Kente is a narrow cloth strip hand woven on a wooden loom. Predominantly found among the Akan people of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire as wells the Ewe people of Ghana and Togo. There are hundreds of pattens with ranging complexities with different names, designs and colours and meanings.
Among the Akan people of Ghana, legend has it that the kente cloth originated from two brothers who observed a spider weaving a web.
Kente weaving
Fascinated by the unique designs of the spider, they spent their time observing the spider and upon returning to their home in Bonwire, they replicated the spiders web with threads. The king then adopted the Kente cloth as a royal cloth and reserved for special occasions.
Historically, Kente was reserved for royalty and used for special occasions. However with time, it has been used by non-royals and it is available to everyone.
At Wax and Looms we hope not only to make these beautiful pieces available to everyone but also with each Kente fabric, we hope to bring you closer to artisans, techniques and culture of the producing communities.