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Ewe gallery - view Ewe
cloths we have for sale here
Ewe Links:
Afevo
- fascinating site looking at modern Ewe weaving. Includes pictures of
100 designs.
Gilbert "Bobbo"
Ahiagble - Ewe
weaver
Ewe Strip Weaving
Traditions here
Ewe References:
Sadly there is as yet
no in-depth publication that gets to grips with the amazing diversity of
Ewe weaving. However all the books listed below are useful.
Adler,P. &
Barnard,N. (1992). African Majesty. Text is mostly drawn from
Lamb but great photos of a major collection.
Ahiagble,G. &
Meyer, L. (1988) Master Weaver from Ghana - brief but charming
children's book with great photos.
Lamb, V. (1975) West
African Weaving
Ross, D. (1988)
Wrapped in Pride - mostly about Asante but some info on Ewe and
interesting pictures.
Posnansky,M. "Traditional
Cloth from the Ewe Heartland" in History, design and Craft in
West African Strip-Woven Cloth (Smithsonian 1988) - looks at blue
and white cloths from Notse, Togo.
Vintage
postcard showing rare image of an Ewe chief in full regalia, circa
1920.
(c)Duncan Clarke, Version
7/09/2004 |
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Although the Ewe (pronounced "Ev-ay") are
not as well known outside Ghana as the Asante they also weave
many of the cloths known worldwide as kente. In fact many collectors
regards Ewe textiles as the highest expression of African
weaving artistry. Ewe people live
around the Volta delta area of south eastern Ghana and across
the international border in Togo. According to their local
histories some groups reached their homeland in the
seventeenth century after a series of migrations from the
east, passing through the town of Notse in Togo. Others,
around the more northern weaving town of Kpetoe claim an
Akan origin from an area towards the coast near Accra. Unlike
the Asante they were never a unified political entity with a
powerful court, being ruled instead by numerous village
chiefs and shrine priests. Perhaps as a consequence of this
lack of a centralised royal authority imposing common
standards Ewe weaving is far more diverse than that of the Asante. Although they do supply important regalia to local
chiefs, Ewe weavers work primarily for sale through markets and to fill
orders from important local men and women.
Today Ewe weavers are concentrated around two towns, Kpetoe
and Agbozume, with the latter the site of a large cloth
market which draws buyers from throughout Ghana as well as
neighbouring countries.
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Ewe weavers at work,1996. photo:
D.Clarke
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Ewe weavers
utilise an almost identical form of the narrow-strip loom to
that of the Asante, and there is considerable evidence to
suggest mutual influence between the weavers of the two
traditions, as might be expected from the long history of
contacts, both through trade and conquest between their peoples.
However Ewe weaving has also been influenced by and exercised an
influence on other neighbouring peoples, including the Fon of
the Benin Republic and most recently the Yoruba of Nigeria. One
particularly interesting and distinctive type of Ewe cloth,
sometimes called
adanudo,
features a rich variety of weft float inlaid pictures, often on
a plain silk, rayon, or cotton background. Among the subjects
depicted on these cloths are animals such as cows, sheep and
horses, human figures, ceremonial stools, hats, trees and
flowers, and household objects such as dining forks. More recent
examples are often quite realistic, and at least since the 1940s
some of the cloths have included written texts. The Ewe weavers
also produced many cloths where, as with Asante kente, the main
design feature is symmetrically arranged blocks of weft float
designs and weft faced stripes across the strips. However
despite their superficial similarity, these cloths can generally
be distinguished from Asante weaving by the inclusion of
figurative designs of the type described above, and by the use
of a technique which involves plying together two colours of
weft thread before weaving a band, creating a kind of speckled
effect. Ewe weavers also produced more simple but still striking
cloths using just indigo blue and white stripes and checks,
perhaps the legacy of older weaving styles practised before they
came into contact with the Asante.
To View
Our Ewe Cloths CLICK HERE
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