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Kente strip weaving

Also known as Kente (Akan · Ewe)

Kente is Ghanaian strip cloth: weavers work narrow bands on a small horizontal loom, patterning them with blocks, stripes and zigzags in gold, green, red and blue, then sew a dozen or more strips edge to edge into a broad cloth.

Play the previewAbout this tradition
Kente strip weaving: photograph by Abbeyfamily (User)
Photo: Abbeyfamily (User), CC BY-SA 4.0, source on Wikimedia Commons
Kente strip weaving: the game in attract modeLive previewPlay

Runs in your browser, works offline once loaded.

How to play

  1. Choose a thread colour and a weave shape from the strip under the loom.
  2. Tap a square to weave it: the shape appears on the matching square on the other side of the strip.
  3. Copy the small strip above, then press Check.
Rules at a glance
  • The strip is a mirror image left to right, as many woven bands are.
  • A square counts only when its weave shape and its colour both match the strip.
  • Three stars need a nearly perfect copy; you can undo or clear as often as you like.

About the tradition

Kente is woven in Bonwire and other towns of the Asante region, and by Ewe weavers elsewhere in Ghana, where apprentices train for years under master weavers. Each pattern has its own name, often taken from a proverb, a plant or a story.

Origins

A living tradition passed from person to person; it is not tied to a single dated origin. It belongs to the cultural world of Africa: Sahel, West and Central.

Credits

Sources

Get the app

Kente strip weaving is one of 17 textile crafts in the Textile Crafts of the World app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Submitted to the App Store and Google Play; in review. Store links appear here the day it goes live. One app, many traditions, no account needed.

See all 17 textile crafts in the app

In review on theApp StoreIn review on theGoogle Play

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