Credited to Ghana. Within the Ashanti Region both Bonwire and Adanwomase claim to be the place of origin, and the Ewe people also weave kente. Historians hold that it grew out of older West African weaving traditions.
How it began
Asante tradition says two men of Bonwire learned to weave by watching a spider spin its web, first copying it in raffia. Their work was reported to Asantehene Osei Tutu, the first Asante ruler, who adopted kente as a royal cloth, and Bonwire became the leading weaving center for the court. Ota Kraban is credited with building the first wooden hand loom there. By the early 1700s the Asante were unraveling imported silk cloth and reweaving the threads.
Before it existed
Historians maintain that kente grew out of weaving traditions that existed in West Africa before the Asante kingdom was formed, and one museum dates those traditions back to the 11th century. The first known kente cloth in the Bonwire account was black and white. From the late 1500s traders brought colored silk fabrics from Italy, India and North Africa into the region.
How it works
Kente is woven on a horizontal wooden strip loom that produces a band about four inches wide. The loom has two, four or six heddles attached to foot treadles through pulleys, and the weaver passes a shuttle carrying the weft between the separated warp threads. Warp threads can be more than 90 feet long. Pattern blocks must be measured carefully so that they line up when the strips are cut and sewn together into a full cloth.
How it spread
The Ewe people, who were under Asante rule in the late 18th century and already wove on horizontal looms, are believed to have adopted kente production with some differences. Because the Ewe were not centralized, their cloth was not limited to royalty. Over time restrictions on who could wear kente were relaxed, and leaders across Africa adopted it in official dress.
Where it stands today
Weaving has been a source of income in Bonwire and nearby communities for over 300 years, and a kente festival is held there each year. Children learn the craft from about age five. In the United States, students and professors wear kente strips as stoles at graduations. Kente patterns are also reproduced in machine-made printed fabrics that take far less time to make.
