Kente Weavers

Something not to be missed in Ghana is visiting a Kente Weaving village.  We visited Tafi Abuipe in the Volta Region (eastern Ghana).  All the families in this village are weavers.  Many have created their own unique and beautiful patterns.  

This special cloth is woven in long strips and originally was only to be worn by royalty for very special and sacred occasions.  Mythology has it that two Ghanaian men hunting in the forest came upon a spider.  They studied the spider weaving a web for 2 days and then went home and tried to recreate the web. Kente weaving has been around since at least the 1600s.  

Today Kente cloth is available to anyone.  The long strips can be sewn together and form larger pieces of "cloth."  It is expensive for a Ghanaian and could be called the fabric of a Ghanaian "tuxedo." 

The colors are bright, the patterns are geometric and the finished product is just beautiful.

The weavers are truly artists.  Notice how they use their feet.  The thread is strung through pieces of a coconut shell and the weaver's feet are continuously flying, while their hands are quickly shuttling various colors of thread through the loom.