Weaving & Water

Shaye & Molly

This morning we started our day by visiting  Bonwire Village, the home of Ghana's Kente Cloth makers. Kente is the national cloth of Ghana and originally was reserved for Ashanti royalty. The village of Bonwire (pronounced "Bone-ree") is believed to be where Kente weaving first began in Ghana.

 

While there, we learned that the cloth markers use small hand (and foot) looms to make four-inch wide strips of Kente cloth. These strips are later sewn together to make larger pieces of cloth. The process is incredibly labor intensive and it was amazing to watch how fast the weavers worked when creating the narrow strips of cotton or nylon Kente in a bewildering variety of patterns and designs.

After watching the Kente being woven by professionals, several of the team members tested their skill in using their hands and feet in alternating coordinated motion to work the weaving loom. We quickly gained new respect for the skills and talents of these weaving artists.

When we had finished embarrassing ourselves, the vendors quickly said, “Let me show you my shop.” Each of the ten or twelve weavers at the Center had his own section of the floor for his loom and behind it on his section of the center's walls were displayed the Kente he had woven and which was for sale to visitors.

We spent time looking around, bargaining, and making some successful, and some not so successful, deals for the beautiful Kente cloth before we boarded the bus and headed for Lake Bosomtwi. 

Lake Bosomtwi is beautiful!  While we were there we were able to take a boat tour with a guide who told us all about the 30 villages surrounding the lake, the floating bottles used to mark the locations of submerged fishing nets, and how it would take eight hours to walk around the entire lake! 

According to legend, the lake was formed by a meteor that hit the Earth and formed this huge crater high in the central Ghanaian hills.  Today, Lake Bosomtwi is the largest fresh water lake in Ghana. Fishermen on the lake do not use boats. Instead they make log floats from the WaWa tree, flattened on top to carry a man, his cast net, and a small wicker basket to hold his catch.

Following our boat ride, we enjoyed lunch on the patio of a lakeside restaurant/guest house which provided beautiful views and, more importantly, wonderfully delicious tilapia! 

Finally, with our appetites for shopping, for Ashanti history and for Ghana's marvelous cuisine sated, we climbed aboard our Sun Seekers bus full of happy memories of our weekend in Kumasi; and, four hours later, we all cheered when we returned once again to the Fair Hill Guest House, our home away from home in Cape Coast.