Asante Kente cloths are made by stitching together strips of woven fabric that alternate warp- and weft-faced weave, resulting in a checkered effect. Once a royal textile whose use was carefully restricted, kente is now the national cloth of Ghana and an international symbol of pan-Africanism. Kente is draped around the body without fasteners, requiring constant readjustment or “dancing” of the cloth, allowing its patterns to be seen in constant movement. Both whole cloths and smaller patterns are named for proverbs, objects, and people. Exhibiting the skill of the weaver, named weft-faced patterns are concentrated at the cloth’s ends. This large, 27-strip men’s wrapper includes nnwötoa (“snail’s bottom”) and two variations of nkyɛmfrɛ (“broken pots”).
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Asante artist, Ghana, Western Africa, Man's wrapper (kente), 20th century. Cotton, rayon, and dye; 332.1 x 229.4 cm. Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951 (1998-697)
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https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/objects/37057
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Asante artist, Ghana, Western Africa, Man's wrapper (kente), 20th century. Cotton, rayon, and dye; 332.1 x 229.4 cm. Bequest of John B. Elliott, Class of 1951 (1998-697)
