• 1 At present, kente is one of the best known of all African textiles. Since the second half of the 20(...)

1When I arrived in Ghana in 1998 to study kente cloths in the eastern part of the country and adjacent Togo, most people engaged me in a discussion on the origin of these textiles. Kente is the common name for hand-woven textiles in southern Ghana and Togo, produced mainly by Ewe and Asante weavers for at least a few centuries (figure 1)1. Ewe weavers are historically known for their cotton textiles full of figurative motifs (see figure 2), among other types; Asante weavers for silk or rayon (the replacement of silk since the beginning of the 20^th century) cloths full of non-figurative designs (see figure 3). Since the mid 20^th century, Ewe weavers have also started to work within this tradition.

• 2 In 2005 I finished my doctoral research on a social and design history of hand-woven textiles from (...)

2I had apparently arrived in Ghana when a heated debate on the origins of kente was at a high; the debate was mainly framed in ethnic terms. Most Ghanaians, especially outside the Ewe-speaking region, stressed that kente, understood as these rayon textiles, originated from the Asante area and therefore Asante weavers taught the Ewe how to weave. As I focused on textiles in the Ewe region, I heard over and over again that the word kente was actually a corruption of the more proper Ewe word kete for hand-woven cloths. Due to the fact that the Asante do not speak Ewe, they changed the term kete to kente when Ewe weavers taught them how to weave2. It was often stated that this should have happened after the Asante wars in the mid 19^th century, when many Ewe were taken into captivity. Many Ewe also gave an etymology of kete as: ke ‘to open’ and te ‘to press’. Often, especially weavers, accompanied the wording with bodily movements making a shed and pressing the imagined weft with the beater (figure 4). At the same time, the most common textiles, worn by all those who can afford to do so throughout Ghana, including the Ewe region, continued to be rayon textiles full of non-figurative motifs (figure 1), even though many Ewe-speakers acknowledged that this particular type originated from the Asante region. How should we understand this apparent paradox and the different narratives disputed?

• 3 The loom used in this area is often called ‘the West African double-heddle loom’, or ‘narrow-strip (...)
• 4 In contrast, throughout West Africa, the single-heddle loom is still mainly operated by women.
• 5 In descriptive textile terminology: the alternation of warp- and weft-faced plain-weave areas and t (...)
• 6 In the beautiful illustrated catalogue Wrapped in Pride edited by Doran Ross in 1998, many other co (...)

4Weaving is one of the older art traditions in West Africa. Kente is one of these traditions, woven mainly in Ghana and Togo. These textiles are composed of narrow strips sewn edge to edge and, like many other West African textiles, woven on the double-heddle loom (see Picton and Mack 1989: 45-54)3. They are woven predominantly by men, though this gender-division is loosening in several textile traditions (Kraamer 1996: 96-100, Kraamer 2005a: 217-218, Clarke 1999: 174-225, Perani and Wolff: 175-176)4. A particular characteristic of many kente cloths over the last 200 years is the alternation of warp and weft blocks and the weaving of many weft-float patterns (figure 2)5. Kente is mainly worn by women as an upper and lower wrapper and by men as a kind of toga, and is often used in the conspicuous display of wealth and status (figures 1 and 5). It is, however, not restricted to the use as a garment6.

• 7 The claim that Bonwire is the main locality of Asante weaving does not go unchallenged even within (...)
• 8 The Akan are several related groups, including the Asante and Fante. They speak closely related lan (...)

5Kente is mainly produced in three weaving centres and in some workshops in Ghanaian and Togolese cities, especially Accra, Kumasi, Lomé, and Kpalimé (figure 6). One centre is formed by several villages around Kumasi, including Bonwire, the best known place for Asante weaving7. From the 17^th to 19^th century, this region formed part of the Asante kingdom, one of the most powerful states in West Africa. Weavers worked mainly on commission for the Asantehene, the Asante king, and his court and aristocracy (e.g. Johnson 1979: 63, 78, McLeod 1981: 156). In the 20^th century, their textiles, increasingly woven entirely in rayon, continued to be used as spectacular apparel by Asante and other Akan elites8, but many other groups also adopted its use (Kraamer 1996, Ross 1998).

• 9 In the Ewe-speaking area, in contrast to the Asante region, there has been many other textile-produ (...)
• 10 The Somé live east of the Anlo. Other Ghanaians and Togolese, including inland Ewe’s, refer to both (...)

6The other two weaving centres are located in the Ewe-speaking area in south-east Ghana and adjacent Togo9. Agotime is situated in the middle of this area, partly in Ghana and partly in Togo. In several of its towns weaving is the main occupation, including Agotime-Kpetoe, Agotime-Abenyiase, and Agotime-Akpokofe. In the Anlo and Somé areas at the coast in south-east Ghana, many villages on the upper part of the Keta lagoon and east to this lagoon specialises in the production of hand-woven textiles10. Until the 1960s, Keta was an important wholesale market for these textiles but this market then moved to Agbozume. The textiles produced by Anlo and Somé weavers often overlap due to their proximity and shared wholesale market, but at some points in history there were also differences. They are also interrelated with the textiles from the Agotime area and with areas further to the north.

• 11 It is possible that these discussions followed different trajectories of intensity in different wea (...)
• 12 In the early festival brochures in Agotime and Bonwire the economic development of the weaving indu (...)
• 13 Apparently, these views were already broadcasted on Ghana´s Television (Safo Kantanka, Ghanaian Voi (...)
• 14 I would like to thank Nana Addae Yeboah, Kentehene to the Otumfuo Asantehene, for sharing his colle (...)

8Discussions in Ghana on the true originators of kente have grown since the beginning or the mid 1990s11, especially in the printed media. The creation of the Agotime Agbamevorzã, ‘Cloth festival’ or Kente Festival in 1996, and the Bonwire Kente Festival in 1998, were ‘dramatic evidence of a desire on the part of each group to promote its own weaving industry’ (Ross 1998: 22)12. At the second Agbamevorzã in 1997, and in the article ‘Another story about kente’ published around the same time in Ghana´s state-owned and widely-distributed newspaper the Daily Graphic (Apaa 27 August 1997), an Akan origin of the word kente was openly contested. This seems to have been the first time that Ewe speakers gave kete a weaving process etymology and claimed the transformation of kete in kente in the process of teaching Asante weavers how to weave. Apaa also discusses other commonly used ‘evidence’ for the Ewe weaving primacy: weaving has always been an Ewe activity since their migration to their current abode and the growing of cotton in the Ewe area which facilitated the widespread practice of weaving, in contrast to the forested Asante area, where cotton had to be imported from the north. The transfer of technology was pinpointed to the time when many Ewes were taken into captivity by the Asante during the Asante wars between 1869 and 1873 (BBC interview with Nene Nuer Keteku, paramountchief Agotime, Accra, December 1998)13. These claims were counteracted at the first Bonwire Kente Festival in January 1998. The subtitle of this festival, 300 Years of Kente Evolution (1697-1997), was clearly intended to stress the historical depth of Asante weaving (Ross 1998: 23) and emphasis was placed on Bonwire as the centre and home of kente weaving (Oteng 1998: 2, Bonwire Festival program). After confirmation of the Agotime claim by the guest of honour, Nana Konadu Agyamang Rawlings, the then First Lady, and of Asante origin, at the Agotime festival in September 1998, the debate reached a summit, especially in the printed and other media of Ghana (e.g. Safo Katanka Ghanaian Voice 11-14 June 1998, Safo Katanka Ghanaian Voice 3-8 August 1998, Safo Katanka Ghanaian Voice 17-23 August 1998, Safo Katanka Ghanaian Voice 31 August – 2 September 1998; Agboyo The Ghanaian Chronicle 23-24 September 1998, Damson The Ghanaian Chronicle 30 October - 1 November, Kodua The Ghanaian Chronicle 2-3 November; Noretti Ghanaian Times 14 November 1998)14. Those opposing the ‘Kpetoe school’ and supporting the ‘Bonwire school’ (categories introduced by O.B. Safo Kantanka who became one of the most vocal advocators of the Bonwire School) reacted mainly to the Agotime assertions. They gave different claims for the word kente and often stated that Bonwire people invented the art of weaving independently of Ewe people and improved it to kente under the reign of Osei Tutu at the end of the 17^th century. References were, for instance, made to the publications of Rømer (2000 [1760]) and Bowdich (1966 [1819]) as supporting evidence for weaving in Asante before the Asante wars in the mid 19^th century.

• 15 In December 1998, the BBC even interviewed Nene Nuer Keteku, Kronor of the Agotime Traditional Area (...)

9The whole public origin discourse fuelled negative ethnic sentiments with remarks such as ‘from those people who have just recently woken up to the realisation of wanting to write, or re-write their history and, in the process, audaciously claiming, as their own, what has persisted through the centuries as inventions or creations of civilised Ashantis’ (Damson The Ghanaian Chronicle 30 October - 1 November 1998)15. However, much evidence in this debate, drawn from oral traditions and written sources (see below), was rather simplistic and non-substantiated through the conflation of three different claims: first, the origin of the term kente, second, the origin of weaving in general in Ghana, and last, the origin of the rayon non-figurative textiles. A closer look at these claims in a historical perspective is a first step to entangle shifting narratives through time and shed light on current concerns.

• 16 The understanding of developments in semantic fields of words is complicated by the facts that Twi (...)
• 17 Keté: ein einheimisches dickes Tuch, oft in europäischer Nachahmung verkauft, wird auch als Unterbe (...)

11In dictionaries from various periods of Akan languages (Fante and Twi) and Ewe the words kete and kente can be found, but their explanations do not shed much light on the matter. McCaskie identifies the translation of the word kete in 19^th century Asante as a flute or band of flutes, pipes and other instruments (1995: 289), which seems to correspond to the reference that Hiamey found in oral tradition16. In Westermann’s 1928 Ewe-English dictionary, kente has no entry, but keté is translated as ‘a thick country cloth, also used as bed-cover’ (1973 [1928]: 120). In his Ewe-German dictionary from 1905 almost the same translation is given, with two more precisions (missing in the later Ewe-English dictionary)17. He states that Europeans copied it and he refers to the Twi word kete translated as “a mat, the usual bed of natives” (1954 [1905]: 363), a reference likely taken from Christaller. In Christaller’s 1881 Dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called Tshi (Twi), kete is translated as “a mat, the usual bed of the negroes” and kente as “country cloth, a home-made negro-dress, consisting of a number of narrow strips of cotton-cloth sewed together”. In his co-edited earlier A Dictionary, English, Tshi (Ashante), Akra the term kente is identified as a Fante trade word equivalent to ntama or otam, the generic Asante terms for cloth (1874: 51). The consistency in meaning of the word kente seems therefore of longer time-depth than the word kete. The appearance of kente in the Christaller dictionaries, but not in that of Westermann could further suggest an Akan (Twi or Fante) origin of this word. However, it is unclear to which extent textiles woven in different areas were included in the semantic field of kente. Two 19^th century sources indicate that the word kente was used for hand-woven cloth in both the Ewe- and Akan-speaking areas, and perhaps even as a generic name for hand-woven textiles woven by Africans. In 1848, J.G. Widmann reported the extensive trade in locally-woven textiles, at least from the Peki area:

• 18 On the import of European textiles in West Africa during the slave trading era, see, for instance, (...)
• 19 Personal communication with Margit Thøfner (University of East Anglia, Norwich), April 2006 and Jan (...)
• 20 The Gold Coast comprises most of current Ghana west of the Volta River (including the Asante heartl (...)
• 21 For a lengthy discussion of these textiles, now in the National Museum of Denmark, and indications (...)
• 22 Little Popo is now Anecho in Togo, Great Popo is Ouidah in the Republic of Benin (still, for part o (...)
• 23 Different (groups of) people could have used the word for slightly different and only partly overla (...)
• 24 Apart from kete or kente, other words, such as vedo, ‘Ewe cloth’ and agbamevor, ‘loom-cloth’ are al (...)
• 25 I argue elsewhere that it is quite possible that cloth weaving followed mat-weaving in the coastal (...)

12His explanation of the word kente could refer just to textiles from the Peki area, but it also could refer to a more widely used word in the Gold Coast for all kinds of locally woven textiles (in contrast to the many imported cloth from Europe)18. The other source can be found in the records of the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. Just before the Danish ceded their possessions to the British in 1850, the last Danish governor Carstensen collected 12 cloths. Several of them, but not all, are described as kintee, the Danish orthography for kente19. Kintee is used more or less indiscriminately for textiles woven in and outside the then Gold and western Slave Coast20. However, it is unclear how the Danish perceived the origin of their acquired textiles21. One cloth, for instance, which was definitely woven in the Ewe-speaking region due to the abundance of figurative motifs, width of the strips and reference to Anecho [Popo], a town in present-day Togo, was described at its accession in 1847 as “cotton blanket (kintee) from Popo” (see Kraamer 2005a: 490, fig D1-2 and Ross 1998: 153, fig. 10.6)22. As not all their collected textiles were described as kintee, including some definitely woven in one of the weaving centres in the Twi-or Ewe-speaking regions, some room for speculation on the Danish (and possible other European) usage of the word remains unclear. Together with the report of Widmann, it seems that the term was used in a loose way, at least by Europeans, and possible also by coastal people from the Gold Coast (especially Fante), to indicate textiles woven on the double-heddle loom, formed by narrow-strips. This would strengthen the idea that the word kente derives from the Fante word kenten, ‘basket’ (e.g. Lamb 1975: 128, McLeod 1981: 153, Picton and Mack 1989: 121)23. Another indication is the fact that up to today, different names for hand-woven cloths circulate in both the Ewe and Asante weaving centres24, suggesting that mainly coastal people and traders used the word kente in the 19^th century. Furthermore, the explanation of the term kete, as made at the end of the 1990s could be of recent invention, as Hiamey, himself from a coastal weaving community, does not give this explanation, though that could also be a lacuna in his work. The fact that he mentions the word kete for woven textiles suggests that the meaning shifted from mat to hand-woven cloth25, and the origin of the word kete could either come from Ewe or Twi and subsequently borrowed into the other language. Several current Asante oral traditions give different explanations to the word kente: to honour Asantehene Oti Akenten, who reigned in the mid 17^th century, or to honour Yaa Adoma, the wife of the chief of Bonwire during the reign of Asantehene Osei Tutu (ca. 1680-1717), whose nickname was ‘Kenten’ (Ross 1998: 23). These Ewe or Asante folk etymologies can be supported or denied by historical evidence and the whole debate makes it impossible to differentiate between current inventions and older folk etymologies.

• 26 The fragments are balanced, warp- or weft-faced plain-weave narrow strips of different width, somet (...)
• 27 The Portuguese started to trade in raw cotton that they grew in Cape Verde, next to narrow-strip ha (...)
• 28 The oldest extant hand-woven cloth along the West African coast is now in the Ulm museum and was co (...)
• 29 For a more detailed discussion of oral histories on the origin of weaving in these areas see Ross 1 (...)

13The other issue at stake in this debate is the origin of weaving in Ghana and Togo. Archaeological and written sources are scarce on this matter. The earliest extant cotton textiles from West Africa are from burial caves of the Tellem in the cliffs of the Bandiagara Escarpment in the present state of Mali. They date from the 11^th to 15^th century and are formed by narrow strips sewn together (Bolland 1991: 52-75)26. At least as far back as the 16^th century market demand for cotton fibres existed on the West Africa coast (Maier 1995: 73-74)27, but archival sources only indicate the import of cotton cloth to the Gold Coast from Benin, Ouidah and the Ivory Coast (Daaku 1970: 3, 6-7, Law 1991: 44-47)28. The first mentioning of cotton and weaving on the western Slave Coast, as far as I have been able to trace, comes from early 18^th century Dutch sources (Dantzig 1978: 95, Kraamer 2005a: 161-162, and 2006: 40-41). These, and other 18^th century sources only indicate that weaving is a common activity on the Slave and Gold Coast, including Asante, as is the case in many West African societies (see also Ross 1998: 151-153). They do not shed light on the origin of weaving in these areas. Even when we look at historically documented oral histories on the introduction of weaving in any of the weaving centres, it does not bring us much further clarity. They only suggest that weaving possibly arrived independently in the two areas29; which would suggest that neither the Asante nor the Ewe taught the other group how to weave.

• 30 Bowdich also reports the use of imported silk from the north in Asante (Bowdich 1966 [1819]: 35, 33 (...)
• 31 The far less preference for silk among weavers from the Ewe-speaking region in comparison to Asante (...)
• 32 The naming of textile categories is done in several ways, depending on idiosyncratic, historical an (...)

14The last claim conflated in this origin debate is about the origin of the use of silk and the specific style of rayon textiles full of non-figurative motifs as woven at the end of the 20^th century in both the Ewe- and Twi-speaking areas (figure 7). It is clear that until the mid 20^th century, silk and rayon were far more common among Asante than Ewe people. Since the 18^th century, the unravelling of threads from European silk and cotton cloths to reuse in the local weaving industries have been reported for both areas (Rømer 1965 [1760]: 36 and Bowdich 1966 [1819]: 35 for Asante, Isert 1992 [1788]: 92, for Ewe). Rømer and Bowdich specifically report the unravelling of silk cloths; Isert does not specify the types of yarn30. In the Asante region, silk is used in increasing abundance for the more expensive textiles woven mainly for Asante aristocracy in the course of the 19^th century. At least since the beginning of the 20^th century, Asante weavers also produced textiles entirely in silk or rayon. In the 19^th century and first half of the 20^th century, weavers in different parts of the Ewe region mainly produce cotton textiles, though there are a few reports on the use of silk by Bremen and Basel missionaries (Basel Mission Archive D-1.10, Afrika 1859 Odumase 1859; Spieth 1906: 189)31. In the 1930s or 1940s, several coastal weavers also started to produce rayon textiles in a newly developed technique (figure 8). These textiles, woven mainly for the West African export market, are locally called asidanuvor, ‘hand creative textile’32. Since the 1980s, these textiles are hardly produced anymore. In the 1950s, Agotime weavers gradually moved from the weaving of cotton textiles full of figurative motifs (see figure 2) to rayon textiles full of non-figurative motifs (see figure 1). Agotime weavers not merely reproduced Asante textiles common at that time, but continued, as Asante weavers, to experiment with new designs and colour combinations (Kraamer 2005a: 139-144). Since the 1980s, some coastal weavers also produced this style of textile, but most continued to weave other types of cloth (Kraamer 2005a: 107-157).

• 33 The time-depth of this particular style, which I argue elsewhere, dates, however, not further back (...)

15The conflation of different types of origin claims concealed the different issues at stake in the Ewe and Asante areas and the different types of knowledge produced, and therefore inflamed the discussions substantially. In the Ewe-speaking area, the origin of weaving was not associated with a particular style of weaving. The term kente (and kete) was understood as inclusive, referring to all locally hand-woven textiles composed of narrow-strips. In Asante, kente was mainly associated with rayon textiles in contrasting colours, a style of weaving that was adopted in the 1950s by Ewe weavers33. However, the local Agotime acknowledgement of this adaptation, which also has been reflected in local terminology as one of the names of these textiles, Asantevor ‘Asante textile’, was not adopted by the newspapers; nor was the point that Agotime weavers developed these textiles (from there) together with Asante weavers (Kraamer 2005a: 139-144).

• 34 The commission of an elaborate and expensive textile in rayon, rather than in cotton, with new desi (...)
• 35 Furthermore, the reason for wearing certain older types of textiles had more to do with teaching th (...)

17Thus, ethnic pride increased in this period, but this has barely manifested itself in the wearing and producing (and refusal to wear or weave) certain textiles. At most festivals in the Ewe-speaking region, including Agotime, chiefs, queen mothers and elders continue to wear Asantevor34. Only a few chiefs were inspired to use older Ewe kente like adanuvor with figurative motifs at public events, even while many considered these textiles highly unfashionable35.

• 36 Alongside the coastal regions from at least Ghana to western Nigeria, certain dress ensembles indic (...)

19The study of the relationship between social identity, such as national and ethnic identities, and textiles or dress is not simple as there can be many factors determining why someone buys or wears a certain kind of cloth, including available money to spend, taste, fashion, status, and the links between generations, families or larger identity groups, or just very idiosyncratic reasons (Picton and Mack 1989: 11-17)36. Furthermore, different kinds of identities co-exist simultaneously in any individual and community, they are never static and may be manifested on different occasions.

• 37 Even though it has been demonstrated that dress changes constantly, with changing temporal and situ (...)

20In the literature on textiles and dress traditions in West Africa, the use of fabrics as a marker of ethnic identity is often taken for granted (Eicher 1995)37. Eicher gives, for instance, the following definition on ethnic dress in the 1995 Dress and ethnicity. Change across Space and Time: “The body modifications and supplements that mark the ethnic identity on an individual are ethnic dress” (Eicher 1995: 1). In her introduction she stresses that ethnic dress is never static, that there are sometimes just details of dress which become critical points of distinction between two ethnic groups and ranks within one group, and that gender issues are always involved. As much as these last insights can be assumed, there are some problems in her definition and especially in the presumptions made in the book. When people dress for a specific occasion even when that dress combination is specific to a particular group, this does not necessarily mean that these people are making a statement about ethnicity. Moreover the articles in this edited book that focus on West African dress assume that the relationship between dress and ethnicity is unproblematic (Sumberg 1995, Eicher and Erekosima 1995). There are, however, many reasons why people dress up. Furthermore, the articles seem more to demonstrate that various groups in a different area seem to stress their importance to make a link with previous generations at certain events. That this sometimes runs on the same line as perceived ethnicity does not mean that ethnicity in itself is an issue. The wide distribution of many textiles far beyond their production centre is another indication that ethnicity in itself is often not at stake. Textiles woven by Ewe and Asante weavers, for instance, have been used further away, including by different groups in the Niger Delta of Nigeria (Eicher and Erekosima 1987: 41, Aronson 1982: 43-47).

• 38 However, to say that the use of textiles was a marker of ethnic identity was an oversimplification. (...)

21Only under very particular circumstances there is a need to define ethnic identities through textiles or dress, for instance in the process of the construction of an ethnicity, or in a process of commodification, such as the use of textiles as part of a cultural strategy to attract tourists (Hansen 2004: 374). Dress played for instance a part in the construction of a Yoruba ethnicity when a nineteenth-century Lagos elite abandoned European names and dress as part of the anti-colonial politics (Picton 2004: 26; Clarke 1999: 313, Peel 1989)38. In the emergence of wider identity groups, such as Ewe and Akan since the late 19^th century (e.g. Amenumey 1989, Nugent 1991, Collier 2002, and Meyer 2002, Kraamer 2005a: 60-63, McCaskie 1990), textiles did not play such a part (Kraamer 2005a: 192-197). Also, in the 20^th century, textiles are not used to portray specific ethnic identities in Ghana. Wearers throughout Ghana are primarily concerned with a marking of social position, status and personal taste, within a context of competitive and conspicuous display, rather than an ethnic identity, through use of these fabrics. This is especially apparent during festivals, when most chiefs and queen mothers put on bright, strongly colour-contrasting textiles, preferably in a newly-woven non-figurative design. However, in the mid-20^th century, kente did configure indirectly in nationalistic discourses. Both nationalists before independence and the political elite afterwards wore kente cloth for different reasons, one to place themselves in line with important people, another to demonstrate a cultural esteem of their own heritage. They used kente as part of a mental process of decolonisation by stressing the intrinsic value of local traditions in contrast to colonial-presumed inferiority of African races and general pre-relativistic worldview (Fosu 1993 [1985]: pc). Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of independent Ghana, made an even more intelligent use of kente when he came to power:

• 39 During his stay in the United States (1935-1945), Nkrumah influenced by African Americans, especial (...)

22Nkrumah made the wearing of kente part of his philosophy of African personality at the beginning of the 1940s39. After the formation of the Convention People’s Party in 1949, he wore kente or batakari at every public occasion. After becoming Prime Minister in 1957, kente became the official dress for ambassadors and was widely used by other politicians. Nkrumah used kente (and to a lesser extent batakari) in his politics to create a national identity and was widely followed by other Ghanaians. His pan-African activities also influenced the use of kente by other African leaders and African Americans (Kraamer 2005b). After the coup in 1966, the leaders of subsequent military regimes used military outfits in public, but the use of kente by politicians under civil governments has remained very popular until today. Even through changes of government and military regime, kente has kept its status of political dress with the connotation, among many others, of the cultural richness of Ghana (Kraamer 1996: 67).

• 40 The literature on local perceptions of modernity is extensive, for Ghana see, for instance, Meyer 1 (...)
• 41 Due to the heated debate on the origin of kente, many weavers consciously used the word kete instea (...)
• 42 Agotime weavers mainly turned to this new demand, followed by a smaller number of coastal weavers, (...)

23The Ewe followed this general Ghanaian trend. In the 1950s, many Ewe weavers, especially in Agotime, shifted to the weaving of rayon fabrics in an Asante style, due to the growing demand for these textiles in Ghana. “The change came in the 1950s. Everybody was copying what Kwame Nkrumah was doing” (Interview with Nene Nuer Keteku III, May 1999). In Agotime, the switch to the production of these textiles is usually discussed as part of larger local discourses on ‘modernisation’ (group interview Agotime-Kpetoe, May 1999)40. In the words of Gideon Kekene, an older weaver from Kpetoe: “this is the time of the new ones, that is why we weave the new style. […] but because of modernisation, that is why we do the modern type” (group interview Agotime-Kpetoe, May 1999). In the Volta Region, they were called Asante-kete, Asantevor, ‘Asante textile’ or Nkrumahvor, ‘Nkrumah textile’; in Togo Ghanavor, ‘Ghana textiles’ or Asante-kete41. Throughout the Ewe-speaking region, the use of these textiles gradually grew, especially during festivals and at the end of the 20^th century, even Togolese chiefs were wearing these cloths42.

• 43 An eclectic mix of local and imported elements are on-going characteristics of several West African (...)
• 44 One of the most recent design innovations is the mutual influences of Ewe and Yoruba weaving techni (...)
• 45 For a lengthy discussion on local terminology in relation to the organisation of textiles comparati (...)

26There are also other reasons why the shift to rayon textiles full of non-figurative motifs was perceived rather in terms of continuity than discontinuity from an Ewe, and especially Agotime, perspective. Ewe textiles are characterized by a bewildering diversity of colours and patterns. Even after discerning certain unifying characteristics, based on local classifications, the amount of techniques and kinds of textiles still astonishes. The invention of new textile types and the incorporation of foreign elements, together with further incremental and innovative changes within a textile type, have been on-going characteristics of Ewe textile traditions43. Kente that is considered ‘modern’ has especially been desired by different elite groups in the rural and urban areas of contemporary coastal Ghana, Togo and southwest Nigeria; and these customers highlight this request sometimes in this way. ‘Modern’ here denotes that which is new or somewhat new, i.e. cloth that incorporates new designs, new colour combinations, new kinds of materials or even completely new kinds of textiles. Ewe weavers have taken up this general appreciation for new textiles in different ways (figure 5). They continually restate details of specific designs. They experiment with new colour combinations. And they augment the design possibilities made available by the wide range of existing techniques through the use of an increasing range of threads. Apart from cotton, they also use rayon, ‘lurex’ and polyester (figure 10). These incremental changes are often the result of a negotiated interaction between weavers, cloth contractors, cloth traders and customers. The premium placed on novelty is also part of the context in which major formal innovations are welcomed, such as in the case of Asantevor (and more recently Nigerian weave, see figure 10)44. The incorporation of new visual and technological impulses is, therefore, highly appreciated and the adaptation and development of Asantevor is, thus, part of a longer Ewe art historical tradition (Agbenaza 1965: 125-137, Kraamer 2005a: 139-144). The perceived continuities can also be traced when we look at local terminology, the organisation of textiles, and technology. Before the turn to Asantevor, the more complicated textiles woven in Agotime were often full of figurative weft-float motifs. These textiles were called adanuvor, ‘creative textiles’, a local category that continued to be used for the new style. Furthermore, these older textiles were also classified in the way weft-blocks were organised in the entire textile, either as atisue, ‘short stick’ or atitrala, ‘long stick’ and also this classification continued for Asantevor, where the same two basic types of juxtaposition of weft-faced and warp-faced plain-weave areas can be found (see figures 11 and 12). Also, already since the 1950s, many new-designed individual textiles in this new tradition got local Ewe names45.