides a sample of Level 2 study in Arts and Humanities.

Learning outcomes

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

After studying this course, you should be able to:

demonstrate an awareness of the ways in which meanings and values are assigned to textiles
understand the changing history of the making of kente and adinkra
discuss the role of the market place in the changing history of kente and adinkra making.

1 The meanings and values of textiles in Ghana

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This course looks at three kinds of textile used and marketed in Kumasi and its surrounding towns in Ghana – the hand-made textiles of kente and adinkra and industrially produced waxed cottons – in order to consider meanings and values assigned to them.

The course revolves around a series of video clips originally produced for the course A216 Art and its histories. The Course Team filmed at the market in Kumasi as well as at Bonwire, which is a centre for kente weaving, at Ntonso, where adinkra is made, and at Wonoo. The latter three towns are close to Kumasi.

The course requires you to watch short segments of video and pause to assess what has been discussed and further consider its significance. The course will guide you in an exploration of the following themes:

Theme 1: The status of cloth-making

How is the making of kente and adinkra cloth regarded in Ghana? (What is its status?) By what criteria are the various cloths judged? How do you think those with Eurocentric views might regard cloth-making?

Theme 2: Tradition and modernity

Western stereotypical views of traditional art practices in ‘other’ cultures have tended to see these as sterile and static art forms. How is this view challenged by the video?

Theme 3: Gender and values

How would you interpret the significance of women’s participation in kente cloth making? (For example, might this suggest a new trend and value being added?) What evidence might you find in the video to suggest that women (and, by extension, women’s work) were regarded as belonging to the domestic sphere and stereotyped as ‘other’ by the men?

Theme 4: Collaborative and independent work practices

Which textile did you consider to be made more collaboratively? How might this distinction bear upon western views of the status of the cloth-makers concerned?

These themes are further explored in A216, which includes many other examples. The free OpenLearn course A216_1 The Louvre Museum is also taken from A216, and you might find it interesting.

Textiles from Ghana is structured as a series of activities, each associated with a video clip. In addition to watching the clips, you’ll be asked to tackle a number of questions that should help you clarify your thoughts and understanding of the material presented on the clips. You might like to consider taking notes using, for example, your Learning Journal on OpenLearn. Also, you might like to share your ideas in a forum.

2.1 Kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Section 2 introduces you to cloth making in Ghana. In particular, you’ll learn the basics about kente and adinkra, the two main techniques used.

Activity 1

Once you’ve watched the video, explain, in your own words, what kente is.

Download this video clip.Video player: What is Kente?

What is Kente?

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Transcript: What is Kente?

Catherine King (VO)

In the Ashanti region of Ghana, Kente cloth is a great status symbol, marking your wealth and, in the past, your office. Something to be worn on important occasions and by important people.

As the art historian in Ghana, Professor Kojo Fosu wrote:

Nick Levinson (VO)

A typical Kente fabric is woven in narrow strips. Each strip contains a series of bands, designed in intricate, multicoloured, geometrical patterns, alternated by other bands of simple, linear designs in contrasting, co- ordinating colours for harmonious effect.

Catherine (VO)

Each pattern is named after an historical event or a person, or is connected with a proverb.

End transcript: What is Kente?

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2.2 Adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 2

Once you’ve watched the video, use your own words to explain what adinkra is.

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What is Adinkra?

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Transcript: What is Adinkra?

NARRATION

Adinkra is a printed fabric - hand-made and worn mainly for funerals, which are very important celebrations in Ghana.

According to Kojo Fosu:

Nick (VO)

The Adinkra fabric is carefully printed in graphic symbols of geometric motifs, on a background of white, rust-brown, or black vegetable-dye fabric. Any one of the motifs, or any combination of them, could be arranged in narrative patterns to convey specific messages.

These messages may be expressed as a reflection on issues pertaining to beauty, morality or other higher values.

End transcript: What is Adinkra?

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2.3 Making kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 3

Once you’ve watched the video, explain how kente is made.

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How is Kente made?

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Transcript: How is Kente made?

Catherine (VO)

We need to ask this question of any medium, in order to understand what is easily done and what is difficult. Skilled, expensive, innovative. We can’t hope to understand what Kente is, unless we can attempt to see it from the point of view of local producers and sellers and buyers.

Nana Asante Frempong PTC

An important decision which every weaver has to make is, what kind of cloth is he going to weave? Because it is the design that will determine the colours of the yarns that he has to put on the bobbin and, subsequently, on the wool.

The process, is to put the warp thread into the heddles and the beater and if you do according to the design that you already have in mind.

After putting the warp thread into the various heddles and beater, the whole thing is brought into a loom for the weaver to start to weave it.

There are two sets of heddles. The first set is used in making patterns and the second set is used in being regular weaving, where no patterns are required. Now, in this particular pattern, I’m using both the pattern-making heddles and the regular weaving heddles at the same time.

If you have time to watch the weaver do this piece here, it may take about half an hour or more just to do this piece. I do not know of any weaver who can produce more than this strip in a day of eight hours of hard work. It’s not possible.

And I can assure you that in any given village not more than 10% of the weavers are prepared to weave this, because it takes such a long time. It does!

End transcript: How is Kente made?

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2.4 The manufacture of kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 4

Once you’ve watched the video, describe the materials used in the manufacturing of kente.

Download this video clip.Video player: What materials are used?

What materials are used?

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Transcript: What materials are used?

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?

End transcript: What materials are used?

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2.5 Making adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 5

Once you’ve watched the video, explain how adinkra is made.

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How is Adinkra made?

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Transcript: How is Adinkra made?

Catherine (VO)

The dye for the cloth is produced from kuntun kruni - the roots from the kuntu plant.

Gabriel Kwaku Boatye PTC

First, twelve buckets of water for one barrel. After that, twenty-five strips of the roots are put into the barrel.

And the next two days, you remove the cover it becomes cool, because if it is hot you can’t put this ….. in, and remove it from here to this small barrel.

Gabriel (contd)

This is white cloth - you want to change it into black. When you put it in first it looks like brown, but by two weeks’ time it will change into black.

It takes two weeks, it made ……. Sun.

And when it dries you bring it back, and wet it again, and dry it again, six times. This is called ‘Badie’, it’s the bark of the tree. You find it only in the Savannah area. It’s hard, so we broke it in pieces, like this, and soak it with water for twenty-four hours.

Catherine (VO)

The softened bark is pounded in a mortar and is used to produce the dye for stamping the symbols.

Repeated boiling and filtering produces a concentrated solution.

Gabriel a/b PTC

Out of forty-eight gallons, I’m going to receive only one gallon of the solution. I test it in this way. It’s ready for printing.

Catherine (VO)

The Adinkra stamps are carved from the wood CU stamps being of a gourd or calabash, by a professional carved designer and carver, such as, Joseph Kofi S/I Nsiah.

End transcript: How is Adinkra made?

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2.6 Questions

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Now that you’ve been introduced to kente and adinkra, you might like to think about the questions in the activity below. The purpose of these questions is to encourage you to think about the broader issues and themes mentioned in Section 2. Later on you will have more information to go on, but it is worth noting what you can now and generating some first thoughts in relation to these questions.

Activity 6

Consider the following questions:

What information have you gleaned so far about the two different techniques and their relative status?
How do they compare in terms of function and status, media, and processes or working patterns?
How time consuming are they?
What sorts of skill are buyers purchasing?

Discussion

These are my preliminary comments:

Function/status

Kente is associated with important occasions, but it is linked especially with high social office and is more of a wealthy person’s status symbol. Adinkra is associated with funerals and thus important occasions in the lives of everyone.

Kente is designed to be felt (‘beautiful’, like silk) as well as for appearance. Adinkra is designed to be looked at.

Media

Kente uses imported rayons. Adinkra requires local materials for the dyes. (An additional piece of information, which we were not able to give you on film, is that the pieces of cotton used by adinkra dyers are now imported cloths.)

Ways of making kente and adinkra have shifted and continue to shift. We were told that kente weavers had first used cotton and vegetable dyes, then bought silks from European traders, and then had begun using rayon. The most recent introduction is the use of lurex to achieve ‘glitter’. While Kojo Fosu had talked only of vegetable dyes being used for adinkra, we saw cloths that had black-stamped designs on red and blue grounds hanging up in the workshop. (The older technique on the black ground was also demonstrated.)

Processes/time involved

Kente is very time consuming to produce, with one strip of the best cloth taking at least a day to make. We were told that there were grades of skill: only 10 per cent of workmen are able and willing to make some difficult designs. So far it looks as if kente weaving is more in the control of one man. (In the past, when kente thread was homespun, it would have involved more collaboration.) Adinkra takes several weeks to make and involves the input of dyer, stamp carver, and printer in a collaborative process.

With kente the decisions and exact calculations take place right at the start, before the weaving begins. The design and colour choices must be thought out before warping up the loom, and the plan must then be steadily and accurately followed through with no changes.

Adinkra depends on a lengthy dyeing process (of six dippings) to obtain the depth and evenness of hue. It requires precision, speed, and decisiveness at the printing stage. Design activity is concentrated towards the end of the making process.

What is being bought?

In both cases, the buyer is acquiring skilful design and execution.

3.1 The people who make kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

In Section 3 you will learn more about the people who make kente and adinkra.

Activity 7

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the people who make kente.

Download this video clip.Video player: Who Makes Kente?

Who Makes Kente?

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Transcript: Who Makes Kente?

Catherine (VO)

Kente can be made by anyone between a child and someone of very mature age. Here, young men in the village of Bonwire produce strips of relatively simple design. This is the start of a long road that could lead to being a master weaver, who is able to weave the most complex patterns.

Weaving can carry high status. For example, Okyeame Yeboah is the linguist or spokesman of the Chief of Bonwire. Such a weaver could be put in charge of a weaving shed, where young people are being trained, including women for the first time.

Okyeame PTC

Our forefathers didn’t allow women to weave. They believed it would prevent them from having children.

Also if both husband and wife wove their marriage wouldn’t work out.

So they weren’t allowed to weave.

The project was initiated seven years ago by Anglican Missionaries.

Atta Kwami - artist

How has working here affected your domestic work?

Serwah Akoto - trainee weaver

When I finish at 2 I go home and prepare the food.

Atta Kwami - artist

Do you live alone?

Serwah Akoto - trainee weaver

I live with my mum.

Atta Kwami - artist

What about your Dad?

Serwah Akoto - trainee weaver

He also lives in the village.

Catherine (VO)

This is the compound of master weaver Akwasi Akwaboah in the village of Bonwire.

He works with his family for himself.

Atta Kwami - artist

What qualities do you need to become, to be a master weaver? Is it something you are born with or can you learn?

Serwah Akoto - trainee weaver

You learn, you also have to have nice designs, to be fast, honest with your customers and reliable otherwise they won’t return. So there are many qualities before you become a good weaver. People who know the business know who the best weaver is. It’s like a driver who knows who the best driver is. That is why the people in this village say that I am the best even though I do not call myself that.

Catherine (VO)

Akwasi Akwaboah is weaving the most prestigious Kente cloth, known as Adwenisi - Adweniso. It means all design motifs are used up and requires consummate skill.

End transcript: Who Makes Kente?

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3.2 The people who make adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 8

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the people who make adinkra.

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Who makes Adinkra?

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Transcript: Who makes Adinkra?

Gabriel PTC

We are from one family. We are 36. We have twenty males and sixteen females in the whole family. We work together. The males do the printing, and the females do the dyeing.

Catherine (VO)

Although blind, Kwadwo Amofa pounds the bark. Joseph Kofi Nsiah is also a member of the family. He has a key role in creating new designs for Adinkra symbols. He reinterprets the traditional symbols and invents new ones.

End transcript: Who makes Adinkra?

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3.3 Training to weave kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 9

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on how the kente weavers train.

Download this video clip.Video player: How do Kente weavers train?

How do Kente weavers train?

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Transcript: How do Kente weavers train?

Atta Kwami - artist

How do you train to be a weaver and how old do you have to be to learn?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

You can start learning from about 5 years old. Bit by bit. If you live in this community it can take 2 years.

Atta Kwami - artist

How old are you?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

Seventeen.

Atta Kwami - artist

Have you been working here long?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

Over a month now.

Atta Kwami - artist

Have you earned any money since starting?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

Yes.

Atta Kwami - artist

So who does the domestic duties that you used to do?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

My mother.

Atta Kwami - artist

So, what do you hope to gain from this training?

Dorothy Ofori - trainee weaver

I’d like to take up Kente weaving professionally.

Gabriel (VO)

I’m sure a good many of the kids you see here, it would be about 8 or 9 can weave. But they may not necessarily be able to do the warping, the designing, the heddling, and so on. Those are things that master weavers can do. And of course, in this day and age, with specialisation, there are people who’d take on that job (gladly), they’d do this, for a fee. So they don’t weave at all.

Catherine (VO)

Nana Ashanti Frempong is Member of Parliament for this region. As a young man, he paid his way through college from his weaving.

End transcript: How do Kente weavers train?

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3.4 Training to make adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 10

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on how the makers of adinkra train.

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How do makers of Adinkra train?

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Transcript: How do makers of Adinkra train?

Gabriel

My father started in 1928, now he’s still working. He’s still alive now. He has been working for more than 60 years. When I am going to school, after classes, I came and helped him because when he dies, we are going to represent him, so that the work will not go off. It exists.

So we have to follow him by his rules, his laws, any order he give to us, we have to obey. Because he is the boss. When he say, ….. again, nobody will help us.

End transcript: How do makers of Adinkra train?

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3.5 What can we learn?

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The next activity poses a question that should encourage you to bring together the various observations you made above.

Activity 11

What can we learn from who is trained and the way people train to make kente and adinkra about the respective values assigned to the cloths?

Discussion

Kente

Kente weaving can be done by someone very young, although it was stressed that designing kente was only possible for a mature master weaver. Kente might be made in a workshop with groups of workers or singly by a master weaver working for himself. Kente is now being taught to young women.

Weaving seems to have connections with those of high social status. For example, the Nana Asante Frimpong, Member of Parliament for the Wonoo area, worked his way through college using his kente-making skills to finance him. Kente cloths range in value according to whether an acknowledged master has made them. Kente is related to complex and variable patterns of making, and seems to be profitable enough to warrant large-scale production.

Adrinkra

Adinkra-making, by way of contrast, seems to have a more modest status than kente weaving. It is organised solely on a family basis, with boys learning from their fathers, and members of the household performing different tasks. Gender divisions seem to be in place in adinkra-making.

(A further point, which we learned of on our visit but could not film, is that kente costs a good deal more to buy than adinkra. Kente is so expensive that hire purchase arrangements are on offer. As the proper clothing for mourning, adinkra needs to be affordable to many people.)

4.1 The functions of kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

In Section 4 you will learn about the many uses of kente and adinkra.

Activity 12

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the functions of kente.

Download this video clip.Video player: What are the functions of Kente?

What are the functions of Kente?

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Transcript: What are the functions of Kente?

Catherine (VO)

In the past, Kente was worn on special occasions, and by important people, such as the Chief of the Weavers.

Today, these rules are more relaxed.

Kente is still worn on occasions, such as going to church.

African man

My father bought it for me …

Catherine

How old is it?

African man

It’s been about ten years or twenty years ago.

Catherine

Is your father now dead?

African man

He is now dead.

Catherine

When do you wear this? Do you wear it every Sunday?

African man

Not every Sunday - only special occasions.

Catherine

Do you think of your father when you wear it?

African man

Yes. I remember him very much.

Osei

On some of the cloth for women, the colours, especially the colours, you know, you women like colours which men doesn’t like it. This is for women.

(Wife: This one, too, is for women.)

This is for funerals.

Catherine

It’s very splendid. Sombre, but very decorated.

Osei

Wearing for funerals, you cannot use white, but you can use white when you are going to service, church service, after the funeral. Thanksgiving service, you can use white. Mostly black and white.

Akwasi interviewed

Q: Today anybody can buy your cloth. Was this always the case?

A: In the old days some cloth could only be worn by the Asantehene (King). Even now, a certain cloth remains exclusive to the Asantehene. We call it ‘Ase Sian’ - it takes 6 heddles to weave.

Q: Why is there a special cloth for the Asantehene?

A: Because he rules over us. If you wear what he wears it would mean you were challenging his authority. So we don’t make that cloth for anyone else.

Nana Asante

I came up with this design because the black Americans, they are national colours. And you know, Americans have black American ….. in America. Black, green and burgundy. So I designed it. Don’t you see the black, green and burgundy and they are happy that we still have Kente as something produced in Ghana. They are so proud when they wear it.

A lot of schools in America today, on graduation day, all the students lining-up for their certificates will have a piece of Kente. black universites will have Kentes around their neck and they like to have cloth of 96 or 97 and sometimes we do the name of the university, or the college here.

We can write “ ‘Canberra University’ or ‘Open University’, class of ‘98”.

End transcript: What are the functions of Kente?

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4.2 The meaning of kente designs

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 13

Once you’ve watched the video, explain, using your own words, what kente designs mean.

Download this video clip.Video player: What do Kente designs mean?

What do Kente designs mean?

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Transcript: What do Kente designs mean?

Catherine (VO)

The Kentehene, the Chief of Bonwire Weavers, is the official guardian of the history and meaning of Kente.

Kentehene

Originally, this was called Obaa Kofo Mmu Man. But as our first president, Kwame Nkrumah married a lady called Fatia, the person who designed it wanted it to be a success, and took it to the elders and they named it - ‘Fatia’ has been added to Nkrumah!

This one is called ‘Abusua Ye Adom’. It means that with your family and relatives around, your family can be a powerful force.

Nana Ashanti

This particular one, it’s proverbial. I mean …….. you have to mention. ‘Proverbial One’. This is called ‘One man does not Govern, Two Heads are better than One’. ‘One person does not go into counsel’. They’re all exactly the same, and some folks simply call it ‘Fatia’, because a design, this design was given in honour to the wife of the President of Ghana, the ….. Fatia, so a lot of people call this one ‘Fatia’, but it has got all the other names, the ‘Two Heads are Better than One’, ‘One Person does not go into counsel’ and so forth, you may call it in the name of democracy. That’s what it means.

But of course, that is the design. The various parties in that design also have names. For example, you see, there are nine squares here, we’ve got nine tufts of hair, when the chief’s go in the durbah there are young girls, they ride in front of the king.

Sometimes they come before the counsel of elders.

This is in ……, you swerve, you wouldn’t swerve if you look at it. …… Go that way and go that way.

Akwasi interview

Q: What meaning does the pattern ‘Adwenisi- Adwenisu’ have?

A: The whole pattern is called ‘Adwenisi- Adwenisu’ but this particular pattern is called ‘Atsem’ (shield). This, ‘Ohwia Tu Dei’ (everyone must die). ‘Atsem’ again. ‘Ohwia Tu Dei’. ‘Nakachene’ (snakes skin). ‘Afafrantu’ (butterfly). And so on, all the way to the end.

Q: So can any skilled weaver use his own combination?

A: Yes, anyone can do that. You just use your imagination.

Q: Why is ‘Adwenisi-Adwenisu’ (design upon design) so-called?

A: Weaving it is more difficult than all other patterns.

Q: Why? A: We use more threads. Whereas other patterns require 2 or 3 strands, this requires 5. CU Osei and shop

Catherine (VO)

Osei Antobre is a leading master weaver and shopkeeper in Bonwire. Master weavers are continually making new designs and naming them, sometimes to commemorate personal events.

Osei Antobre

This is ‘B….’. The name was given by me. I was having a boy, was a doctor, and he died all of a sudden. Then, that means, I have spent a lot on the boy but nothing came from it.

Catherine

What does that motif mean … there?

Osei

That, this is a stool.

Catherine

Why was that, why, why did that represent the boy?

Osei

That maybe he was come to make a chief, to be a chief, but death came to take it, to take him away.

End transcript: What do Kente designs mean?

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4.3 The functions of adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 14

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the functions of adinkra.

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What are the functions of Adinkra?

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Transcript: What are the functions of Adinkra?

Gabriel

This is a small cloth for a female. You wear it in this way. They open their legs and put the cloth back, to cover their body in this way. And the other one for the blouse, and the other one for the top. That’s for the female.

And the man, the man can wear, the man can wear ……, that is black cloth. For example, this is a mourning cloth. Just open it, and put your left hand in and bring the hand, right hand out, fold it up to your arms and tie it to you. Now you can go - wherever you want to go!

(SINGING AND MUSIC AT FUNERAL Duration)

Catherine (VO)

Dark red and black cloths are worn for funerals, especially Adinkra cloths, printed with symbols chosen for their meaning.

Gabriel (VO)

The head of the family must be in the red, then others in the family who ….., who also wear. Only to show to people that they have lost an important person, we have suffered a loss.

All others can wear black.

Catherine (VO)

Modern, printed cloths are also used for solemn occasions. Here, the ram’s horn symbol has been interpreted for Christian use.

Man

This is a small family, who are Catholic, and we have lost our beloved father on the 29th of November. So, we buried him yesterday and came for the Thanksgiving at the Cathedral.

Catherine

Can you tell us why you chose that particular Adinkra print?

Man

It looks like a sign of victory, which our father has won on earth here. Because it is only Jesus who brings victory. Therefore, it is a symbol of victory, our father has won on this earth. That’s why the design is like that.

End transcript: What are the functions of Adinkra?

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4.4 The meanings of adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 15

Once you’ve watched the video, make some notes on what you’ve learnt about the meanings of adinkra.

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What are the meanings of Adinkra?

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Transcript: What are the meanings of Adinkra?

Gabriel

I used my own money to prepare this much. This is ‘Gye Nyame’

And this is a …… symbol, because Adinkrahene was the king of the symbols.

(WILDTRACK)

‘Sankofa’ - ‘Go back to your roots’. This is a new symbol, we call it ‘change your life’.

This is another ‘Sankofa’, it’s new. This one, you call it, ‘Kramo bone amma yeannhu kramo pa’, ‘You cannot tell a good from a bad’. This person here invents this one. You call it ‘ …..’ ‘Enemies Around Me’. Whether you are poor or rich, you have enemies, no matter who you are.

Catherine

When did you design this?

Man

Ok, maybe you are a bad man. You want to change to be good, but if you be a good man, then God comes to protect you. This is ‘…..’, ‘Accept the Lord’, because God protects Heaven and Earth, and everything therein, so no-one is greater than God.

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4.5 Questions

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The final activity in this section asks you to bring together the observations you’ll have made after watching each section of video.

Activity 16

Consider the following questions:

Can you list some of the ways in which speakers described kente and adinkra being used?
Note down some of the meanings assigned – sometimes several to one design.
Note how new designs arise and some of the new designs mentioned.

Discussion

Kente

Kente is worn for special occasions of all sorts, including funeral commemoration services. In this case, the colours considered suitable are white and black or white and blue. Some types of cloth were considered more suitable for women. Kente is associated with high office, and some designs, involving extreme skill to weave, are exclusive to the Asante chief (the Asantehene). We were told that African-American students wear kente for graduation in national colours (black, green, and burgundy).
A design called Obaa Kofo Mmu Man (meaning ‘One man does not govern’, ‘Two heads are better than one’ after local proverbs) has been renamed Fatia after the wife of the first president of Ghana, but the design is also still called by its earlier name. Each of the component designs on a woven strip are named, as well as the design as a whole. The design called Adwenisi Adwenisu or ‘Design upon design’ indicates superlative skill and the use of more thread.
New designs are being invented. It is up to the weaver to use his ‘imagination’ in combining patterns.

(You may like to think about the zig-zag motif of Adwenisi Adwenisu and the way this was interpreted (note the passing reference to women). Might you draw on this as you consider Theme 3 above?)

Adinkra

Adinkra is worn for funeral commemorations and mourning. Black is chosen by family members, although the chief mourners wear red. Men wear a single cloth while women wear three.
The adinkra stamps have different names. These include ‘Except the Lord’ (meaning without the help of God nothing is possible); ‘King of the Symbols’ the ‘Sankofa’ bird (meaning ‘Go back to your roots’); ‘You cannot tell the good from the bad’. These designs are interpreted in different ways as applying to the wearer’s life or to other events. (The family mourners we interviewed at Kumasi explained they were wearing an adinkra symbol (rams’ horns, invented as a symbol for victory in war) to indicate the Christian victory of life over death won by their recently dead father.)
Adinkra designs have been taken over by industrial manufacturers of printed cloth.
The new designs mentioned were ‘Change your life’; a new design for the Sankofa bird; a symbol for ‘Enemies round me’ (meaning that whether you are good or bad you always have enemies).

(Note: you might ponder over the relationship between the worded meanings assigned to kente and adinkra and the issues of status and modernity – Themes 1 and 2 above. Consider, for example, the tone of the examples given, their educational/moral content. Might this have something to do with the status of these cloths? Then reflect on the nature of proverbs and what these might suggest to western writers about the tradition of cloth-making in Ghana.)

5.1 History of kente

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 17

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the history of kente.

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What is the history of Kente?

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Transcript: What is the history of Kente?

Kentehene

It was my forefathers who started it.

Catherine (V0)

How do the makers of Kente see their own history? The chief of the weavers at Bonwire, the Kentehene, tells the story of Kente.

Kentehene

There is a place ‘Ahwua Kesie’, where my ancestors went to hunt. One day, the elder saw a spider’s web, he called out to his brother - ‘Ame Yaw, Ame Yawa, come and see what this animal has done!’ So they stood and stared at it for some time. Every time they returned they noticed that the web had changed. They observed over a period of about 3 to 4 years and finally decided they, too, would practise this gift that God had given the spider. CUs weaving

Catherine (VO)

Archaeological evidence from tomb excavations indicates the presence of narrow, strip-weaving in the 11th century. But the technique for making patterned strips seems to date from the 16th or 17th centuries. Around 1730, Danish traders record the unravelling of imported silk to use in weaving.

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5.2 History of adinkra

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 18

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on what you learnt about the history of adinkra.

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What is the history of Adinkra?

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Transcript: What is the history of Adinkra?

Catherine (VO)

The Ashanti people see Adinkra as an invention they took from other, vanquished people, and not as their own creation.

It’s often said that Adinkra was introduced after the Ashanti victory over the 19th century Jaman king, Kofi Adinkra. That Adinkra is so recent is unlikely, as cloths datable to the early 19th century are evidence of Adinkra as a highlydeveloped art form.

Both Kente and Adinkra seem to draw on a long developing tradition of experimentation.

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5.3 Addressing the issues

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Activity 19

Think back over the video evidence so far: what information and examples might you select, and how might you use these to address the issues raised there?

You will find the final section of the programme about the marketing of cloth also contains relevant points, especially in relation to themes 1, 2, and 4 above.

6.1 Marketing cloth in Ghana

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

The market in Kumasi is arguably one of the largest in West Africa, and mostly anything can be found there, including lots of cloth. In this section you will learn about the marketing and selling of cloth in Ghana and, in particular, in Kumasi market.

Activity 20

Once you’ve watched the video, make a few notes on how cloth is marketed in Ghana.

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Marketing cloth

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Transcript: Marketing cloth

Catherine (VO)

Both Adinkra and Kente makers sell locally. They often negotiate requirements with a local buyer.

Gabriel

And he knows the meaning of the symbol, so he chooses only four symbols. This is ‘Jiname’, ‘if that goes you can’t do anything’. And this is ‘Akosombo’, where we get our electricity. And this is ‘Dowichiko’ ….

Akwasi interview

Anyone can buy from me. Once you have made your choice, I can weave it for you.

Catherine (VO)

Both cloths support sales through local shops.

Osei

You know, if you have, if you are a rich man, you can wear expensive one for wedding. And if you not have money as much you can easily spend lower prices.

Catherine (VO)

Both cloths are sold outside Ghana, in the African Diaspora.

Nana Ashanti

You’ve got to be able to come up with new designs, new patterns, in order to sustain the interest of your old customers. So that, every time I go to Chicago,….. anywhere, I will call my customers and tell them I have something new. Something that they’ve not seen before! And if you are an artist, you are playing with colours, you know, you change, this bit, that bit, you change the line here and so, and you always have something new. And that’s the only way to sustain people’s interest.

Catherine (VO)

Makers, buyers and sellers can form a circle of interactive tensions in the creation of textiles. These creative tensions are most evident in our final case-study.

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6.2 The marketing of prints in Kumasi market

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Activity 21

Once you’ve watched the video, make some notes on the marketing of wax prints and fancy prints in Kumasi market.

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Wax Prints and fancy prints in Kumasi market

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Transcript: Wax Prints and fancy prints in Kumasi market

John Picton

The market in Kumasi must be one of the largest in West Africa. You can find almost anything here, including lots of cloth. Cloth has always been important in West Africa. Long before Europeans came round the coast in the late 15th century, cloth had been traded back and forth between West Africa and the Mediterranean. West African markets have always played an essential part in mediating taste between artists and their patrons.

Some cloth from Bonwire is being sewn together. But far more important, as far as this market is concerned, are the printed cotton textiles. During the latter half of the 19th century, Dutch textile-makers wanted to copy Indonesian batiks and sell them to Indonesian people at a price that was cheaper than they could make them for themselves.

Eventually, the Dutch found a way of printing resin rather than the wax of a true batik onto both faces of the cloth. The resin resisted the dye but the results were not popular in Indonesia. Yet, quite by chance, they sold well in that part of West Africa known as the Gold Coast, today’s modern Ghana.

Many of the current popular designs show the strong trace of their Indonesian origins. These cloths were first produced in The Netherlands and then, soon after the beginning of the 20th century, in Britain, especially in the factories around Manchester.

These resin-resist cloths are known as ‘wax prints’ because of their history. And they’re different from the so-called ‘fancy prints’, which are simply printed imitations of the resist-dyed cloths.

(Atta Kwami asking woman shopkeeper about cloth design)

(Woman’s voice replying)

Atta Kwami

Money flies. Ok. It means that the money has wings. And if you have money, you will be on the move all the time.

John Picton

As soon as these fabrics began to sell on the Gold Coast, the Dutch developed designs around local West African interests. These especially focused upon the visualisation of proverbs, already an established art tradition among people like the Ashanti.

‘Money has wings’ was first designed in The Netherlands, but was very popular in Ghana and was widely copied. It has also been redesigned in Ghana, replacing the bird with a hand holding an egg, and adding the words, ‘Life is like an egg’. This reminds us how easily our lives can be broken and yet we hold our destinies in our hands.

We are outside the Catholic cathedral in Kumasi and a young mother is wearing a pattern we’d seen in the market. ‘Money has wings’.

(Young woman speaking)

John Picton (VO)

She said she wore the cloth because she liked it.

Then she said she’d bought it when she was expecting her first child. The design may have made her think of the baby growing within her.

Sometimes the remnants from dress-making are patched together for resale.

Voice

It’s very beautiful, so ….

Q: What is this hand?

A: (Mary) The back of your hand is not as good as the palm. (LAUGHS) For example, when eating, you get food on the back of your hands. You have to lick it off because it is not as nice as eating with your palm.

John Picton

The hand was educational, as well as proverbial. The spots were originally the twelve pennies in the Victorian shilling.

Mary (subtitled)

If you want to see, you don’t close your eyes, do you? ‘You see only when your eyes are open’ is the meaning.

Marmisawa (young woman)

This one is …… like, The Queen do not pay!

Atta Kwami

On what, on what occasions would someone wear this?

Marmisawa

Like, when they are doing something like, …… you can wear it anytime, anytime at all.

Atta Kwami

OK. ….. What about this one? Pebbles or stones ….. OK. I want to see the old cloths ….

S/I Marmisawa

Marmisawa

Old cloths …..

This one, this one’s old …

It’s called …..

Atta Kwami

So it’s from, early ‘60s ….

John Picton

At independence, these technologies were transferred to West Africa. Akosombo is one place in Ghana where there is a textile-printing factory.

Atta Kwami

This one’s from Akosombo, okay. So is this the real wax?

Marmisawa

Yeah, it’s the real wax.

Atta Kwami

Do you have the super-wax?

Marmisawa

This one is the super-wax.

Atta Kwami

That is the super-wax, OK.

So what is the difference between the superwax and the ordinary wax prints?

Marmisawa

OK. …….

Atta Kwami

In what way? In what way?

Marmisawa

(Explains)

Atta Kwami

And, and what about this one?

John Picton

Most of the cloths in Kumasi market are either fancy prints or wax prints made in Ghana or Nigeria.

Marmisawa

It’s called Bonsu, it’s a name, a name for a place.

Atta Kwami

Bonsu?

Marmisawa

Bonsu, yeah.

John Picton

Other themes included the novelties of the day, such as education in the late 19th century. Or the mobile telephone a hundred years later.

(WILDTRACK: -When did it come out? -This year, only this year.)

The designs are responding to the senses both of tradition and of modernity.

Afia Akayaa

And the English ….. one tree gets broken by the wind. One tree gets broken.

What factory is it made in?

-It’s made in Ghana by Akosombo Textiles. It’s nice.

John Picton PTC

This I, in fact, a locally, factory-printed copy of a resin-resist cloth produced in Holland by the Vlisco factory in Helmond. And one of the problems that the Dutch-producers of these jobs have, is that as soon as they produce a new, popular design, over here the textile factory owners and designers pirate it and, so that, the very fact that the Dutch designs are copied by local factories means that the Dutch designers have to work very hard keeping on top of the whole fashion interest in these parts.

The more expensive Dutch and English cloths are sold in specialist shops.

Catherine

Could you explain to me why this particular cloth is so much more expensive than the Ghanain printed cloths?

Shopkeeper

What this one? It’s an imported one, from Holland. That’s why this one is more expensive than the other one.

John Picton

So this cloth is from where? And do you know how they make it? Girl selling cloth They use polyester to make it.

John

Do you mean foam rubber?

Girl

Yes. They have a lot of designs. When they pick their design, they put it in this thing.

John

The wax?

Girl

Yes. And they print it on.

John

So they print the hot wax onto the cloth?

Girl

Yes. They use foam.

John

And then the wax resists the dye. It’s another version of how the whole Dutch wax thing came about, which involved printing hot resin onto both faces of the cloth. And, of course, they did that in imitation of Indonesian batik. And that’s how this whole thing started. So this, so you’ve actually got a number of things going on. You’ve got that technique. You’ve then got the printed imitation of it, the fancy cloths. And then you’ve got this kind of thing, which is a local reversion back to where the technique originally came from.

John Picton (VO)

These cloths are a record of collaboration between art makers, designers, print workers and traders, and the people who buy and use them.

We can see the designers’ response to local, poetic interests, visualising people’s ideas about themselves and about the society in which they live.

Catherine (VO)

With Adinkra and Kente, the relations of production include the African Diaspora. Wax cloths and fancy prints are the result of even wider, global relations. Studying these textiles emphasises how important it is to be open to the ways different societies define their own art-making.

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7 Conclusion

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Here are a few summary points to help you, in particular, with your thinking about Themes 1 and 2 above. As a further exercise, you might like to identify examples from the course to illustrate these points.

The making of kente and adinkra represent important art forms in Ghana, and cloth in general is highly valued. The video gives an indication of the previous development of cloth-making and the sense that it is ongoing, whether in terms of new materials, new meanings, changing functions, new ways of working, or new designs. Since the sixteenth century, European views of art have tended to label textile-making as a craft. In addition, those with Eurocentric assumptions may associate traditional crafts with skills that are unchanging and old-fashioned.

Acknowledgements

The Open University — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:00:00 GMT

This course was written by Professor Cath King

Academic Consultants: Catherine King; John Picton, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; additional advice was given by Malika Kraamer, Erasmus University, Rotterdam and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Producer: Nick Levinson

Production Assistant: Jenny Clarke and Judy Collins

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence

Course image: Kelly McCarthy in Flickr made available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence.

All other written material contained within this course originated at the Open University.

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