Spring Break
Kuma brings pride of Kente cloth
Jessica Leggin / Campus Editor
Issue date: 3/3/09 Section: News
|
The Kente exhibit opened in February and will continue to be on display until March 10.
The traveling exhibit, which coincided with African-American Heritage Month, introduces the ceremonial usage and history of Kente cloths.
Kuma will share his knowledge about the various characteristics of Kente cloths through a workshop at 4 p.m. today in Booth Library, Room 4440.
Kuma, originally from Ghana, said he knows the value of Kente cloths.
"It is a symbol of pride, and it was originally for the royalty, Ghanaian chiefs," he said. "The Asantes and Ewes in Ghana were the original weavers of Kente."
Since the demand for Kente cloths has increased because of its appeal and its unique sense of style, the pattern of some cloths have been copied and machine-generated, Kuma said.
"The ones generated off the machines are cheaper and are not of the same quality," he said. "You see a lot of them more outside of Ghana than inside. Machine-generated Kente is inferior to the quality of the hand-woven."
Kuma said because of the great demand for Kente cloths, now people have to find other ways to mass produce it.
"Most of the artifacts that you see around you are machine-generated such as handbags, hats, tablecloths, seat covers, shoes and coasters," he said.
When Ghanaians wear Kente cloths to ceremonial occasions such as weddings, only hand-woven cloths are worn.
"Ghanaians will not wear the machine-generated cloths," he said.
Kuma said chiefs in Ghana wear special designed Kente cloths that could cost around $1,200.
"Sometimes an Asante King can go as far as $3,000 to $5,000 dollars," he said.
Kuma wants consumers of Kente cloths to know the difference in its quality and value, he said.
"They need to know what they are spending their money on," he said. "They have to know the quality of the goods they are buying. Let the buyer beware."
Jessica Leggin can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmleggin@eiu.edu.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.
Be the first to comment on this story