Kentefest Launched

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Saturday, 25 November 2006 (Times Weekend)

AN exposition to promote Ghana’s foremost colourful indigenous Kente fabric, as an original Ghanaian brand was on Thursday launched in Accra.

Christened: "KenteFest", it will identify Ghana as the place of origin for the unique kente cloth.

It also seeks to expose the rich Ghanaian cultural heritage, history and people to the world.

The festival which takes place from February 13 to 16, next year at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra and Prempeh Assembly Hall in Kumasi, will also feature other handicraft as well as jewellery alongside the Kente.

It is being organized by Davida Expositions in collaboration with the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture Affairs, National Commission on Culture and Office of Asanteman Nkosuohene.

As part of the festival themed: "Discover Ghana…The Homeland of Kente, an annual Kente Excellence Award has been instituted to award Ghanaians who have excelled in their various fields for the past 50 years.

In all 25 deserving nominees in the fields of science, journalism, performing arts, media, personality, innovations, lifetime achievers, business and traditional rulers among others will be the first to be inducted in to a "Kente Hall of Fame".

KenteFest will bring together professionals in the fashion and the mining and jewellery industries as well as tourists, investors and business professionals.

Visitors at the exposition will have the opportunity to see kente weavers and adinkra makers in action as well as skilled craftsmen and goldsmith working on their products from concept to finish using locally made tools in a traditional way.

There will also be a traditional durbar featuring some traditional chiefs in a cultural explosion, receiving visitors and exhibitors alike amidst drumming and dancing.

A modern Catwalk show will also be staged featuring clothes designed with the Kente cloth by some of Ghana’s renowned fashion designers.

The KenteFest will be crowned with a highlife extravaganza involving most of Ghana’s renowned highlife musicians.

The history of Kente dates back to over 400 years ago when a man named Ota Karaban and his friend Kwaku Ameyaw from the town of Bonwire in Ashanti went to a forest and saw a spider waving its web.

The two learned to weave by observing the spider.