Asante Kente: A Home Craft and a Cultural Repository of the Place Identity History of the Asantes

Abstract

This descriptive phenomenological study driven by the place-identity theory investigated the historical and physical evidence that suggests that the Asante Kente is a home craft and a place-identity of the Asante people. Thirty-one (31) study participants were sampled using purposive and snowballing sampling techniques. The data garnered via in-depth face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions and descriptive observations were analyzed using the qualitative thematic analysis based on descriptive phenomenology. The findings of the study revealed that the discovery of the Asante Kente, the abundance and nomenclature of the weaving looms and accessories in the majority of homes at Bonwire, as well as the iconography of the Asante Kente weave patterns show the place identity history of the Asantes. The study contends that the Asante Kente encapsulates the history, political, and religious worldviews, values, and norms of the Asantes and as such must not be seen as a generalized African cloth.