09/09/2025
Ghana’s Most Beautiful and the Origin of Kente
The famous aphorism, “Until the lion tells its own story, the hunt will always glorify the hunter,” is often attributed to Chinua Achebe. This saying aptly describes the “letter” from the Asante Nation to TV3 regarding comments made by Lawyer Anokye. In an effort to set the records straight, particularly on the subject of kente, the Asante Nation's account unfortunately recycled the same old Kweku Ananse fable, a yarn long since unspooled. We shall now dissect their claims on kente thread by thread, for this is a highly technical indigenous craft, and one must possess a master weaver’s knowledge to fully grasp its subtleties.
The writers first cited the works of Rattray and Wilks, repeating the spider story as the origin of kente within the Ashanti Region. They should have also consulted more current scholarship, such as the works of Law (1991), Boateng (2014), Dotse (2015), and Coleman, Gleba and Kraamer (2022), to understand why the craft is widely believed to have originated in the Volta Region, specifically from the Agotime people.
The tale recounts how two men, mentioned by the writers, observed a spider weaving its web and then returned home to copy the art. This textile, which they said resembled a basket, was then named "kente," the Twi word for basket. However, invoking kente as a visual metaphor for the narrow strip of cloth produced on a loom requires a shared feature between the source and the target. For instance, the metaphor "time is a river" works because both concepts share the characteristic of continuous, forward movement. Similarly, the Twi phrase "ti kura" and the Ewe word "etre" connect the calabash with the upper part of a human skull due to a clear physical resemblance.
When the basket is extended metaphorically to the narrow strip of cloth called kente, a glaring dissimilarity emerges. The fronds of a basket are laid out on the ground and woven in a concentric pattern. In contrast, the warp threads of kente cloth are pegged, laid on short poles, and then wound into a ball or cylindrical cone. They are then threaded through a heddle and a be**er before being woven on a pyramidal or tetrapod loom. The intricate motifs of kente simply have no parallel in the weaving of a basket.
"Metaphors are fine if they promote comprehension, but they can get in the way at times," as Dawkins noted. This principle is particularly relevant to the basket analogy used for the etymology of kente. The basket analogy appears contrived, as if it were designed to fit a story rather than to explain a logical causal link. A metaphor should simplify understanding through analogy, but here, the introduction of a basket as a mediator between a spider’s web and a piece of cloth creates an unnecessary and unusual step in the naming of an object. The linguistic evidence presented so far, centered on this metaphorical engulfing, has done little to establish the name’s true etymology.
A more compelling school of thought traces the etymology of kente to the Eweland’s tetrapod loom, known as the Agbati. This perspective argues that the term kente or kete originates from the nomenclature of the weaving process itself. In this view, a master weaver using the Agbati loom would open the warp threads with a heddle, throw the weft thread through, and then use a be**er to hit it in a rhythmic motion. To teach the action, the master weaver would utter three instructional Ewe words: kee-na-tee (open the warp and hit it with the be**er). Over time, these words became the root from which two variants, kente or kete, emerged. You may add a "linguistic tryst" to the explanation, but the root remains the same inclusive Ewe words: kee-na-tee.
This proposition finds support in historical records, as the Danes who were on the Gold Coast from 1657 to 1850 had a collection of over a dozen textiles from the coastal regions, which they called "kintee." In the same way, Law (1991) documents that European traders purchased kente cloths from Whydah and Allada in Eweland during the 16th century and then resold them on the Gold Coast. Coleman, Gleba and Kraamer (2022) used a scientific approach, combining chemical analysis and ethnography, to trace specific kente cloths from the archives of abolitionist Thomas Clarkson back to their Ewe origins and Agotime. Additionally, the Smithsonian Museum has traced the oldest kente in its collection to Agotime in Ghana’s Volta Region (Dotse, 2015).
The Ewe method of naming things, where a generic action is either prefixed or suffixed, is a common feature of the Ewe system. For example, the Ewe collective noun nudzodzui translates to "flying thing" and refers to all flying insects. Similarly, the English inventor John Kay named his "flying shuttle" after the action it performed—transporting the weft thread during weaving. In these instances, the process itself gives the object its common name. Just as the action of a fly becomes the generic name for the insect (housefly, tsetsefly, etc.), the action kee-na-tee becomes the generic name (kente) for the narrow strip of woven cloth, regardless of whether it is plain or has a design. This procedure demonstrates a more fundamental connection between the object and the process that creates it. Regardless of its etymology, the name kente has certainly stuck to this narrow-loom cloth in Ghana ever since.
The letter to TV3 mentions weaving traditions from various regions where this indigenous craft is practiced. Yet, it is entirely inaccurate for the writer to claim that "the Ewe's Agbamevor (narrow loom weaving) is different from the structured, geometric patterns of Kente." This statement requires the technical discernment of a master weaver to truly distinguish between Asante kente and Ewe kente. While differences do exist, they are not as the writer suggests. For instance, much of what is sold as Ashanti kente today is little more than machine embroidery with a few strips of the actual cloth. This is not the same as the authentic kente from Eweland, where geometric and figurative patterns are combined to tell a complete story. Focusing on geometric patterns alone only tells half of that story.
Again, simply referencing Rattray and Wilks and their mention of Ashanti as the source does not answer the fundamental question. What of the more recent scholarship, such as the works of Law (1991), Boateng (2014), Dotse (2015), and Coleman, Gleba and Kraamer (2022), which attribute the origin to Eweland? There is, of course, a history of cross-cultural influence. As Boateng (2014) notes, many master weavers migrated to the Ashanti region at the height of the Asante empire to teach their craft. What followed was a period of social learning. The famous master weaver Samuel Coffie, who relocated from Anyako to Bonwire with the craft, serves as another example of this phenomenon.
In the fourth paragraph, under the heading "Origin of Kente," the writer stated that "unlike the Ewe strips, Asante Kente cloths were designed not only for beauty but also as royal insignia, reserved initially for kings and later extended to chiefs and royals. With patterns and colours symbolising proverbs, philosophy, and social codes." The writer's distinction is revealing: kente from Eweland is merely "strips," while from Asante it is "cloth"? Where can one find more proverbs than in the combination of figurative and geometric patterns seen in authentic Ewe kente? What the writer fails to appreciate is that the greater the complexity of a design, the higher its prestige. The primary function of kente in Eweland is to cover and protect the human body from the elements, which is why every household in weaving communities like Agotime, Agbozume, Keta, Tafi, Anlo Afiadenyigba, Anyako, Atakpame and Notsie possesses a trove of it. Kente is a key part of the family heirloom, passed down from one generation to the next. You do not need to be a royal to own kente in Eweland.
The second function of kente in Eweland is a composite one: for rites of passage and decoration, which, again, is not reserved exclusively for kings, chiefs, or queens. This attribution to royalty is an old rhetorical trick used to justify the Asante version of the kente narrative. Power, it seems, plays a critical role in the justification of knowledge. One can see this in the way the expertise of artists like Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci lends authority to their work. Similarly, the names and the prestige of kings and chiefs were used in the folklore of kente, where the first cloth was supposedly shown to them for their approval and commissioning. This was clearly an attempt to lend weight and authority to the spider myth. Chiefs and kings have no expertise in the art of kente weaving for them to exercise such power. As Boateng (2014) succinctly made clear, at the height of the Asante Empire, many artisans migrated into the kingdom with their craft, but their glory was later usurped by the powerful. The skill of weaving kente and the knowledge that underpins it belong to the master weavers and transcends the authority of any ruler.
If the writers of that letter were master weavers, they would not be so quick to describe Adweneasa (a pattern whose name means "all motifs exhausted") as a reflection of "supreme creativity." That claim is laughable when compared to Ewe kente cloths like Gabusu, LeveKporwu, Torgodo, and Tugbewofia. LeveKporwu, for instance, contains over 250 complex geometric and figurative expressions, while Adweneasa can boast of no more than 10 geometric patterns. A simple online search will reveal this for anyone to see. In fact, the Ewe kente cloth Torgodo can even depict the 24 days it took to plan the escape from the tyranny of Agorkoli in Notsie through its figurative patterns. It is like the Rosetta Stone; you need technical knowledge to decipher it. One can even find maps of Ghana, Africa, and the world woven into kente by weavers from Agotime. The arena of creativity offers little room, and only master weavers survive there.
Regarding UNESCO's recognition of kente, the writers were disingenuous in only mentioning Bonwire. The UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list, which was announced on December 4, 2024, also recognizes Agotime and Agbozume as key sources of the craft. In preparing the documentary for that application, we focused on the larger picture of Ghana rather than the narrow perspective put forth by the writers. That documentary for UNESCO, for which Ghana was granted ownership of kente, was the result of extensive research involving some of us in academia who are also master weavers with in-depth knowledge of the craft.
Songs serve as a means for individuals to document their emotions and personal experiences. They also played a crucial role in documenting historical facts during a time when formal Western education and literacy were scarce. The lyrics of any song are based on the composer’s immediate personal knowledge, their specific sensibilities, and the social issues of their moment. When analyzing a song's lyrics as a source of historical fact, it is essential to evaluate the extent to which shared knowledge and other corroborating evidence affect the validity of its claims.
A famous song on this topic is one of Ephraim Amu's twenty-five compositions in the Twi language. In the piece, Amu sings that he has travelled far, and the narrative becomes increasingly dramatic with each line: he has journeyed the world and listened to legends, but seeing a kente weaver in Bonwire astonishes him. He continues by adding that he had never witnessed anything comparable to kente before, concluding the song with an expression of immense happiness. Amu's expertise was music, and we must acknowledge this. The composition may have been inspired by the rhythmic sound of the weaving process, which resonated with his musical sensibilities. However, at no point in the song did Amu conclude that kente originated in Bonwire or Ashanti. In fact, the composer made no literal or symbolic references in any of the song's 19 lines to the craft’s origin in the Ashanti Region. This unequivocally exposes the deceptive rhetoric of the proposition, which sought to use Amu's name as a testimony.
As previously mentioned, the composer stated in his song that he had travelled widely but had never seen kente woven anywhere but Bonwire. This assertion may not be entirely accurate. Long before he composed his piece, J.G. Widmann in 1848 reported from the Peki area, Amu’s hometown, that "much kente (local cloth) is produced here, which people from different countries, like Akim, Akuapim, Akra… buy" (Basel Mission Archive). Was the musicologist being entirely sincere in his lyrics, or was he trying to please an audience? Amu spent the majority of his adult life in the Akan regions. At the age of 17, he attended a teacher training college in Abetifi, then worked as a catechist-teacher in Akropong, before enrolling in the College of Science and Technology in Kumasi. He devoted a great deal of time and energy to Akan culture and language. Indeed, he translated some of his own songs from Ewe to Twi, for example, "Ame wo dzife nyigba" to "Yen ara asase ni." Dreams are, of course, best understood in one’s native language. Therefore, the lyrics of his song cannot be used as proof of kente’s origin. It is illogical for a person who sees something for the first time, without any other context, to infer that the object originated from that location. This is a classic black swan trap, a slippery slope of cognitive bias where one focuses only on the known and remains blind to the impossible. Avoid it.
According to functionalist philosophy, society progresses from the need to create order, not disorder. While folklore is important for shaping certain beliefs, the spider narrative cannot be used to justify the origins of kente, as the various components of the story fail to produce any semblance of order. Form is dictated by function; to determine the origins of a form, one must examine its function and the contributions of its many parts. There are distinct processes that converge to create what we know as kente. The role of the spider and the two brothers’ clumsy attempt to replicate its web leaves too many gaps in our understanding of the complexity and subtleties inherent in the art of kente. For instance, the art requires intricate mathematical calculations for laying the warp, threading the heddle and be**er, designing the cloth, incorporating Pascal's triangle and Fibonacci colour sequencing into the cultural symbols, and selecting the appropriate proverbs. This knowledge is the result of accumulated thought spanning multiple epochs. Furthermore, the weaving implements, no matter how rudimentary, must be present for kente to be woven into specific symbolic patterns. The folklore offers none of this. Clearly, many factors contribute to the creation of kente, and the folklorists who crafted that narrative do not want us to believe it.
We have even seen kente woven with rayon labelled as being over 300 years old (Damson, 1998; Ross, 1998), despite the fact that rayon only arrived on Ghana's shores in the 20th century. Modern fact-checking and indigenous knowledge have helped debunk some of these often-repeated anecdotes.
My dear friends, in this world, there is no such thing as an insult. Rather, it is simply timely advice delivered in an unfriendly tone, or perhaps it is just hate speech. What Lawyer Anokye said, then, must be the former, a most unwelcome but necessary piece of wisdom in the kente debate. And TV3 should continue their archaeological dig into the origins of kente, they will inevitably unearth Agotime in Eweland. The lions, you see, have finally become their own historians, a sensible precaution to ensure the tale of the hunt is no longer told exclusively from the hunter's point of view.
By George-Grandy Hallow (Ph.D.).
Materials used for this article are from my forthcoming book, "The Origin of Kente: Polemical Known and Unknowns."
References
Basel Mission Archive, D-1.3 Afrika 1849-51, Akropong 1849, Nr. 1).
Boateng, B. (2014). "Adinkra and Kente Cloth in History, Law, and Life". Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. 932. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/932
Coleman S., Gleba M., and Kraamer M. (2022). From West Africa to Wisbech: analysing 18th-century textiles in Thomas Clarkson’s campaign chest.
https://the-past.com/feature/from-west-africa-to-wisbech-analysing-18th-century-textiles-in-thomas-clarksons-campaign-chest/ Accessed: 08/09/2025.
Damson Isaac B. (1998, 30 October to 1 November). Nana Konadu and Anlo Kente. The Ghanaian Chronicle.
Dotse, A.K. (2015). The Issue of the Origin and Meaning of Kente (aka Kete).
https://www.modernghana.com/news/628735/the-issue-of-the-origin-and-meaning-of-kente-aka-kete.html. Accessed 08/09/2025.
Law, R. (1991). The Slave coast of West Africa 1550-1750: the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on an African society, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Ross, D.H. (1998). Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African-American Identity. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.
UNESCO. Craftmanship of traditional woven textile Kente.
https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/craftsmanship-of-traditional-woven-textile-kente-02130. Accessed: 08/09/2025.
Photo credit: GhanaWeb
