Kente Festival Time in Ghana

Earlier in the blog we had a post about native hand woven cloth in west Africa. The native cloth in Ghana is called Kente Cloth. Rather than dying out it is the cloth around which a large celebration is held. Each year the first full week of September brings a series of cultural events in the Ewe Tribal area on the East side of the Volta River. A group of Senior missionaries accompanied our new Area Presidency member, Elder and Sister Marcus Nash to the Celebration.

Elder Nash (Middle), Sister Nash and Brother K from Switzerland. He became a chief after championing cause of the Ewe People a few years ago.

As I walked past these two in the "Queen" seating section, I worried that I was blocking their visibility. After passing them a uniformed guard informed me that one of the Queens wished to speak with me. I felt a bit like being summoned to the royal court. Hoping to not be in too much trouble for having disturbed their view, I returned and she quickly said "The two of us are Sisters in your Church. We Pray at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are welcome (here)"

Ewe Princess

Kente is woven in strips about 4" wide, after which the strips are sewn together in to a sort of robe for wearing at ceremonial occasions. 

Part of the Celebration was held in a small village across the border into Togo. The small, potholed and muddy road went of for an hour. I was glad that we caravanned there. It would have been easy for the car to have become very stuck.

This is the type of loom that is used to weave the Kente cloth

                                                 The photo of the Chief above is of an Ewe King from 1929.

                                                                  Not much difference 87 years later.

Goodbye to a once in a lifetime (for us) celebration of Ghanaian culture