Cloth Item Number: 3448/4 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Kente cloth composed of eight dark blue hand woven cloth strips. The strips have been stitched together along the long edge, and then embroidered with designs within small rectangles. The entire cloth is covered in rectangles of designs with more of the blue background showing through in the centre area. Short blue fringed ends.
Kente cloth is known for its colourful hand-woven patterns and is worn to celebrate special events. Over three hundred types of patterns have been identified and each contains layers of meaning derived from proverbs, historical events, authority figures and plants. In
Ghana
, it was customarily worn only by kings as a ceremonial cloth but it is now worn widespread. Kente cloth is viewed by the African diaspora as an icon of African cultural heritage wherever it is worn.
Acquired in a Vancouver thrift shop in 2011.