Cotton shawl with colourful block pattern

Rectangular piece of textile, a so-called Kente cloth, made in the so-called Kente village of Bonwire. Kente is the most royal of fabrics. The colours gold and yellow, often used in Kente fabrics, and also as background for adinkra, are the colours of the king and his power. But they also refer to the presence and influence of God. Green stands, as in many cultures, for fertility, vitality and growth. Blue is the color of love, feminine tenderness and tranquility.‖ Traditionally, wearing the kente was reserved for the Asantehene and other important chiefs. Nowadays, it is also worn by ordinary people on formal and festive occasions. But it is mainly persons of distinction, or persons who want to acquire prestige, who cover themselves in a costly kente cloth. \Kente is by far the most precious textile of the Ashanti, and therefore a symbol of status and wealth. Kente consists of narrow strips sewn together with intricate woven patterns. \Some say it comes from the Ewe in the Volta region, others from the Fanti on the coast, and still others from the Moshi in what is now Burkina Faso. According to a legend, the art of weaving comes from two hunters, Nana Koragu and Nana Ameyaw. These hunters once went into the forest in search of prey. While they were searching through the trees, they came across a spider that was weaving a web. The hunters had never seen this before and were fascinated by the spider's ability to spin the silky thread to weave a web. Each of its legs performed a different function in creating the intricate pattern. The hunters returned home and began to build scaffolding and tools with which they could mimic the spider's weaving and the geometric pattern of the web. The fabric they managed to make with this later became known as kente (Source: Asamoah-Yaw, kente cloth).‖ All the different kente patterns have names and carry meanings and stories. They sometimes refer to events in history or to particular people. For example, the pattern Kyere Twie -'catch the leopard'- tells of King Kwaku Dua I ordering one of his subjects to catch a leopard alive (Rattray 1927:245), proof of courage and strength par excellence.\One of the most well-known kente patterns bears the name 'adwinasa', literally 'the ideas are out'. It refers to a legend: A king once chose a weaver to weave for him the most beautiful kente rug in the world. The weaver used all his craftsmanship, knowledge and creativity to combine all known patterns to create a unique pattern for the king. This very special design therefore got the name 'the ideas are gone' or 'all patterns have been used'. The pattern 'emmaa da', 'it has never come', is a symbol of creativity, innovation and novelty. 'Sika futuro', 'gold dust' is the name of a kente garment that shows that the wearer is rich in everything. His wealth is as inexhaustible as dust.Today, however, the stories and meanings of many weaving patterns are known only to the weavers or chiefs and a kente cloth is chosen for its aesthetic value and good quality rather than for the symbolic meaning of the pattern. But what is certainly not disappearing is the symbolic value of the kente in itself, as a sign of status and of wealth. \The kente collection of the Asantehene is the largest in the world, it is said. But other kings also have stacks of kente cloths, so they can pick out a different cloth to wear at every opportunity. Nana Aboagye Agyei II, King of Ejisu, tells of his kente collection. I have more than 20 different pieces of kente and a few adinkra cloths for funerals. Some I took over from my predecessors. Then I have added some of my own. Sometimes a very old cloth is suitable for a particular occasion. My chief weaver is in Bonwire, Mensah. Sometimes he says. Nana, there is a new design on the market. And then he makes a new design for me, but different from all others, so that you see the difference.\ In choosing the right cloth for the day, a king is helped by one of his confidants or by the queen mother. The king's clothes should be appropriate to the occasion in terms of colour and pattern, and a king cannot be an expert on everything. Sometimes for a special occasion a new pattern is created by one of the court weavers. Legend has it that in the old days the chosen weaver was executed after he had finished the new king's garment. Otherwise he might copy the same design for someone else, and according to tradition, a king's clothing must be different from the clothing of everyone else at a gathering. The king's kente should be the most exclusive and dazzling kente of all.‖ Kente is mainly worn at festivals, ceremonies and festive occasions such as a wedding or a promotion. But it is also used as decoration in the burial of the dead. It is then hung on the wall behind the bed or on the ceiling above it, or draped over the coffin.\nThe beauty and popularity of kente has led textile manufacturers to print kente patterns on cotton. The Vlisco factory in Holland (Helmond) was the first to do so. Such machine printed kente is very popular and for sale in many patterns. But of course it has nothing of the rich look of real kente. \Manufacture Kente is woven on narrow, horizontal looms with a wooden frame. It is made of cotton, possibly combined with silk, and nowadays often plastic. The cotton used was formerly grown in the drier regions north of the Ashanti area, but is now imported. Silk was first brought to the Gold Coast by Dutch sailors from China and India. The silk threads for the kente were obtained by extracting and reweaving these imported silk fabrics. Now silk yarn is also imported. Geometric patterns are woven with different colors. \Weavers, formerly only men, but nowadays also women, almost always work outside.‖ Long bundles of threads as much as 10 feet away are tied to a stone or tree. A weaver works with bare feet, using his toes to operate the ropes.\All phases of the production process are carried out by the same person.\A weaver must therefore be able to make the tools, know where to get the yarn, how to work the yarn and put it on the looms and be a master of the art of weaving. This art is passed on from generation to generation in the family. As a child in a family of weavers you have to help the weavers every day with all kinds of additional chores and later with the weaving itself. A number of villages, including Bonwire to the east of Kumasi, have devoted themselves entirely to the weaving of kente, both for the local and foreign markets. Rechthoekige lap textiel, een zogenaamde Kente-doek, gemaakt in het zgn. Kente-dorp Bonwire. Kente is de meest koninklijke stof bij uitstek. De kleuren goud en geel, veel gebruikt in kente-weefsels, en ook als ondergrond voor adinkra, zijn de kleuren van de koning en zijn macht. Maar ook verwijzen ze naar de aanwezigheid en invloed van God. Groen staat, zoals in veel culturen, voor vruchtbaarheid, vitaliteit en groei. Blauw is de kleur van de liefde, vrouwelijke tederheid en rust. Traditioneel was het dragen van de kente voorbehouden aan de Asantehene en andere belangrijke chiefs. Tegenwoordig wordt het ook gedragen door gewone mensen bij formele en feestelijke gelegenheden. Maar het blijven vooral personen van aanzien, of personen die aanzien willen verwerven, die zich hullen in een kostbare kente-doek. Kente is verreweg de meest kostbare textiel van de Ashanti, en daardoor een symbool van status en rijkdom. Kente bestaat uit smalle, aan elkaar genaaide strips met ingewikkelde ingeweven patronen. Waar de kente oorspronkelijk vandaan komt weet niemand zeker, sommigen zeggen van de Ewe in de Volta-regio, anderen van de Fanti aan de kust, weer anderen van de Moshi uit het huidige Burkina Faso. Zeker is wel dat de Ashanti er wereldfaam mee verworven hebben. Volgens een legende is de kunst van het weven afkomstig van twee jagers, Nana Koragu en Nana Ameyaw. Deze jagers gingen eens het woud in op zoek naar een prooi. Terwijl ze tussen de bomen aan het speuren waren, stuitten ze op een spin die bezig was een web te weven. De jagers hadden dit nog nooit gezien en waren gefascineerd door de kundigheid waarmee de spin de zijdeachtige draad heen en weer draaide om een web te weven. Elk van zijn poten vervulde een eigen functie in het maken van het ingewikkelde patroon. De jagers keerden terug naar huis en begonnen een stellage en gereedschap te bouwen waarmee ze de weefkunst van de spin en het geometrische patroon van het web konden nabootsen. De stof die ze hiermee wisten te maken, werd later bekend als kente (Bron: Asamoah-Yaw, kente cloth). Alle verschillende kente-patronen hebben een naam en dragen betekenissen en verhalen in zich mee. Ze verwijzen soms naar gebeurtenissen in de geschiedenis of naar bepaalde personen. Zo vertelt het patroon Kyere Twie -'vang de luipaard'- van de opdracht van koning Kwaku Dua I aan één van zijn onderdanen een luipaard levend te vangen (Rattray 1927:245), het bewijs van moed en kracht bij uitstek. Eén van de meest bekende kente-patronen draagt de naam 'adwinasa', letterlijk 'de ideeën zijn op'. Het verwijst naar een legende: Een koning koos ooit een wever uit om voor hem het allermooiste kente-kleed in de wereld te weven. De wever gebruikte al zijn vakmanschap, kennis en creativiteit om alle bekende patronen samen te voegen en daaruit een uniek patroon voor de koning te creëren. Dit zeer speciale ontwerp kreeg daarom de naam 'de ideeën zijn op' oftewel 'alle patronen zijn gebruikt'. Het patroon 'emmaa da', 'het is nog nooit gekomen', is een symbool van creativiteit, innovatie en nieuwigheid. 'Sika futuro', 'goudstof' is de naam van een kente-kleed dat laat zien dat de drager rijk is in alles. Zijn rijkdom is zo onuitputtelijk als stof. Tegenwoordig zijn de verhalen en betekenissen van veel weefpatronen echter alleen nog bekend bij de wevers of bij de chiefs en wordt een kente doek eerder uitgekozen vanwege zijn esthetische waarde en goede kwaliteit dan om de symbolische betekenis van het p...