Origins

Starting from it's orgins in Ghana, Kente cloth and it's rich meanings has evolved to hold an important role around the world.

Kente cloth originated with the Ashanti people of Ghana. It dates back 375 years, conceived in a village called Bonwire. According to legend, Kurugu and Ameyaw, two brothers from the village, went hunting one afternoon and came across a spider spinning a web. They were amazed by the beauty of the web and thought that they could create something like it. Upon returning home, they made the first cloth out of black and white fibers from a raffia tree.

To this day, Bonwire is still the most famous center for kente cloth weaving.

There are many stories about the spider in Ghana, called Ananse (“ah-NAN-see”), the trickster. This gold sculpture showing Ananse weaving his web is from the top of a staff held by the king's advisor (okyeame). In the southern United States, enslaved Africans passed on these trickster stories, but renamed the character “Aunt Nancy.”