Shawl "EWE" wool 135х135 on the dark background

Kente is one of the most famous types of African fabrics.Two ethnic groups, Ashanti and Ewe that live in the western part of Ghana, still weave kente.

A well-known folktale tells that weavers were taught to weave by Anansi, the Spider God.

It is known that as early as 200 years ago, luxurious fabrics played an important role at the royal court of Ashanti in Kumasi in the territory of the modern-day Ghana. Textiles were closely associated with wealth, power and prestige. Only large, well-to-do families could muster such a force to grow and harvest cotton, dye, buy silk, and weave. Over time, weaving industries appeared, the fabric was exported and competed in the market with European and Indian fabrics. Each fabric from the British Museum's rich collection of kente represents the heritage that ties together many threads – raw materials, dyeing techniques, trade itineraries, patterns of cultural continuity, and customs and traditions. The narrow-strip weaving loom is widespread from the west to Central Cameroon and Chad in the east. Long, narrow strips were cut to the required length and then sewn together. For example, men's kente usually has 24 strips. 

Ewe fabrics are more varied than Ashanti ones. This is due to the fact that the Ewe peoples have never been united within a single political entity. Different groups with different languages or different cultural traditions lived adjacently and brought different aspects of their history into the textile heritage of the region. Ewe fabrics are diverse, preferably cotton, widely use figurative motifs – images of people, animals, birds and insects.