The Issue of the Origin and Meaning of Kente (aka Kete)

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CHRISTOS CHRISTOFF 10 years ago

Kente was started at Bonwere in Ashanti region.IT IS KENTE NOT KETE.

Why do ewes always envy others and would want to cut them down? You and that so called professor DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE THEORY OF ASHANTI(AKAN HEGEMONY) ...
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Kente was started at Bonwere in Ashanti region.IT IS KENTE NOT KETE.

Why do ewes always envy others and would want to cut them down? You and that so called professor DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE THEORY OF ASHANTI(AKAN HEGEMONY) so you must shut up and fuck off with your silly at and you make it look like you were even here before the AOWINS AND ASHANTIES/AKYEMS/KWAHUS/FANTES/NZEMAS/BRONGS/tempt to rewrite GHANA HISTROY TO ELEVATE THE SELF ESTEEM OF EWES-AN INSULAR MINORITY IN GHANAN--You guy have been in Ghana only since 1955
C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

It is because of ignorant fools like you that the author/s adopted the tone they did in putting the records straight in this attempt to rebut the loud noises and lies from your ilk. The authors quoted learned sources to suppo ...
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It is because of ignorant fools like you that the author/s adopted the tone they did in putting the records straight in this attempt to rebut the loud noises and lies from your ilk. The authors quoted learned sources to support much of their claims. Refute them if you know better.

Ewes were long settled on the present lands they occupy within Ghana and across the Volta, Ada area, for example, and were weaving kete long before the Asante kingdom was founded. And part of Eweland in the southern VR was part of the Gold Coast colony proper dating back to the mid-1800s when the British took over the area from the departing Danes, but effectively from 1876 long before Asante and the Northern Territories became Protectorates in 1900 and 1898 respectively. That's why Torgbui Sri II, the Awoamefia of Anlo, became the first unofficial member of the LegCo from the Eastern Province, followed soon by Nana Ofori Atta of Akyem Abuakwa.

I'll advise you and your ilk to shut up since you have nothing to contribute on this topic. If you bring insults, you'd regret it.

Andy-K
francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Nyebro Yao,

I think the authors of the article have done a very good job.

I intend exploring aspects of the article myself.

It is an insightful and informed piece, if I may add. I have learnt a lot from the authors. ...
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Nyebro Yao,

I think the authors of the article have done a very good job.

I intend exploring aspects of the article myself.

It is an insightful and informed piece, if I may add. I have learnt a lot from the authors.

I think those who have any disagreements with the author should give us their side of the story, rather than resorting to insults.

Having said that, the authors have given their readers a lot by way of theory and historical facts.

I intend the check out their theses further.

Thanks.
C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

Nyebro Yaw,

Indeed, the author/s have done a good job. But, as is often the case with historical narratives, the real truth is often not in only one narrative, and so I can vouch that there are some gaps to fill, and conje ...
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Nyebro Yaw,

Indeed, the author/s have done a good job. But, as is often the case with historical narratives, the real truth is often not in only one narrative, and so I can vouch that there are some gaps to fill, and conjectures made which are not plausible therein. The modern research has gone beyond some of the claims made based on old sources.

Arabs didn't teach us a damn thing about weaving and other things they are often accrdited with, as the white racist wrote. As you know, from the C19th when white explorers turned into academics started venturing into the interior of Africa, they attributed anything they saw depicting "civilisation" to Jews, Arabs, Perisans, Turks, as brought by them or acquired from them! In their jaundiced and jaded minds, we Africans were incabable of producing such things. Those early written sources are therefore very suspect. Very speculative.

Btw, I commented on the post from work when it was first posted. Now, very, very late at home and just completed glancing through my copy of "African Majesty: The Textile Art of the Ashanti and Ewe" by Peter Adler and Nicholas Barnard. Thame and Hudson, 1992, First Paperback Edition 1995.

Had the author/s access to this book, I am sure they'd be better informed about the origins of Kente/kete and, in particular, when Asantes first started weaving it. Of course, the strip weaving of cotton had reached W. Africa long before anyone heard of Ewes and Asantes. Ewes certainly adopted it before the Asantes. Besides, Anlo royalties have a folklore about how they taught the art to the Asantes, fo rteh exclusive patronage of the royals, whereas among Ewes, it was of common ussage by all and sundry.

What happened was a revolution in the use of coloured yarns made possible by Europeans bring dyed fast cotton yarn and silk. In fact, in teh absence of such fast dyed colour yarns, our ancestors used to unravel the cotton batik anmd silk cloth brough from Asia to be re-woven into kente/kete. Our ancestors (both Asante and Ewe) could not produce fast dyed yarn of different colous except blue and white and some red.
These facts have been mentioned in many publications, including by Wilks in his voluminous seminal book on the Asante, "The Asantes."

Now, let me go catch some sleep! The truth can never ran away!

Andy-K
francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Nyebro Yao,

Thanks for the Adler/Barnard text.

I am truly grateful. I think it is one of the best places to start.

In the end I think the authors did an excellent. At least they have given those of us who want to d ...
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Nyebro Yao,

Thanks for the Adler/Barnard text.

I am truly grateful. I think it is one of the best places to start.

In the end I think the authors did an excellent. At least they have given those of us who want to delve deeper into the subject matter a good place to start.

Nyebro Yao, you have provided some powerful insights on this article, the other day and today.

Having said that, your second paragraph indicts Eurocentric take oon African historical realities.

Yes, Europe attributed great African achievements to Jews, Persians, Arabs, and itself (Europe). This included Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Monomotapa (Graet Zimbabwe), etc.

And yes, they even said the kings that ruled ancient Ghana Empire were Semites. The list is endless...I am happy you bring this controversial subject matter up.

It provides a fitting background to the authors' essay. Let me thank you again for the Adler/Barnard. The writers have indeed done a very good job. Your text and theirs should be a very good place to start. I also think others might want to take a look at your text.

Have a great weekend.
James Bamfo 10 years ago

This is a very nice piece. I however refute most of the facts entailed in this write-up. The origin of kente or hand-weaving can be traced to Meroe in Kush around 500BC. It reached Kemte in the Nile valley around 3200BC. In t ...
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This is a very nice piece. I however refute most of the facts entailed in this write-up. The origin of kente or hand-weaving can be traced to Meroe in Kush around 500BC. It reached Kemte in the Nile valley around 3200BC. In the 1300s,the Bogolan was woven in Mali. Ashanti craftsmen might have learned Kente weaving possibly from the peoples of the north---Timbuktu. History has it that, the chief of Yefri, a border town of Bono and Ivory Coast, in collaboration with the chief of Nkoranza, who was usually the son of Ashanti King , engineered the perfection of the Ashanti craftsmen by introducing them to the weavers at Bontuku in Ivory Coast. So, the origin of Kente from Eweland should be ridiculous. Simply put, Ashantis and Ewes might concurrently been introduced to this craft from the peoples of the north. Please, don't claim what does not belong to you.
KOLA,LONDON PROPER 10 years ago

You said the art of kente weaving in Bonwire MIGHT probably come from the people of the North-Timbuktu. Isn't this another imagination from your clueless mind? So why would you not buttress yours with facts from the truth up ...
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You said the art of kente weaving in Bonwire MIGHT probably come from the people of the North-Timbuktu. Isn't this another imagination from your clueless mind? So why would you not buttress yours with facts from the truth up there in the article with proven references?

Stop behaving like a clueless person and learn. Educated Asantes know the truth, so why not you who seem a bit educated too?
francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Dear Bamfo,

Is this what you mean by "I HOWEVER REFUTE MOST OF THE FACTS ENTAILED IN THIS WRITE-UP"?

Please come again because?

There is still so much we don't know about Meroe (the little we know about it have com ...
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Dear Bamfo,

Is this what you mean by "I HOWEVER REFUTE MOST OF THE FACTS ENTAILED IN THIS WRITE-UP"?

Please come again because?

There is still so much we don't know about Meroe (the little we know about it have come from archeology!

There is still we still a lot we don't know) because the ancient, unlike the ancient Egyptian which was unlocked with the so-called Rosetta Stone, there is no direct access to the Meroitic language by way of its equivalent of a Rosetta Stone.

Thus, much of should be known about ancient Meroe is locked in mystery. That is not to say there was no weaving in Egypt/Meroe. Sometimes archeology only tells us a fraction of the story.

You might want to take a look at the book "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script."

Finally, I like the way you deploy "might" and "could" and "usually" show how speculative your arguments are. Besides, you did not provide any substantial sources as the authors have done in their case.

Thanks.
Nii Teiko 10 years ago

In my attempt to deflate the nonsense of this hateful Trokosi ass, I would first ask the almighty God to bless my dad, Nii Teiko (Sr.) and Mum Adwoa Abrafi Koto of Ejisu Krapah. I also severally thank my God for not creatin ...
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In my attempt to deflate the nonsense of this hateful Trokosi ass, I would first ask the almighty God to bless my dad, Nii Teiko (Sr.) and Mum Adwoa Abrafi Koto of Ejisu Krapah. I also severally thank my God for not creating me a Trokosi hater.
What at all do these trokosi idiots need from Ashantis? You killed their heroes ( Akwatialine Amankwaa Afifa, Kutu Achiampong) , you killed their judges ( Justices Koranteng Addo, Agyapong, Adjabeng) and now want to rewrite Asante history.
This foolish writer doesn't even know basket weaving begins with the same format as the Spider web. At least the Asante could trace their KENTE weaving skills to the knowledge they had from skillful Kwaku Ananse. What this trokosi buffoon fail to tell us is how the Ewes came to know about their so called KETE weaving. Again because of hate and jealousy, this idiot did not realize that Kete is a type of traditional/cultural dance of the great Asantes, whose rich culture transcend the borders of greater Africa. So it is highly irresponsible for this writer to suggest that the Asantes did mistaken Trokosi KETE for prestigious Asante Bonwire KENTE. Asantes know the difference between KETE, their cultural dance, and Bonwire KENTE, their traditional cloth. So the arguement, the claim or contention that the Asantes learn KENTE weaving from Trokosi land is very moot, frivolous and untennable.

Again Asantes have KENTE industry at Bowire, Wood Carving Industry at Ahwiaa - Pankrono, and Pottery industry in Boagyaa- Besease and Etwereso in the Amansie East District. Let these Trokosis haters prove to us where in trokosiland do they have any of these industries or are they also telling us the taught the Asantes the above mentioned trades? Apart from fishing Keta -School-boys, Koobi and adwene, which demand no specific skill or training, what else do these Trokosis do apart from using their education to steal from the poor; the Woyomes, Abudakpi, Tsatsu, Solomey and many others.
I mean, C,Y Andy his hate filled Trokosi lot should give us a break for this jingoistic calls of irresponsible camparizons will get them nowhere. Either we stay together, for once, to champion the common cause of the nation or together we all perish in disunity.
KOLA,LONDON PROPER 10 years ago

The history books are there if you doubt any of the truth written for you here for free.

Did you not capture the paragraphs in the article with clear references for your food for thought? What then do you not understand wh ...
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The history books are there if you doubt any of the truth written for you here for free.

Did you not capture the paragraphs in the article with clear references for your food for thought? What then do you not understand when Komfo Anokye is originally EWE, with proven record and facts about him? stop behaving like a toddler and open your eyes.The truth is up here for you to research and understand that it was the Ewes taken from Volta region to Bonwire taught Asantes how to weave Kente/Kete cloth yet you are clouded by your innate stupidity.

C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

No. It is you who is just a hot air balloon which can be deflated with a pin prick. Anyway, you had reached the limit of how much hot air you can take and is about to burst.

You have been among the pack of ethnocentric big ...
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No. It is you who is just a hot air balloon which can be deflated with a pin prick. Anyway, you had reached the limit of how much hot air you can take and is about to burst.

You have been among the pack of ethnocentric bigots who don't miss a chance to "proudly" puke your vile hatred and insults on Ewes. Do you think there is not going to be a day of reckoning for all that, especially from we Anlos who another Ewe in the person of Dr Kodzi pointed out as the ones to be killed in his book, "Ghana: Worst Than Apartheid S. Africa" written in the early '90s long before that crazed Agyapong went on his TV to call for the killing of Ewes to start?

You shouldn't have mentioned my name in your vitriol. You are nowhere near my class.

Why do you think the writer/s is/are not aware of the kete dance? I believe every child in the '60s in Anloga knew that! To your information, the kete dance was one of the cultural exchanges b/n the Asantes and the Anlos. So the Anlo royalty and the elderly men also learned to dance to the kete drums. We children also watched and learned. So let us dance to the the only kete tune I still remember: "ne me ru kete dze anyi de tome de, movi nane me wor?....", meaning, "if I dance the kete and fell on the dance floor, have I done something stupid?...."

You see, kete as a dance is pronounced differently kete as a cloth, since accents are placed on the "k" and "e" in both I am not an expert in Ewe phonetics and so won't delve into this.

The very fact that the crafts you mentioned were localised at specific places or enclaves point to the fact that they were implants and not something natural to the Asante culture from times of old, as is the case among Ewes. The reference I mentioned discussed this at length.
I used to quote books at length in the 90s when responding to your ilk but found out it was a waste of time. They are immuned to book knowledge.

Hmm! Etsi fo hor deviwo kpoe be kagae.
Ne elo la ame la, elo fe viwo de wo fo asi ame. (The rain has beaten the eagle and children saw it and thought it was a vulture. When one is caught by the crocodile, even the children of the crocodile play with one.)

That's why nonentity twerps like you can also have the free rein to be insulting the scions of those your ancestors dared not offend.

Dzimakplavi like you! Do you know how to dance to the kete drums? Or, you'd lose your head trying to?

Andy-K
CORNEY 10 years ago

Andy I think you educated this fool but as usual I know the idiot who calls himself Nii Teiko will not get it,he will remain stupid and ignorant up until his death.
Let me answer some of his questions that first of all,his ...
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Andy I think you educated this fool but as usual I know the idiot who calls himself Nii Teiko will not get it,he will remain stupid and ignorant up until his death.
Let me answer some of his questions that first of all,his Ashanti culture does not go beyond the borders of Ghana as Ewe culture does and let me educate him that while their kente wearing is artificially concentrated in just about two villages,it is the opposite in the Eweland and in the Volta region alone especially in the south almost every village has somebody who knows how to weave kente,they are now learning kente weaving using their influence in Ghana to set up those artificial kente weaving sites in our public places to fool people that kente weaving is actually their creation which is a big lie.
This guy and his equally ignorant colleagues should know that Agbozume is the only town in the world that has a Amarket known as Kente Market.
I will like him to also know that his people don't weave basket,Ewes do,even in his own areas,we weave the mats that his people sleep on especially in the villages.
Can he be bold to admit that in the past his people,the poor ones were sleeping on the very hard raffia mats while the well to do ones in their larger towns were buying our mats know as Atsatsa as mattresses and Aba or Afetor ago as the bed sheets when we didn't know what is mattress and even up until today in some of the villages throughout the country?

There is nobody in his right mind who will say fishing does not need any skills,even a lunatic will not say that as this idiot did.
Let me remind this idiot that most of the food cooked in Ghana are produced by Ewes while he can only boast of fufu and ampesi which we also produce.
The idiot should know that the Keta School boys that he mentioned was not invented by Ewes,but naturally concentrated in the area which our people produce and most of the time what they buy are the ones we don't need,the ones our shallot( onion) farmers use as manure is what his people struggle to throw in the water and call it a soup.
We are not great farmers or have large farm lands but our people eat at least three times a day,always taking their breakfast before lunch and then supper or dinner even in the villages.

Some of us know almost every corner of Ghana and can say more if we are pushed to do so.
Gbemela.
Jato Kaleo 10 years ago

This article appeared three days ago and was well commented on. Why should we be burdened with it again?

I don't enjoy people forcing their articles on us repeatedly. ghanawebmaster should see to it that articles are not r ...
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This article appeared three days ago and was well commented on. Why should we be burdened with it again?

I don't enjoy people forcing their articles on us repeatedly. ghanawebmaster should see to it that articles are not repeated. After all, the original is there and can be referred to.

This article makes people to be insulting others. That is not good. But the writer contributed to the insults by his writing style. He seems to be making a claim for kente for Ewes by demeaning Asantes. And that is not good. I don't see any particular glory in claiming the ownership of a technique of weaving to a tribe - whether Ewe or Asante.

The author should just have presented the historical facts so that the reader will make his informed decision. Instead, he is "CLAIMING" the thing for his tribe. A true academician will just be interested in presenting the facts not ethnic glory over a piece of cloth.

The worst offence of the writer is in his starting the piece by showing how the Anlos and Asantes were long allies only to try to "demean" the Asantes because they claim they invented kente. Then he concludes ingenuously by calling for ethnic cooperation. Who does he think he is deceiving?

An appaling work on an otherwise interesting subject.
CORNEY 10 years ago

We have to blame some of the problems of this distortions on we the Ewes,
In the past most of our kente or kete cloths mostly the expensive ones came with what some designs in them called ADANU but these days we will rather ...
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We have to blame some of the problems of this distortions on we the Ewes,
In the past most of our kente or kete cloths mostly the expensive ones came with what some designs in them called ADANU but these days we will rather go their way producing their version without the designs again which is adding to their claim for the origin of the cloth.

Their claim is just like one day Americans will claim they started Toyota because Lexus Ais made in America.

I think these guys will believe it if somebody tells them the whiteman learnt how to build tunnels from termites or rats.

Fools,claiming they learnt how to weave kente from spiders,I hope spiders will one day come to claim ownership or ask for compensation.
MINOR CASE 10 years ago

These people paaa.Ewes stretch from Togoland to Badagry, so they say. If Kente originated from the them, they will be wearing Kente along the West Coast. Some time ago on Ghanaweb an Ewe came up with Agama symbols to rival A ...
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These people paaa.Ewes stretch from Togoland to Badagry, so they say. If Kente originated from the them, they will be wearing Kente along the West Coast. Some time ago on Ghanaweb an Ewe came up with Agama symbols to rival Adinkra symbols of the Akans. Next time an Ewe will come up with a story of how they established Kumasi for the Asantes. Are the Ewes in Ghana different from other Ewes ? One thing is clear, the Ghanaian Ewes by virtue of their proximity to and interaction with Akans have adopted Akan values and culture to the extent that they have become distinct from other Ewes and they are now claiming some of the Akan values as originating from them. What crap
Joe Canada 10 years ago

There is nothing fascinating and truthful about his article. It is a whole bunch of cooked up history by an Ewe educated fool who is try to rewrite Ashanti/Akan history. Okomfo Anokye was Okomfo anotsie?, give me a break!!.Wh ...
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There is nothing fascinating and truthful about his article. It is a whole bunch of cooked up history by an Ewe educated fool who is try to rewrite Ashanti/Akan history. Okomfo Anokye was Okomfo anotsie?, give me a break!!.What about Osei Tutu?., As usual, they may have come to Ashanti to learn the profession but not exporting it to Ashanti but now claiming to be the inventers. To most of Ewe's, Ashanti's seem to be a problem for them in their pursuit of their tribal superiority mentality. Every good thing in Ashanti or Akan came from the great EWE land.LIAR, LIARS!!.All that the writer was trying to put across is that, there would have been no Ashanti without Ewe's. As we all know, the founding fathers of Ashanti was Osei Tutu and Okomfo Anokye from Awukugua in Akwapim not Okomfo Anotsie from Ewe.
kofi abas 10 years ago

is insult an important part of your language? the learned writer has references. challenge his sources and stop the insults.

is insult an important part of your language? the learned writer has references. challenge his sources and stop the insults.
Joe Canada 10 years ago

His Source is just as bogus as his article. Its all fabrication. If he had referenced to some Adu Boahen or any prominent Ghanaian historian, I would have believed him. But to quote a white man, a British who came to Ghana an ...
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His Source is just as bogus as his article. Its all fabrication. If he had referenced to some Adu Boahen or any prominent Ghanaian historian, I would have believed him. But to quote a white man, a British who came to Ghana and interviewed some educated Ewe's?, what do you think will be their findings?. There is no way a foreigner can tell our history more than indigenous themselves. It's like African challenging European historian. Understand this, up to this day, Ashanti's gives honor where is due. They have Okomfo Anokye, an Akuapim in their books as the one who helped Osei Tutu to form the Ashanti kingdom. They did not refer to him as an Ashanti. If he was from Anlo, they would have say so. If kente originated from Ewe, they would have give reference to that. They don't just claim history that doesn't belong to them. Unlike Ewe's who want to tell the whole world that they are the real Ghanaians. But we know that most of them are Togolese. So don't tell me that those Togolese and White historians know our history more than us.
Joe Canada 10 years ago

One more thing, when it comes to distortion of facts, Ewe's are experts. The writer himself and all his contributors are Ewe's, what do you expect?. Okomfo Anokye was never an Ewe.

One more thing, when it comes to distortion of facts, Ewe's are experts. The writer himself and all his contributors are Ewe's, what do you expect?. Okomfo Anokye was never an Ewe.
C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

What kind of unscholarly reasoning is this? Of course, some white scholars knew our history far better than most of us. They kept written records of the things they saw or heard in Africa, while we depend on oral transmission ...
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What kind of unscholarly reasoning is this? Of course, some white scholars knew our history far better than most of us. They kept written records of the things they saw or heard in Africa, while we depend on oral transmission. Do you think most Asante know half of what Wilks, for instance, knew about Asante history?

If you are writing a PhD on Akim Abuakwa, you are likely to be supervised by Prof. Jarle Simensen, a Norwegian.

I have heard your nonsense since the '90s on Okyeame. Which books written by your grandparents, or for that matter, Ghanaians did you use to become so miseducated? Tell us, so that we take them off the "pensum", as Norwegians call the reading list. You know what, that's exactly what we need to do for some books of Adu Boahen and that Boafo or so we used in sec. schl.

Andy-K

francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Nyebro Yao,

I one time mentioned Busia's book ("The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of the Ashanti") to one of my friends in New York when he said he trust my "white" sources.

We were discussing so ...
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Nyebro Yao,

I one time mentioned Busia's book ("The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of the Ashanti") to one of my friends in New York when he said he trust my "white" sources.

We were discussing some aspects of Asante history. Yet he got Busia's book and read. Unfortunately, Busia was so frank with the Ashanti Empire my friend has since dropped any respect he had for Busia as a scholar and politician.

My friend finally accepted the fact that Busia was spot on with Asante history (my friend is Asante and he told me that his father and granparents (maternal and paternal) confirmed Busia's conclusion).

What my friend could not bring himself to accept easily was Busia's reliance on "white" sources to write that dissertation. He initially did not accept my "white" sources though I had retrieved those "white" sources from Busia's book.

Finally, some readers cite Adu Boahen as if he was right on every aspect of Ghanaian/Gold Coast history. Archeology, Afrocentric scholarship, and newly-discovered archival materials from around the world expose serious gaps in some of Boahen's historiography.

In fact, there are so many things Boahen will revise today if he were alive. But that is another day. It is important you mention Ivor Wilks (Asante) (Robert S. Rattray on Asante, etc) and Jarle Simensen (Akyem).

Joe Canada might do himself to read Molefi Kete Asante's "Knowledge As Property: Who Owns What and Why" (www.asante.net). One of the problems might be that history is not taught well in Ghana/Africa. Where it is taught well, it is not studied with the seriousness it deserves in Ghanaian/African classrooms.

This is a discussion I have had with friends from various parts of Africa.

Thanks for your professional attitude to teaching on this forum, Nyebro Yao.

And as for Joe Canada, I want him to take a cue from the advise I gave James Bamfo to go and read "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script" for additional insights into the history and culture of ancient Meroe.

Joe Canada may as well include Bernal Martin, Cheikh Anta Diop, Theophile Obenga, Molefi Kete Asante, Ivan Van Sertima, Robert Bauval...

Thanks Nyebro Yao.
MINOR CASE 10 years ago

Tweaaa was it not Molefi Kete Asante who wrote that Asantes raided other groups of people in order to get gold to finance their wars ?

Tweaaa was it not Molefi Kete Asante who wrote that Asantes raided other groups of people in order to get gold to finance their wars ?
francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Minor Case,

This is why I sometimes ignore your comments. You are almost always misrepresenting/distorting facts on Ghanaweb. Why are you confusing Molefi Kete Asante probably with Henry Louis Gates?

Read the following ...
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Minor Case,

This is why I sometimes ignore your comments. You are almost always misrepresenting/distorting facts on Ghanaweb. Why are you confusing Molefi Kete Asante probably with Henry Louis Gates?

Read the following by Asante

Title: Henry Louis Gates Is Wrong On African Involvement in the Slave Trade."

Source: www.asante.net
........................................................................................................................................................
Over the past twenty-five years I have had various exchanges, some quite useful and productive, with Henry Louis Gates. We have shared a couple of public meetings and dinners during conferences, book signings, and the like. However, we have rarely agreed on Black Studies, Black History, Afrocentricity, Black Nationalism, or the slave trade.

The recent essay on slavery and reparations in the New York Times (April 23, 2010) caused me to reflect on my previous critiques of several of Gates projects such as Encarta Africana, documentaries, and Wonders of the African World. Gates is a combative, assertive, and quite active intellectual. He is not a do-nothing or say-nothing person that would, given his opinions, be a good thing. Since that is not the case it is necessary to dismantle the superstructure Gates has created to defend the European’s gross violation of African humanity. Attacking the factual errors of Gates’ essay is essential for the plinths upon which the reparations argument stands.

First, we must get the terms of the argument straight. There is no African Slave Trade, no Transatlantic Slave Trade; there is only European Slave Trade across the ocean as there is the Arab Slave Trade across the desert. I say European Slave Trade because the motive for kidnapping and transporting Africans across the ocean was a European initiative. Gates attempts to show Africans as being equally culpable with Europeans in the enslaving of Africans in order to argue in his narrative superstructure that it is difficult to say who should pay reparations.

It is not difficult at all. One only has to ask the questions, “Who traveled to Africa in search of captives?” “Who created an entire industry of shipbuilding, insurance, outfitting of crews and ships, and banking based on the slave trade?” “Who benefited enormously from the evil and vile project of human kidnapping?” “What countries held the asiento from the Catholic Church and the King of Spain for regions of Africa used exclusively for capturing Africans?”

There are some fundamental facts. First, no African kingdom used slavery as its principal mode of production. Africa has produced no economies based on slavery. It was left to Europe to create a system of slavery where humans were chattel to be used as tools in the development of wealth. Seondly, in all massive enterprises where there are oppressors and the oppressed there will be collaborators. It is no secret that some of Afriica’s best minds, Fanon, Memni, Karenga, have isolated incidents of collaboration among victims of oppression. Blacks were police officers in the white minority regime of South Africa but one cannot blame apartheid on black people. So when Gates claims that Africans were involved in the slave trade one can accept this, but what one cannot accept is that Africans were equally culpable for the slave trade. Nor should one blame the Judenrats (Jewish Councils) of Germany for Nazi atrocities although they often collaborated with the Germans. Indians collaborated with the British colonialists in India and some Chinese collaborated with the Japanese in occupied China, and while there is no excuse there is certainly explanation for collaboration.

Collaboration is often the results of personal ambition, greed, or force. After the Portuguese kidnapped scores of Africans in 1444 and took them to Lisbon, the process of capturing Africans from isolated villages was perfected. With overpowering force, as when the Portuguese in l482, destroyed the main capital of Nana Kwame Ansah, whites started to use other Africans to assist with their agenda. By the time Columbus opened up the Americas for Europe in l492 the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch, French, Danish, and English were poised to use every device possible to entrap Africans. Like now, one way to gain access to the masses is through people who look like they are the same as the masses. There are and will be collaborators in Afghanistan and Iraq. Gates extends his reasoning in a distortion of fact. For example, he says that the whites did not go into the interior of Africa but this flies in the face of the facts. Perhaps whites did not enter the interior regions in massive numbers but almost every African nation that experienced the slave trade has evidence of white incursions and even some settlements in the interior during the period of the slave trade. Of course, it is true that some of this evidence is found in cemeteries littered in villages in the interior, such as the cemetery in Tafo, Akyem, in Ghana. So many whites died in the interior that it was called “the white man’s grave.”

Regardless to how unfortunate Gates’ essay is for scholarship and reason, there is something useful in it. The essay has refocused the attention of writers and scholars to the attempt to revise the collective text of the European world. Guilt is taken off of Europe for the slave trade and placed on black people. In fact, Gates sees blacks and whites as equally responsible for the slave trade. This is like blaming a battered woman for her own beatings. Gates is telling us that whites are saying, “You Africans made me do it.” What is useful is that Afrocentrists and Pan Africanists are now clearer about the dangers to our future than ever before. Those rooming in the so-called master’s house are in serious psychological crisis; our task is to make plain the truth and to defend African interests.

The arguments made by Henry Louis Gates remind me of the Texas Textbook Commission’s attempt to change history texts because they do not fit with its conservative views. Gates gives four examples of African kings or queens who participated with the Europeans in the process of capturing Africans. These examples are puny in the context of centuries of raids, wars, and battles in the African interior as well as on the coasts of Africa. Here is what Gates wrote, “There is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo.” This entire statement is misleading. There has been little discussion of the role Africans played in slave- trading because the role of the collaborators was minor vis-à-vis the role of white slave raiders. The examples given of the Asante, the Fon, the Mbundu, and the Kongo are not evidence of a general support of the slave trade by African kings or queens; these are merely aberrations where they occur, not a universal pattern of African collaboration over a three hundred year period. Take the example given about the Asante. The Europeans met the Akan people in the 15th century yet there is no indication of Asante involvement in the slave trade during the 15th, l6th, and l7th, centuries and the examples given from the 18th and l9th centuries disregard the Asante attempt to prevent the European take-over of the interior. Indeed, Asante’s involvement was at the level of seeking to control the slave routes and to prevent the British from disrupting their kingdom.

Gates’ own Encarta Africana claims that Nzinga, a queen of the Mbundu in the kingdom of Ndongo, was “a leading opponent of Portuguese colonialism.” In fact, from 1639 to 1648 her armies attacked the Portuguese and forced them out of the interior and back into fortresses along the coast. She retired to the royal city of Matamba in l656.

In the 16th century when the Mani-kongo, called Affonso by the Portuguese, discovered that his trade with Portuguese was not based on mutual respect and that he would not be able to get the shipbuilders, teachers, and skilled craftspeople he desired from Portugal because the Portuguese wanted to make his people slaves, including his ministers. Thus, in l526, the Mani-Kongo attacked the Portuguese after sending a letter to King John III saying “You should here neither merchants nor wares because it is our will that in the kingdom of the Kongo there should not be any slaves nor market for slaves.”

Therefore, Asante, Ndongo, and Kongo have been flipped by this revisionist view espoused by Henry Louis Gates and others who would like to blame slavery on Africans.

The kingdom of Dahomey was involved with the D’Souza dynasty in its vile and horrendous promotion of the slave trade from Dahomey to Brazil for scores of years. but the corrupt, venal leaders of Dahomey during their collaboration with the Portuguese family is nothing more than an aberration. This is why the “selling” of “disposable captives of warfare” became a part of the rhetoric of Africans involved in the slave trade. Remember Africans were stolen from more than 100 ethnic groups, not just from the Fon of Dahomey, and the resistance of Africans, as recorded in my book, The History of Africa, far overwhelms the vile example of Dahomey. I offer these ideas in the spirit of a corrective on a corrosive essay but have little confidence that those who are anti-Africa and anti-African will learn anything.
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francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Author: Henry Louis Gates

Source: The New York Times

Title: "Ending the Slavery Blame-Game"
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Author: Henry Louis Gates

Source: The New York Times

Title: "Ending the Slavery Blame-Game"
........................................................................................................................................................
THANKS to an unlikely confluence of history and genetics — the fact that he is African-American and president — Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to reshape the debate over one of the most contentious issues of America’s racial legacy: reparations, the idea that the descendants of American slaves should receive compensation for their ancestors’ unpaid labor and bondage.

There are many thorny issues to resolve before we can arrive at a judicious (if symbolic) gesture to match such a sustained, heinous crime. Perhaps the most vexing is how to parcel out blame to those directly involved in the capture and sale of human beings for immense economic gain.
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Times Topic: Slavery

While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa. These included the Akan of the kingdom of Asante in what is now Ghana, the Fon of Dahomey (now Benin), the Mbundu of Ndongo in modern Angola and the Kongo of today’s Congo, among several others.

For centuries, Europeans in Africa kept close to their military and trading posts on the coast. Exploration of the interior, home to the bulk of Africans sold into bondage at the height of the slave trade, came only during the colonial conquests, which is why Henry Morton Stanley’s pursuit of Dr. David Livingstone in 1871 made for such compelling press: he was going where no (white) man had gone before.

How did slaves make it to these coastal forts? The historians John Thornton and Linda Heywood of Boston University estimate that 90 percent of those shipped to the New World were enslaved by Africans and then sold to European traders. The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.

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Advocates of reparations for the descendants of those slaves generally ignore this untidy problem of the significant role that Africans played in the trade, choosing to believe the romanticized version that our ancestors were all kidnapped unawares by evil white men, like Kunta Kinte was in “Roots.” The truth, however, is much more complex: slavery was a business, highly organized and lucrative for European buyers and African sellers alike.

The African role in the slave trade was fully understood and openly acknowledged by many African-Americans even before the Civil War. For Frederick Douglass, it was an argument against repatriation schemes for the freed slaves. “The savage chiefs of the western coasts of Africa, who for ages have been accustomed to selling their captives into bondage and pocketing the ready cash for them, will not more readily accept our moral and economical ideas than the slave traders of Maryland and Virginia,” he warned. “We are, therefore, less inclined to go to Africa to work against the slave trade than to stay here to work against it.”

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To be sure, the African role in the slave trade was greatly reduced after 1807, when abolitionists, first in Britain and then, a year later, in the United States, succeeded in banning the importation of slaves. Meanwhile, slaves continued to be bought and sold within the United States, and slavery as an institution would not be abolished until 1865. But the culpability of American plantation owners neither erases nor supplants that of the African slavers. In recent years, some African leaders have become more comfortable discussing this complicated past than African-Americans tend to be.

In 1999, for instance, President Mathieu Kerekou of Benin astonished an all-black congregation in Baltimore by falling to his knees and begging African-Americans’ forgiveness for the “shameful” and “abominable” role Africans played in the trade. Other African leaders, including Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, followed Mr. Kerekou’s bold example.

Our new understanding of the scope of African involvement in the slave trade is not historical guesswork. Thanks to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, directed by the historian David Eltis of Emory University, we now know the ports from which more than 450,000 of our African ancestors were shipped out to what is now the United States (the database has records of 12.5 million people shipped to all parts of the New World from 1514 to 1866). About 16 percent of United States slaves came from eastern Nigeria, while 24 percent came from the Congo and Angola.

Through the work of Professors Thornton and Heywood, we also know that the victims of the slave trade were predominantly members of as few as 50 ethnic groups. This data, along with the tracing of blacks’ ancestry through DNA tests, is giving us a fuller understanding of the identities of both the victims and the facilitators of the African slave trade.

For many African-Americans, these facts can be difficult to accept. Excuses run the gamut, from “Africans didn’t know how harsh slavery in America was” and “Slavery in Africa was, by comparison, humane” or, in a bizarre version of “The devil made me do it,” “Africans were driven to this only by the unprecedented profits offered by greedy European countries.”

But the sad truth is that the conquest and capture of Africans and their sale to Europeans was one of the main sources of foreign exchange for several African kingdoms for a very long time. Slaves were the main export of the kingdom of Kongo; the Asante Empire in Ghana exported slaves and used the profits to import gold. Queen Njinga, the brilliant 17th-century monarch of the Mbundu, waged wars of resistance against the Portuguese but also conquered polities as far as 500 miles inland and sold her captives to the Portuguese. When Njinga converted to Christianity, she sold African traditional religious leaders into slavery, claiming they had violated her new Christian precepts.

Did these Africans know how harsh slavery was in the New World? Actually, many elite Africans visited Europe in that era, and they did so on slave ships following the prevailing winds through the New World. For example, when Antonio Manuel, Kongo’s ambassador to the Vatican, went to Europe in 1604, he first stopped in Bahia, Brazil, where he arranged to free a countryman who had been wrongfully enslaved.

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African monarchs also sent their children along these same slave routes to be educated in Europe. And there were thousands of former slaves who returned to settle Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Middle Passage, in other words, was sometimes a two-way street. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to claim that Africans were ignorant or innocent.

Given this remarkably messy history, the problem with reparations may not be so much whether they are a good idea or deciding who would get them; the larger question just might be from whom they would be extracted.

So how could President Obama untangle the knot? In David Remnick’s new book “The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama,” one of the president’s former students at the University of Chicago comments on Mr. Obama’s mixed feelings about the reparations movement: “He told us what he thought about reparations. He agreed entirely with the theory of reparations. But in practice he didn’t think it was really workable.”

About the practicalities, Professor Obama may have been more right than he knew. Fortunately, in President Obama, the child of an African and an American, we finally have a leader who is uniquely positioned to bridge the great reparations divide. He is uniquely placed to publicly attribute responsibility and culpability where they truly belong, to white people and black people, on both sides of the Atlantic, complicit alike in one of the greatest evils in the history of civilization. And reaching that understanding is a vital precursor to any just and lasting agreement on the divisive issue of slavery reparations.
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francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Minor Case,

Read both Asante and Gates and make your decision as to which of the two is right. You can then share your thoughts with readers.

Good day.

Thanks.

Minor Case,

Read both Asante and Gates and make your decision as to which of the two is right. You can then share your thoughts with readers.

Good day.

Thanks.
CORNEY 10 years ago

Due to your ignorance you don't know that they weave kente throughout Eweland including those areas you listed.
Do you think the kente the people of Togo and Benin wear are woven by Ashantis or they come to Ghana to buy the ...
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Due to your ignorance you don't know that they weave kente throughout Eweland including those areas you listed.
Do you think the kente the people of Togo and Benin wear are woven by Ashantis or they come to Ghana to buy them?
No wonder you guys claim you learnt kente weaving from spider,very,very insane,very soon you will say you learn how to make Dzomi from worms or millipedes.
MINOR CASE 10 years ago

Nonsense,If Ewes taught Asantes how to weave Kente in Asantehenes palace , there would have been remnants of them at the palace with Ewe names.So how come Asante is synonimous with Kente through out the world and not Ewe ?

Nonsense,If Ewes taught Asantes how to weave Kente in Asantehenes palace , there would have been remnants of them at the palace with Ewe names.So how come Asante is synonimous with Kente through out the world and not Ewe ?
Kojo T 10 years ago

I think the best is to come up with counter arguments.The article is long and has various referencss and it would be for you as a knowledgeable person and an intellectual to make references to debunk them. Too many times we g ...
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I think the best is to come up with counter arguments.The article is long and has various referencss and it would be for you as a knowledgeable person and an intellectual to make references to debunk them. Too many times we go to route of emotion. The wearing of the Kete/Kente itself seems Romanic Compare it with the Roman toga as worn by Caesar.The writer did not say the weaving was Invented by Ewes but more that it was introduced by Ewes.There is no doubt Ewes are Nilotic people as they came down the Nile and surely had certain knowledge when they arrived at their current location .Are Asantefo saying they originated civilization? Are they saying they are the only source of knowledge? Please let emotion not override the debate
MINOR CASE 10 years ago

What debate are you talking about? An Ewe writer qouting from all fellow Ewes and you call for debate over their lies ? Deep down in your heart , you know Ewes are the most dishonest , inward looking group of people in Ghana.

What debate are you talking about? An Ewe writer qouting from all fellow Ewes and you call for debate over their lies ? Deep down in your heart , you know Ewes are the most dishonest , inward looking group of people in Ghana.
k, no problem, a 10 years ago

Interestingly you failed to name the guys who were sent to teach the Asantes. If the were really sent to weave for the great king of Asante, the would lived in the court of the Asantehene. The Asantes as generous and prudent ...
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Interestingly you failed to name the guys who were sent to teach the Asantes. If the were really sent to weave for the great king of Asante, the would lived in the court of the Asantehene. The Asantes as generous and prudent as they are would have given them wives. We would have had their ofsprings in the court of the Asantehene.
The inaccuracies are too many. Be as it may Bonwire is noted for quality kente, multiple designs and all the names of kente originate among the Asantes. Because the design and weave them. When you go to Bonwire now there are scores of Ewe young men who are learning how to make kente.
It does not really matter who originated it. The bottom line is that it is from Ghana and the best ones come from Bonwire. It could even be that both were weaving it concurrently in their nations. If Ewes thought Asantes then I will say the Asantes are indeed great for making the kente popular by being innovative, improving on designs and quality. Kudos to the great Asante. Just like vehicles, many countries produce vehicles and actually vehicle production started in one particular country but some countries are noted for producing better and quality cars.
I admire the Asantes,. We in Ghana should encourage them to move the country forward.
In fact by Asantes in some context I mean Akans. The Akan group is great . That is the group that can spearhead the development of Ghana. It happens in every country.

Kwamebeba 10 years ago

Unity is good but not the conspiracy of the Kotoka-Harlley-Afrifa type.

Unity is good but not the conspiracy of the Kotoka-Harlley-Afrifa type.
C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

Agree with you in toto. No tribal alliances based on malevolent, predatory pre-colonial plundering states.

Andy-K

Agree with you in toto. No tribal alliances based on malevolent, predatory pre-colonial plundering states.

Andy-K
LarryB 10 years ago

Guys. Be prudent if you think you a his historic facets to debunk this long pieces of articles, llet's hear from you. Don't behave like like kids.

Guys. Be prudent if you think you a his historic facets to debunk this long pieces of articles, llet's hear from you. Don't behave like like kids.
klinker 10 years ago

Let's we forget. There was a weaver from Agortime Kpetoe who wove kente known as Fatia for President Kwame Nkrumah. His name is Korwu Djeke Atixaley. I think he needs to be mentioned in the write up. His children are still ...
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Let's we forget. There was a weaver from Agortime Kpetoe who wove kente known as Fatia for President Kwame Nkrumah. His name is Korwu Djeke Atixaley. I think he needs to be mentioned in the write up. His children are still weaving at Kpetoe. He hails from Anlo-Afiadenyigba. Msy his soul rest in peace. He made the name for Kpetoe. What do you say about that Dr, Dotse. At an exhibition at Keta London park he came first.
kofi abas 10 years ago

pls some one shd show me how to get to kpetoe via bus /coach/troski. as for anyako, I knw once I get to dabala junction, I will easily be shown.
as for the noise makers,ghanaians have come to knw their deception so no one ta ...
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pls some one shd show me how to get to kpetoe via bus /coach/troski. as for anyako, I knw once I get to dabala junction, I will easily be shown.
as for the noise makers,ghanaians have come to knw their deception so no one takes them serious when they talk so resortt to insults as their only weapon for their insecurity. they take arrogance as high self- esteem and humility as low self-esteem.did I hear an illiterate(k,no problem,a) say that if ewe men had taught asantis kete weaving,they would have been given 'asanti pussies'?hahahahaha. what an insult on asanti women.
I like the info on how #9 came abt
kofi abas 10 years ago

thanks doc. for the education. as usual expect the illiterates noise makers to come up with their insults

thanks doc. for the education. as usual expect the illiterates noise makers to come up with their insults
akwodaa 10 years ago

I am very impressed at the content, timeline, claims from other world history preserving institutions...you got me so engulf! Can't wait to hear more on the origins of the label or code #9 !!!! Babies make noise when they h ...
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I am very impressed at the content, timeline, claims from other world history preserving institutions...you got me so engulf! Can't wait to hear more on the origins of the label or code #9 !!!! Babies make noise when they have no facts but want all to accept their point. If you're not a baby, enlighten readers here. We're ready for mature learning here.
Mensah,Madina 10 years ago

please do not forget.Ewe won miss Ghana twice with the same #9 first in 1957 and second time 1958.
Too beautiful Ewe girls.yes originals

please do not forget.Ewe won miss Ghana twice with the same #9 first in 1957 and second time 1958.
Too beautiful Ewe girls.yes originals
C.Y. ANDY-K 10 years ago

You don't have to wait patiently for that. The beauty queen mentioned wore the tag with #9!

The skin-pain people turned her victory into a way of demeaning Ewes. Isn't that pathetic?

Andy-K

You don't have to wait patiently for that. The beauty queen mentioned wore the tag with #9!

The skin-pain people turned her victory into a way of demeaning Ewes. Isn't that pathetic?

Andy-K
Agbelengor 10 years ago

When backward, uninformed, Ashanti misfits open their dirty mouth.......spews bullshit. This is an intellectual discussion.

When backward, uninformed, Ashanti misfits open their dirty mouth.......spews bullshit. This is an intellectual discussion.
MINOR CASE 10 years ago

Look at this idiot. You call this ditsrorted trash intellectual discussion ? All the pre Gold Coast history books in Ghana were based on interviews conducted by the writers and since nobody points the 'left finger at the fat ...
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Look at this idiot. You call this ditsrorted trash intellectual discussion ? All the pre Gold Coast history books in Ghana were based on interviews conducted by the writers and since nobody points the 'left finger at the father's house ' information they give are all souped up .The fact is Asante is synonymous with Kente all over the world . Why not Ewes ?
Nima Old Soldier 10 years ago

What does this writer aim to achieve by writing this long thing about who ever invented Kente cloth?

Does the writer mean this long thing is what going to put food on the poor man's table? or how is it necessary to waste ...
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What does this writer aim to achieve by writing this long thing about who ever invented Kente cloth?

Does the writer mean this long thing is what going to put food on the poor man's table? or how is it necessary to waste time, energy and resource to write such garbage here when we need science as a nation to develop whilst others are going to the moon?

Why this now when the country is so divided and needed national unity? I think these Ewe tribal inward looking intellectuals hiding behind political connections with the NDC government with some diabolical political agenda to disunite the country should learn a bitter lesson from the self centered tribalist Professor Kofi Awoonor's unfortunate death that after all, tribal hate does not pay and would never bring developments to develop and transform the lives of the deprived poor people of the Eweland.

What the poor Volta people could do, is humbly learn from the hard working enterprising Ashantes and stop these baseless hegemonies nonsense over who did what first.

Industrially and competitively, the Ashantes are way far ahead of any other tribe in Ghana by their geographical positions and hard working people and we all have to humbly appreciate that.

If the writer had made his research correctly he would have found out that after all, the claim of the kente weaving is neither Ewes, Northerners or Ashantes nor any particular tribe in Ghana. It's a universal guest as result of man to cloth himself and Ashantes do it more colourful, more beautiful. That is a matter of fact. Period!!!
Prof Lungu 10 years ago

Interesting essay!

A good read!

One of a kind, with multiple contributors.

READ: "...We are also aware of the fact that ancient Ewes from Badagry (formally Gbagle or Ogbaglee in Lagos State of Nigeria), Dahumey (now ...
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Interesting essay!

A good read!

One of a kind, with multiple contributors.

READ: "...We are also aware of the fact that ancient Ewes from Badagry (formally Gbagle or Ogbaglee in Lagos State of Nigeria), Dahumey (now Benin), and Togo knew the art of weaving on the narrow loom several hundreds of years ago..."

WE SAY: "Lost" history and knowledge being re-discovered is a good thing. After all, knowledge and culture, to include technology of materials, through human action and movement(s), diffuse/migrate through space, over time.

THEN THIS: "...It is therefore very important for all Ghanaians, especially Ewes and Asante to continue with the centuries old friendship and relationship that existed between them and stop insulting each other on the web and or openly in public. New alliances ought to be sought and garnered among all Ghanaians in promoting such a desirable and a much needed unification..."

WE SAY: Way to go!
Kwame Kumi 10 years ago

"...basket, a crude and porous container woven exclusively by women."

I don't know in which part of Asante Kente is woven EXCLUSIVELY by women. On the contrary in fact, it is the exception, rather than the norm, for women ...
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"...basket, a crude and porous container woven exclusively by women."

I don't know in which part of Asante Kente is woven EXCLUSIVELY by women. On the contrary in fact, it is the exception, rather than the norm, for women to weave basket in Asanteman.
Milton 10 years ago

Infact, Ghana should get rid of the volta region and all ewes in the various regions should repatriate back to their useless volta region and form their own ewe state. Afterall that's what they are good - and that's secluding ...
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Infact, Ghana should get rid of the volta region and all ewes in the various regions should repatriate back to their useless volta region and form their own ewe state. Afterall that's what they are good - and that's secluding non-ewes and looking down on them. Goodness what kind of silly beings do we have living in Ghana with us.
francis kwarteng 10 years ago

Why don't you go ahead and rid Ghana of Volta Region?

Why don't you go ahead and rid Ghana of Volta Region?
G. K. Berko 10 years ago

You can eloquently weave your mendacious yarn all you want to claim Kente is an Ewe discovery. That does not change the inalterable truth that it originated in Ashanti. Period!

If anyone would spend as much time as you ha ...
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You can eloquently weave your mendacious yarn all you want to claim Kente is an Ewe discovery. That does not change the inalterable truth that it originated in Ashanti. Period!

If anyone would spend as much time as you have, since sometime before your first attempt to co-opt the ownership of this Cultural activity to your Tribe, a couple of years ago, that person could easily gather as much bibliography to support his or her claim. But no one needs to do that since that is intrinsically established. The onus lies on you to pound your farcical thesis to stick.

What you so laboriously amassed in your Article to support your spurious claim is nothing but a careful selection of literature that makes references to Kente Weaving among your folks.

In a little effort to refute your claim, however, I would ask a simple question that: Why could it not be the other way around that the Ewes saw the elegance of that Asante Kente when, as you claim, they often collaborated with the Asantes to create diversion to ease access for Asante trading, and decided to learn the profession from them?

These strenuous efforts by you and others of your Tribe to claim some superiority over Asantes is not only ridiculous but incredulously self-defeating.

The other time, not long ago, one of your kin claimed Okomfo Anokye was an Ewe, called Notsie or something similar, and sought to undermine the spiritual fabric that Asantes have used the Golden Stool that Anokye is believed to have conjured to bind them together as something exclusively attributable to Ewes.

What is all this? Your behavior seems to suggest a certain elaborate scheme to demystify any longstanding Asante imperial domination and relevant remnant fame of that great sub-Tribe in modern times.

But the truth is that no amount of your duplicitous propaganda would diminish the Asantes, or their long established fame. Their contribution to Ghana's national image is based on provable practical and physical evidence of events that did take place, not on some cacophonic assemblage of conveniently selected conjecturing of some inconclusive inquiring minds.

If the likes of you were to live for a Century and more, I would not be surprised to hear from you in my afterlife that Konadu Agyemang Rawlings was not even an Asante but some Ewe whose forbears migrated to live in Asante, and was given to Tobge Rawlings as some trophy wife to pacify his perceived incessant assaults on 'feeble' Asantes.

You could well successfully fool part of the Public but not all, Sir! And oh, just another point of interest. With all your scholastic supremacy and pioneering you and your cohorts often claim over Asantes, and Akans, in general, why did the Germans who colonized much of your area and lent you their alphabetical symbols to build the lexicon of your Language, and wrote about your Culture miss the exclusive eminence of your Kente prowess to record anywhere? I guess Missionary Diedrich Hermann Westermann and his ilk did not notice that aspect of your Culture, huh?

It is amazing how you expand your needless current tribal feud with Asantes from the Political arena to a realm much closer to the soul of the People, Culture.

There may not be a lot of Akans or Asantes who may get the time and resources to match your effusive submission of crass academic corruption, but all it takes is for others to briefly enunciate your grotesque subtle tribal undermining of the Asantes to expose your dirty tactics for winning the unwinnable War of the letters.

Eventually, your bogus thesis would be fully ripped asunder to keep the truth about the Kente and Asantes intact. I strongly favor respect for all Tribes and their true contributions that we could all share in. But I equally strongly detest insidious History Modification for some ego remediation or inflation, especially at the expense of any other Group. Be it from you, or the likes of Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr.

Some readers may wrongly accuse me of fueling the bigotry underpinning the exercise of the Article's Author. But I am only trying to debunk his claims at their roots and discourage such exercise in futility by others. We rather need more of what would unite us, not what divides us.

Have a nice day!

Long Live Ghana!!!
K A. 10 years ago

"We rather need more of what would unite us, not what divides us."

G. K. Berko, if you really meant what you've said in the above quote, I'm afraid your write-up has accomplished the exact opposite effect. You've made no ...
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"We rather need more of what would unite us, not what divides us."

G. K. Berko, if you really meant what you've said in the above quote, I'm afraid your write-up has accomplished the exact opposite effect. You've made no positive contribution to the article and more importantly you've not refuted any of the author's points with evidence based on research as all good scholars would do. You're only full of insults, borne out of anger and fury, which are themselves rooted in empty ethnocentric pride and hatred. Please wake up, lest you'd remain only an educated yet ignorant fool!

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The Issue of the Origin and Meaning of Kente (aka Kete)

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