Prestige cloth (kete or kente)

From the museum

An elite Ghanaian or Togolese man wore this garment at special occasions. Wrapped around his waist and tossed over his shoulder, the kete’s vibrant colors and many patterns would have made his wealth apparent. The weaver made this in a single strip, which he or a tailor then cut into twenty strips and sewed together by hand. The man who made this was highly skilled, alternating passages of weaving featuring the warp (vertical) or weft (horizontal) threads—as well as inserting extra weft threads to make patterns in different shapes. Look closely! The weaver added extra weft (horizontal) threads to create shapes like hands, birds, insects, knives, combs, and four-legged animals.

The museum’s own description, in English. Licence: CC0