Kente weavers at Bonwire in the Ejisu Municipality of the Ashanti Region are calling on government to ban the importation of imitated Kente fabrics to protect the local kente industry.
Kente, which is a Ghanaian product, represents royalty and pride especially in the Ashanti Region where its root is traced to Bonwire.
The cloth, which usually sells at a higher cost than normal prints, also symbolizes the rich culture of the Ashantis.
People who put on kente feel a sense of pride as the cloth is unique and is widely respected.
Kente weaving is the major activity at Bonwire; as men in the community usually engage in the weaving, while the women help to market the cloth.
According to the young people in the Bonwire community, this was passed down unto them from one generation to another, and has been their main source of livelihood.
The kente weavers are however complaining about recording low sales as a result of the activities of persons who have been importing imitated kente fabrics into the country to be sold at cheaper prices.
They are thus calling on government to put in place measures to ban the importation of imitated kente on the Ghanaian market to help boost their trade.
“The importation of the imitated kente fabrics, is adversely affecting our businesses because when they come to Bonwire and buy the Kente Cloth, it seems the prices are too high for them; but when they go to the market and they get those imitated fabrics, the prices are very low. We always say Kente is a hand-woven material. That is the uniquness about it. It gives you good quality as well, so it has a different texture altogether. After they have copied our designs, they just print them out and it will look similar to the original kente we have on the market. If you don’t touch it, you won’t even know this is the original one or the imitated one. That is why we are appealing to government to intervene and protect us. If it can be banned, it should be banned,” the Chairman of the Bonwire Tourists Centre Weavers Association, Nana Akwasi Asare said.
He further called for measures to be put in place to help patent the kente designs to avoid a situation where their designs are imitated and printed in fabrics at cheaper prices.
Aside from the issue of imitation, one other challenge the weavers face is the fact that the yarns that are used in weaving the kente are no longer produced in Ghana but are imported.
They accuse politicians of deliberately collapsing local businesses that were into that activity in order for them to liaise with foreigners to supply them with the yarns. This they say has created a situation where the prices are unstable due to a rise in the dollar as against the cedi when it depreciates.
“There are times that we get contracts to weave particular types of kente fabrics to be completed within a stipulated period, but because there are mostly not enough yarns to buy and use in weaving the cloth, we face challenges,” one of the weavers stated.
“Since the yarns are imported and prices go up anytime the cedi depreciates, the prices are not stable. It creates more cost for our production. At times, it becomes very difficult to get the yarns to use for weaving. This is also another issue we have been battling with. We need to get a kente hub or find a way of manufacturing the yarns from our own community. Even if it is not sited in our community, Ghana should at least have a company that produces the yarns which we can get directly as compared to importing from other countries,” another weaver said.
They are also worried about the quality of yarns that are imported into the country for the weaving. The weavers allege that the importers have deliberately reduced the quality of the yarns so that the cloth will not last longer in order for people to continue importing regularly for them to make more money.
The Bonwire Tourist Centre
Government as part of measures to promote the activities of the kente weavers, set up the Bonwire Tourist Centre where persons who are interested in the craft can use it to develop themselves.
It is however not able to take more people who are interested in engaging in the business. As a result, people are seen using the backyard of their houses, the frontage of their shops and the roadside to engage in the activity.
While calling on government to address their challenges, the weavers say they want government to expand the Bonwire Tourist Centre to take in more people.
As the weavers complain about the marketing of the cloth due to the importation of imitated brands, a young graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Peter Paul Akanko, who’s also the CEO of Kente Master, has been collaborating with the Kente weavers to explore new styles with the Kente cloth to even attract the international market.
“We have made very good use of social media as well as our website to sell our products not just in Ghana but outside the country. For the past five years, we’ve sold graduation stoles to people from over seven countries. Now that we have also introduced our clothing line, we will definitely go that line of attracting the international market. We want to make sure that these clothes reach every country on earth and we are going to make use of social media, our website and several other platforms to market these products. We do not believe in staying local even though we are promoting our culture. We believe that Kente can cut across because we believe that Kente has become a symbol for Africa”
The Kente weavers are also appealing to high profile personalities in the country to wear Kente at various functions to help increase patronage.