Adanwomase Kente weaving village

I made a trip to the Kente weaving village of Adanwomase. It was a great experience in a small village. Like everywhere else in Ghana, I felt like I was part of the family.

One of the most beautiful items to come from Ghana is kente cloth. Kente is an Ashanti ceremonial cloth that is hand-woven on a loom. Only men do the weaving, and the entire village echos with the clack-clack of the looms.

Four inch strips are sewn together into larger pieces of cloth. Kente cloth comes in various colors, sizes and designs and is worn during very important social and religious occasions. A large cloth like this typically takes around 6 months to make.

My second night in the village, I was invited to spend the night at the village chief's house. It was a palace compared to the rest of the town – or even compared to my home here in Oakland! He cracked open a new bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label and we chatted long into the night, eventually watching Rush Hour II on his home entertainment center. This was quite an honor to receive this invitation.

In the morning I had two breakfasts – one prepared by the chief’s staff, and another that has been brought over by my hosts from the night before. After breakfasts, as the chief is walking me around the village, a car pulls up and people yell out he is late for a meeting. I am hauled into the car with him, driven to the meeting house, and given a seat right beside him in front of around 150 people. I am introduced and then they proceed to have the meeting in Twi, so I do not know what was being said. They could have been talking about me!

The little Twi that I did learn before the trip was well received and really made a difference when I attempted it. Almost everyone in Ghana speaks Twi and English and a few other native languages. Jessie and Justice attempted to teach me more Twi, but I was a poor student. Regardless, just a simple 'me da se' (thank you) always seemed to make a big impact.

There was another white guy in the village. Anthony is a Peace Corp volunteer from Chicago. He has been in Adanwomase for the past 18 months and is helping to make the village a tourist destination. He is a very respected and much loved person in Adanwomase. We played frisbee with some of the village children one afternoon.

Among his many other projects, he helped create the Adanwomase Tourism Management Team. Their correspondence via email convinced me to visit Adanwomase. Anthony is also working on a new library and housing for teachers who currently must travel very far to arrive at the school. http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.projdetail&projdesc=641-212