Kente Cloth

• Title Kente Cloth
• Category Textile
• Medium Textile
• Dimensions 18"h x 80"w
• Year Completed undated
• Description Multi-colored; hand-made
• Notes This textile is an Akan cloth known as Kente. They are made using a technique in which warp threads are stretched on a narrow horizontal loom and weft threads and inlays are inserted into them*. The motifs are predominantly geometric. Kente Cloth was made with raffia and then locally grown cotton. The Okomantan cotton is dyed with juice from various plants, and originally colors such as blue and white were used. Kente cloth was also woven from silk material made from the long yarns produced by a species of spider, the . Kente use in many Akan communities was originally tied to political authority, as these are expensive to make. As tourism and commercialization has ramped up in Ghana, there has been a reduction in the repertoire of woven motifs. The cloth is made in strips about four inches wide before being sewn with the other pieces. Typical of these cloths, each strip is concluded with either a Nnwotoa or snail design, or Babadua, which is named after a common tree of Ashanti. The Nnwotoa is a design with both dots and lines seen at the bottom. The Babadua is the horizontal striped patterns seen at the bottom as well. The red and yellow patches are known as Nkyemfere which translates to broken pots. *Nii Otokunor Quarcoopome, "Art of the Akan." (Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, vol.23, no.2, 1997), 135-97. *Shea Clark Smith, "Kente Cloth Motifs." (African Arts, vol. 9, no.1, 1975), 36-39.
• Artist Ashanti People Ghanaian
• Credit Clyde and Annie Matters Collection
• Location Library Art Storage H1
• Accession Number 1994.0001
• Status Available Request this art work
  
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