Kente Cloth

Kente cloth has been woven since the 19th century, or the 1800’s. Kente is strips of cloth, with bright colors\ woven into, beautiful designs.

The Asante wove and used Kente cloth

After the Asante wove the Kente cloth, they traded it with their neighboring tribes like Nzema, Fante, and Ewe. In return for Kente cloth, their trading partners gave the Asante people alms, and a place to live while they are trading in their neighbors’ territories.

The Asante people live in southern Ghana, and have a population of 1.5 million people. Back in the 1800’s the Asante made Kente cloth with silk, but today it is made out of rayon. The strips are woven into cloth 4 inches wide, and 3 feet long on a loom. Once they have enough strips they would sew the Kente pieces together by hand

The colors of Kente cloth mean different things; black, green, maroon, and gold are some of the important colors.

Colors in Kente cloth mean a lot to life because they show if the Asante people were wealthy, or whether they have celebrations. Or they could make green kente during their harvesting time.

Kente usually has bright colors, and was worn by kings. King wore the colors like yellow and gold to show their wealth, power, and royalty. The king has special weavers to make his bright colored Kente.