09/08/2025
Must Read if you’re an Ashanti. Don’t allow anyone distort your history 💛🖤💚
REJOINDER: Setting the Historical Records Straight: Asante Culture Under Attack by False Narratives on TV3
Dear TV3 Ghana,
In recent days, comments made by Lawyer Kwame Anokye, a supposed historian, have sparked outrage among cultural watchers and the Asante community. His repeated attempts to pit ethnic groups against one another by misrepresenting history must not go unchallenged.
I write to strongly caution your network against repeatedly offering your platforms to Lawyer Kwame Anokye, who parades himself as a historian, but uses your Ghana’s Most Beautiful stage to stoke unnecessary tension between ethnic groups, particularly Asantes and Bonos, through unsubstantiated claims. As a guest judge on your program yesterday, he gave some comments that lacked credibility and were unsubstantiated.
1. On the Bono contestant’s performance: He alleged that Asantes copied the style of dressing their Queenmothers from the Bono people. This claim is not only baseless but also mischievously selective.
Beads, cloth, gold ornaments, and ceremonial regalia are not unique to Bono or Asante but are shared across the Akan world. From Akyem to Fante, Kwahu, Akwamu, Sefwi, Assin, Wassa, Ahanta, and Nzema etc, Queenmothers have long adorned themselves with similar regalia. This is due to a shared Akan ancestry and cultural heritage, not imitation.
Before the emergence of the Asante Kingdom in the late 17th century, the Adanse state was already flourishing and was widely regarded as one of the oldest Akan polities. According to K.Y. Daaku (Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720, 1970), the Adanse had elaborate court regalia which heavily influenced later Asante political and cultural institutions. To suggest that Asantes had no cultural template of their own and had to “copy” Bono is to erase this deeper history.
Among Akans, cultural borrowing and mutual influence have always existed. However, claiming that one subgroup “copied” another is simplistic and incites unnecessary rivalry. Asante Queenmothers’ dressing is a manifestation of Akan heritage broadly, not a borrowed practice.
2. On the Origins of Kente Cloth
Even more troubling was Lawyer Anokye’s assertion that Akans have no meaning for Kente while Ewes do. That is to say, Kente did not originate in Ashanti but in the Volta Region. This is a distortion of history.
Oral tradition, supported by scholars such as R.S. Rattray (Religion and Art in Ashanti, 1927, p. 265) and Ivor Wilks (Asante in the Nineteenth Century, 1975, p. 45), traces the invention of Kente weaving to Bonwire, near Ejisu, during the reign of Asantehene Osei Tutu I in the 17th century. Two men, Ota Karaban and Kwaku Ameyaw, are credited with developing the weaving technique after observing the web of a spider (Ananse).
Weaving traditions indeed existed among the Ewe in Volta long before. However, the Ewe’s Agbamevor (narrow loom weaving) is different from the structured, geometric patterns of Kente. Scholars (including Ivor Wilks and Rattray) have noted that Kente evolved as a distinctly Ashanti innovation, even though later cross-influences occurred between Asante and Ewe weavers.
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. For example, Adweneasa (“all motifs exhausted”) reflects supreme creativity, while Sika Futuro (“gold dust”) symbolises wealth and status (Boateng, E. A., Ghana: Social Institutions and Social Change, 1954).
UNESCO itself recognises Bonwire, Ashanti Region as the historic birthplace of Kente weaving (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Reports, 2009).
Ephraim Amu’s Testimony: Perhaps one of the strongest validations of Bonwire’s primacy in Kente weaving comes from Ephraim Amu, the celebrated Ewe composer and cultural icon. Despite being an Ewe himself, Amu composed the famous patriotic song “Bonwire Kente”, explicitly projecting Bonwire in Ashanti as the home of Kente cloth. This is not only cultural recognition but also historical testimony from an Ewe scholar and nationalist who believed in truth above tribal bias.
Ghana is a mosaic of ethnic groups bound by a shared destiny. Attempts to single out Asantes for ridicule by presenting them as “copycats” or “cultural thieves” are not only false but dangerous, especially given recent tensions between Asantes and Bonos.
Instead of celebrating our shared traditions and the richness of our diversity, Lawyer Kwame Anokye chooses to sow division by framing Asante culture as inferior or borrowed. This undermines the spirit of Ghana’s Most Beautiful, which is supposed to project national unity and appreciation of all cultures. In his judgments of all the contestants, this so-called historian was so fixated on Asantes. Every single comment he made on the platform was about Asantes which took the beauty of the program. Why?
Even more disappointing is the silence of panellists such as Nana Adwoa Awindor, a Development Queenmother from Afigya-Kwabre in Ashanti Region, who allowed these falsehoods to stand uncorrected. Her silence only lent credibility to the damage being done. I don't know the kind of validation that woman is looking for from TV3.
CONCLUSION AND CAUTION TO TV3
As a respected national broadcaster, TV3 has a responsibility to uphold truth, accuracy, and fairness in its cultural programming. Giving a platform to unverified and divisive historical claims is reckless and undermines the unity we seek as a nation.
The record is clear:
• Asante Queenmothers’ regalia are not copied from Bono but reflect a shared Akan heritage with deep historical roots predating both Asante and Bono states.
• Kente is an Ashanti invention from Bonwire, recognised globally as such by scholars, UNESCO, and even by the testimony of Ephraim Amu, the great Ewe composer who immortalised Bonwire as the home of Kente cloth.
TV3 must therefore exercise greater editorial responsibility by ensuring that its stage is not used to ridicule, distort, or inflame ethnic relations. If unity is the goal, truth must guide the narrative.
The Asante Nation
References:
• Rattray, R.S. (1927). Religion and Art in Ashanti. Oxford University Press.
• Wilks, Ivor (1975). Asante in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.
• Daaku, K.Y. (1970). Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast 1600–1720. Clarendon Press.
• Boateng, E. A. (1954). Ghana: Social Institutions and Social Change. Ghana Publishing Corp.
• UNESCO (2009). Intangible Cultural Heritage Reports – Kente Weaving (Bonwire, Ashanti Region).
• Amu, Ephraim (1931). Bonwire Kente [Patriotic Song].
