14 DAY TRIAL // Kente is a colorful fabric originated in Western Africa, which is often worn as a symbol of Afro-American pride, in Afrocentric fashion.
For thousands of years, African weavers employed vivid colors extracted from roots and leaves to create colorful and simple patterns. The craftsmen of the African nomads invented small looms, easy to transport, named stripping looms, which produced fabric pieces whose width did not overpass 12 cm. After that, they put them side by side and sewed them to create a larger fabric serving for making cloths. These looms crossed deserts, rivers and mountains, leaving in a deep impact on the African culture.
Many centuries, the Ashanti kings in former Golden Coast (now Ghana) adorned with large golden jewels and covered with a material made from a special weave, as a sign of their richness, power and authority. This different fabric was named kente, alluding to its texture similar to that of the baskets.
The kente reached a status of prestige and royal rank.
The craftsmen of the Golden Coast employed cotton, but they only had blue dye. They could only make simple patterns in blue and white (of the natural cotton), resulting simple geometrical figures of lines and squares for common people.
The royal kente was finer, of higher quality, and the patterns were exclusive for the king and his court. The king accumulated hundreds of kente, each with an unique design, which were worn only in public.
In the XVI th century, the European navigators, looking for slaves, ivory and gold, brought to the area another type of fabric. These cloths had shining and flashy colors, like yellow, green and red, and turned into a valuable trade item.
Few tribes could afford buying those expensive fabrics, and only the Ashanti, who controlled the flux of gold, ivory and slaves had the power to acquire them. But they did not want the fabric itself. Once bought, they disentangled the threads and wove then again on the royal looms.
The new colors meant a bloom in the imagination, creativity and skills of the African craftsmen.
The geometrical figures now represented fish, fruits, leaves, rainbows, and other natural images.
Yellow represented richness, green stood for freshness, black for sadness, red for rage and silver for happiness.
A special fabric could have taken months to be done and they were a luxury item.
But in time, the power of those kings was gone, and they were like ordinary people. Thus, the demand grew and so did the production, but the quality, art and price decreased.
Currently, most kente is made with synthetic threads and is used for making handbags, ties, belts, hats, and clothing.