Subject: warrior
Culture: Asante/Ashanti
Setting: Asante Empire, 1806-1902
Object: costume > kente cloth
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* Museum of Fine Arts > Global Patterns - Dress and Textiles in Africa
"Unidentified male artist Asante peoples, Ghana Man's kente cloth, early 20th century
Silk plain weave with supplementary patterning wefts
Each strip in this cloth is patterned with a particular stripe or check design that carries symbolic meaning. Green and blue rectangles with four stripes each predominate. Called agyenegyenesu, the word for a dragonfly that can walk on water, this motif warns of deceptive behavior. The insect's apparent ease gives the misleading impression that the water's surface is solid. ..."
* Museum of Fine Arts > Global Patterns - Dress and Textiles in Africa
"Unidentified male artist Ewe peoples, Ghana Man's kente cloth, 20th century
Cotton plain weave with supplementary discontinuous wefts
The man who made this masterful wrapper wove squares and rectangles of similar sizes in each strip. When the bands were stitched together, they created a blue and white grid called atirike, which means 'a step forward' in the Ewe language. The elegant red and white designs along the wrapper's sides result from the addition of supplementary wefts (horizontal yarns) to create further patterns and introduce color. ..."
* Museum of Fine Arts > Global Patterns - Dress and Textiles in Africa
"Unidentified male artist Ewe peoples, Ghana and Togo Man's kente cloth, 20th century
Cotton plain weave with supplementary patterning warps and wefts
Ewe weavers produce strip-woven cloths in rich colors, often inserting representational motifs. This work presents several common designs, including birds, which may allude to the Ewe proverb 'A bird that grows feathers will always fly' -- meaning that a child who survives infancy will always become somebody. Swords are insignia of power and kingship, while motifs such as combs relate to everyday life. ..."
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