Kente (Asante term); Agbamevo (Ewe term, from agba/loom and avo/cloth)
The weaving of Ghana's iconic Kente cloth from narrow strips of silk, cotton, or rayon on horizontal double-heddle looms, practiced primarily in the Ashanti and Ewe regions of Ghana. Individual strips are woven with bold geometric patterning, then sewn together to form the finished cloth, worn by men wrapped over the shoulder and by women in a two-piece ankle-length dress and shawl. Color and pattern choice is influenced by the age, social status, and gender of the wearer, and finished pieces are named for proverbs, sayings, and social situations, functioning as a genuine system of communication and identity construction. Kente's origin is genuinely contested between Ghana's Akan (Asante) and Ewe communities, with Ewe oral tradition holding that the craft was learned at Notsie (in present-day Togo) and specifically taught to the Asante using foundational Ewe-language weaving terms (kee, to press thread and create the shed; tee, to compact the weft with a reed) that combined into keetee, possibly evolving into the name kente itself. Inscribed by UNESCO in December 2024 as Ghana's first-ever element on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Risk level: Stable · Inscribed December 2024 (19.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as 'Craftsmanship of traditional woven textile Kente' (file 02130) — Ghana's first-ever element on this UNESCO list
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