3.3 Training to weave kente

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

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

How old are you?

Seventeen.

Have you been working here long?

Over a month now.

Have you earned any money since starting?

Yes.

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

My mother.

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

I’d like to take up Kente weaving professionally.

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.

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