Fathia Fata Nkruma Digital Kente Design
This is a traditional kente cloth pattern .. created in Adobe Photoshop. It commemorates the marriage between Kwame Nkumah and Fathia, the duaghter of President Nassar of Egypt, and as called Fathia Fata Nkrumah (Fathia Deserves Nkrumah). Nkrumah was the first Prime Minister and President of contemporary Ghana. As sought to promote continental African Unity, he married an Egyptian as a gesture of his desireto unite the Arba North Africa and the black sub-Saharan African When Nkurumah's govenment was overthrown by the military in 1966, the cloth's name was changed back to its original name: Obaakofo Mmi Man (one person does not rule the nation) as a metaphorical comment on his dictatorial rule and it also relates to the proverb Tikoro nko agyina (one head does not constitute council), @As Nkrumah's legacy is being rehabilitated, it is now more popularto hear people refer to the cloth as Fathia Fata Nkrumah Symbol of marital relationships, unity, participatory democracy, and warning against dictatorial rule.
KENTE CLOTH - GHANA
The Ewe and Ashanti are disputing the origins of kente. The Ewe claim the Ashantti effectively forced the Ewe to teach them kente weaving skills. Yet the Ashanti are better known around the world as the kente weavers.
The chief in Kpetoe in the the Volta Region spent considerable time with my friends and I during my January 2006 trip to Ghana talking about kente and "proving" Ashanti kente actually came from the Ewe. He went on to explain how the Ewe probably learned the skills and abit of the Ewe history. I hope to learn more from him and the resources he provided.
As per the Ashanti version, the story goes two brothers from the town of Bonwire in the current Ashanti Region of Ghana went out to the bush to go hunting around 800 years ago. During their unsuccessful hunt they took a break, During the break they observed a spider weaving its net. They continued to observe and took the giant step forward and tried to apply the spider's skills themselves
At first the weavers wove with raffia fibers and over time weavers switched to local wild cotton. Typically the women would process the cotton to thread using a stick and calabash. Men were the weavers of the cloth. Nowadays weaving is still mostly done by men but the cotton or silk thread is purchased at various markets. Even today materials to make the tools necessary in making kente are locally available and some weavers still know how to make tools themselves. However, many weavers ... but the tools ... however, the tools are still made in Ghana and are locally available.
Apparently a fellow named Nana Otaa Kraban of Bonwire really made kente weaving the art it is today. Due to his skills the cloth became the cloth of royalty. Today those that can afford it wear it at formal occasions... In Accra you may run into a wealthier Ghanaian gentleman driving his new Mercedes on sunday wearing his finest kente cloth.
The kente designs vary considerably and many have names or signify something about the wearer... I know some mean power, patience, honor, military prowess, courage and so on. the names may be of past Ashanti royalty. Queen mother of some place, e.t.c. Some designs commemorate s special occasion such as a wedding.
Kente is colourfuls, handwoven cloth woven in strips of about four inches wide on a traditional wooden loom. The strips are usually around seventy -two inches long and around twenty-four of stips are hand sown together to make a full cloth of kente. The weaver who creates a new design can assign names and significance to his disgnes... weaving is really simple......
This cloth is usually bought in bundle, of which some needs to be spooled onto hollow bamboo spools.
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