Ghana’s kente strip took centre stage as some Democrats in the House of Representatives in the United States spotted kente stoles during the eight minute plus kneeling for the late Floyd George.
“The significance of the kente cloth is our African heritage and, for those of you without that heritage who are acting in solidarity,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters at Emancipation Hall. “That is the significance of the kente cloth — our origins and respecting our past.”
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer joined other Democrat leaders on Capitol Hill and took a kneel in honor of George Floyd who was killed by Minneapolis Policeman Derek Chauvin.
Pictures of the Democrats in their kente strips have gone viral and attracted lots of comments from around the world. In Ghana, the head of the Diaspora African Forum (DAF), Ambassador Erika Bennet applauded the action by the Democrat leaders describing it as reassuring.
There have been criticisms of the House Democrats though. “My ancestors did not invent Kente cloth for them to be worn by publicity (obsessed) politicians as ‘activism’ in 2020,” Jade Bentil, a Ghanaian-Nigerian researcher at University of Oxford, tweeted.
The kente cloth is a fabric that is indigenous to Ghana and is believed to have started in the Bono part of Ghana although Bonwire in the Ashanti region is now described as the home of the kente fabric. The Ewes in Ghana also have a type of kente which is distinct from the more popular Bonwire kente.
Meaning of kente colors
The killing of George Floyd in the U.S has sparked protests all over the United States with similar solidarity protests happening in some major cities all over the world.
In Ghana, the Economic Fighters Forum attempted a vigil in solidarity which was stopped by the Police with the arrest of the EFF leader, Ernesto Yeboah.
Tetteh Gbefalor
