The Fabric of Africa

We have been fascinated with the different fabrics worn by the African people. They are bright, artistic, and the majority are hand dyed or woven as shown below in Elder Brown's photo post. We've taken a lot of pictures of the women in their dresses because they are all so unique. The cloth featured here is Kente cloth with this description taken from a book by the man, Ahiagble Bob Dennis, whose factory we visited. "Kente cloth is a traditional Ghanaian textile produced by Ewe and Ashanti weavers. It is worn on special occasions by both men and women to display the wearer's social status, wealth and dignity. Bright colours, elaborate weft designs and intricate borders distinguish kente from other narrow loom textiles produced in West Africa." Mr. Dennis is a master weaver and learned the trade from his father. His fascination with weaving began at a young age and he has learned that, just as in life, one thread is weak, while threads woven together are strong. Sounds like a pretty good philosophy; many things can be learned about life while we do our daily tasks. As the Sr. Missionary Couples leave Ghana, they are given a Kente banner with their name, mission, and date of service woven into the cloth. It is a treasured keepsake.

Kente Cloth

Rex displaying bright Kente cloth, hand woven in strips and sewn together

Bright Kente cloth ready to be sold

More Kente Cloth

Weaving Loom

Worker weaving Kente Cloth, note narrow strips that are later sown together, a lot of work is done with the feet to move the loom as the bobbin is moved back and forth

on Hiatus

There has been a lull in the African Adventure Blogging World, so I felt as though an explaination was required. This is an email mom sent about 2 weeks ago . . .

 This is to inform you that I am being treated for malaria. Yesterday after church, I started feeling nauseous and had a headache. By evening I had the chills and a 'runny tummy'; classic symptoms of malaria. They have a medicine that I started, then threw up but after taking the second dose, I feel much better. It's like a bad flu so if the medicine works, it is malaria. I'm here to report that all complaints are much improved after sleeping the day away. I caught it early enough that I'm hopeful there will be no lasting side effects. When Rex told our boss, Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah, why I wasn't at work, he said, "Welcome to Africa". It is fairly common among the African people but some can have very bad effects because they don't have or can't afford the medicine to combat the disease. I remember that my dad had malaria while serving in Italy or north Africa but it must have been pretty severe because the whites of his eyes would be yellow whenever he was fighting an infection. The quinine that he took wasn't as effective as the antibiotics are today.

Everything is great now, and mom is feeling much better . . . perhaps we'll get an update from them soon :)