Kente cloth and Adinkra printing

Kente cloth is woven on narrow looms, either all one color, simple designs or very intricate designs.

The strips can be sewn together to make fabric of different widths. The black and white fabric is adinkra print is coming home with me.

When we went to the Adinkra printer we were met by the elders, shared some schnapps as a way of greeting and given a tour of the process. 

The ink is made from tree back located only in the northern part of Ghana where this craft comes from. The bark is soaked for 24 hours, pounded like foufou, boiled and strained. The left over bark is used to grow eatable mushrooms and treat malaria. The liquid is boiled to a paste before appling to strips of kente cloth.

Then the strips are left to dry while we ate lunch. The blue one is mine.

These are all done by professionals including the one with Obama silkscreened on it.