Kente weaving among the Akans

Kente cloth dates to 400–500 years ago.Footnote ³⁹ It is a traditional cloth that was originally made for kings. There are several folktales across West Africa on the origin of the kente cloth and how it emerged among the Asantes in Ghana.Footnote ⁴⁰ These stories, which are part of Asante ICH, have similar details, with some exceptions about the location and identity of the heroes. According to the common myth, two men went to the bush and saw a spider – popularly known as Ananse among the Akan – weaving a web.Footnote ⁴¹ These two men according to history were Kwaku Amey-Yaw and Otaa-Kraban (Nana Predon). When they saw Ananse weaving, according to the folklore, it inspired them and led to their “invention” of weaving.Footnote ⁴²

Bonwire is a town in the Ashanti region known specifically for Asante kente weaving. The lineage in Bonwire, which produces Kentehenes (traditional authorities/chiefs over kente matters), are the immediate successors of these first kente weavers. Currently, Bonwire is a two-industry village with a gendered economic order. Women predominantly work in farming and men in weaving. Kente strips are woven on a double heddle loom that can be 200 feet or longer.Footnote ⁴³ The Asante loom is made up of 13 pieces and the weavers do not make any changes or alter any parts of the loom. Most of the loom parts are made locally but some are commissioned or bought in the market.Footnote ⁴⁴ The weaver then assembles the parts and decides on the patterns of the kente cloth. The patterns are associated with Ghanaian proverbs, highlighting the “thoughts, customs, mores and beliefs” and a range of symbolisms including colors of significance among the Asantes.Footnote ⁴⁵ A person’s age, gender, and status determine the color and design of the clothes they can wear.Footnote ⁴⁶ The kente cloth is worn for several ceremonial occasions in Ghana.Footnote ⁴⁷ The colors have different meanings and are therefore selected to correspond to befitting occasions as a matter of symbolism determined and defined within a particular cultural context.Footnote ⁴⁸

Kente weaving among the Ewes

The Ewe people have a rich culture. They are known for making the popular version of kente cloth known as Agomevor, which dates to the sixteenth century. According to Ewe oral tradition, the Asantes held the forefathers of Agotime as prisoners of war.Footnote ⁴⁹ Among the captives of war were very skilled kente cloth weavers who decided to train the Asantes in the craft. For them to teach the Asante kente weaving, and also to break language barriers, the Ewes used fundamental words such as Kee (to press the thread in order to create the shed) and tee (meaning using the reed to press the weft yarn and make it compact).Footnote ⁵⁰ The traditional Ewe name for kente, Agbamevo, was obtained from two words agba(loom) and avo (cloth): these were replaced with kee and tee, combined as keetee, which possibly evolved into kente.Footnote ⁵¹ According to some historical perspective, the Ewes were the first people to introduce the craft of kente weaving. They learned this craft from Notsie, in present-day Togo, or possibly from an earlier place and civilization.Footnote ⁵² As between the Akans and the Ewes, the origin of kente cloth in Ghana is contested as it is difficult to ascertain where the craft started. Running up to the contemporary time, “within Ewe culture, kente has thus become a visual presentation of history, oral literature, philosophy, moral principles, religious beliefs and rules of social conduct.”Footnote ⁵³ Similar to the Akans, Ewe kente cloths, in their diversity, depict symbolisms and meaning-making associated with various colors and royalty. They are subjects of interpretations and various forms of sacralization.

Kente weaving as a male-dominated enterprise in Ghana

As in other cultures, in Ghana, some crafts are gender-specific and are governed by strict rules.Footnote ⁵⁴ For example, woodcarving is traditionally performed only by men while domestic pottery is done mainly by women. Previously, restrictions in the wood carving industry were so strict that a menstruating woman who came to work could be fined.Footnote ⁵⁵ In a similar vein, literature affirms weaving in Ghana to be a gender-based profession and enterprise that is financially profitable to men, even though its increasingly complex value chain accommodates and contributes economic benefits to women as well. Kente weaving is one of numerous traditional Ghanaian arts regulated by rigid gender-based conventions. Traditionally, the weaving industry in general is recognized as a male-dominated practice.Footnote ⁵⁶

Among the Asantes, Bonwire is a prominent village often referred to as the “home of kente weaving.”Footnote ⁵⁷ The population of the village in 1998 was roughly 9,000 (but presently close to 12,000) and the whole economy of the village was based on kente and subsistence farming.Footnote ⁵⁸ There are numerous weaving sheds, several kente shops, and two yarn shops close to the village center.Footnote ⁵⁹ Males born and raised in Bonwire are trained to weave kente. As such, it is not unusual for Bonwire men who cannot weave to feel embarrassed that their fathers did not teach them how to weave.

Kente weaving is seen as an inherent cultural right that fundamentally benefits males. Women are not entirely excluded though. Consistent with gender divisions, women play culturally assigned, albeit peripheral, roles in the kente ecosystem. In the past, male children were acculturated and taught to weave as early as the age of six. However, currently, such skill acquisition, which is facilitated by fathers, begins at about the age of 10.Footnote ⁶⁰ However, boys can also learn from male family members, including grandfathers and uncles. Basic weaving skills can be taught in a few weeks. When a child is not quick to learn, it may take him a long time to finish the training.Footnote ⁶¹

The child protégé first starts with simple designs and then moves on to complex ones. When the apprentice gains adequate skills and starts weaving kente, he is required to acquire his own loom, which is often provided by the father as a mentor. Some fathers save some of the earnings from selling their son’s kente cloths to purchase a loom. In some instances, grandfathers can gift the loom.Footnote ⁶² Other apprentices, who lack family support either for being orphaned or for other reasons, can buy their own looms. For boys whose fathers did not teach them how to weave, some mothers, in their roles as occasional but uncelebrated subverters of norms, may opt to take them to master weavers for apprenticeship.Footnote ⁶³ The master weavers teach them for three to four months at no cost. After they have gained the necessary skills to start weaving, the master weavers start to remunerate them for their work.Footnote ⁶⁴

Beginning to weave for the first time among the Asantes is a rite-based experience associated with myths and beliefs in spirits. As such, weavers must follow certain rituals. Men must pour libations when they want to begin weaving a new cloth. A white fowl is sacrificed to the gods as part of the ritual for commencing the use of a new loom.Footnote ⁶⁵

Just like many other institutionalized perceptions of men’s work in relation to women’s, the gender constraints on kente weaving are supported by taboos.Footnote ⁶⁶ It is believed that a menstruating woman cannot touch or sit on a loom. Also, a menstruating woman cannot speak directly to her husband or visit the weaving shed.Footnote ⁶⁷ This taboo is integral to the inherent gender-dominated nature and historical association of kente cloth with royalty. Royalty in Ghana is traditionally associated with divinity and high levels of ritualized sacredness and sacralization, which is reflected in clothing and other paraphernalia. Persons or things coming in contact with Royalty and their clothing are required to be exceptionally neat, metaphorically and literally. As such, women were restricted from weaving or making contact with the loom as part of a cultural order in which women were perceived as unclean. Post-menopausal women represent one permissible agency for women’s participation in kente weaving. Post-menopausal women were permitted to execute duties associated with weaving, including growing cotton, taking out the seeds, and spinning the cotton into thread to be woven.Footnote ⁶⁸ It is believed that women who infringed any of these taboos or undermined the myths were rendered infertile, the threat of which is coercively effective in Ghanaian society given the high cultural premium on female reproduction and fertility.Footnote ⁶⁹ These taboos and gender rules associated with kente weaving are still active in present-day Ghana, passed down to male apprentices as an integral part of the acquisition of kente weaving skills and kente cultural rootedness in gender roles. The craftsmen ensure strict compliance with gender rules as a way of ensuring skill and success in their art. Generally, in Ghanaian society, males and females usually keep their artistic spheres separate, and it is through taboos and other social restrictions that these gender roles are nuancedly delineated, maintained, and enforced.Footnote ⁷⁰

As indicated, among the Ewes in the Volta Region of Ghana, weaving is performed by the people of many districts, with Agbozume and Agortime-Kpetoe being the two major towns reputed for mass production of kente.Footnote ⁷¹ Unlike the Asantes, the Ewe society was not constituted under a centralized royal authority. The Ewes were ruled instead by numerous village elders, chiefs, and religious leaders. Ewe weavers did not have to weave for a royal court or conform to strict royal design rules. However, just like the Akans, men are the principal designers and weavers of kente among the Ewe. Men exclusively inherit the techniques and skills for weaving as part of Ewe ICH. Like the Asante, the Ewes mythically believe that the involvement of women would render them barren.Footnote ⁷² Weaving is considered an act of interaction with the ancestors and gods. Sacrifice to the gods as part of weaving rituals associated the gods as sources of creativity and new design ideas. Consequently, when a new loom is built, it is accompanied by a sacrifice to the gods. Ironically, while the blood of a fowl was good enough as a sacrifice, a mensurating woman is seen to be an agent of “bad blood” that would corrupt the channel of communication with the gods and the heavens.Footnote ⁷³

While women are not allowed to engage in weaving, part of their marginal role is in marketing kente. Women are allowed to sell the cloth in the markets and return accounts to their husbands, a process in which their role at the tail of the ecosystem is not animated by independent economic benefit. However, increasing globalization, the expansion of the kente economic ecosystem, and the dominant role of women in kente couture and fashion provide a more progressive dynamic. According to Lambek, “in general women bear a heavier burden of taboo observance than men, although not markedly so. It is not so much the number or the content of women’s taboos that exceeds that of men, as the expectation that they will adhere to them more exactly. It is this adherence practice more than symbolic content which serves as a mark of gender. Therefore, it is females rather than males who are the focus of birth taboos.”Footnote ⁷⁴

The convention: Setbacks and loopholes

There are certain drawbacks of the Convention that may incapacitate or undermine the ability of states to advance its objectives.Footnote ⁹⁴ The Convention requires state parties to take the necessary measures to ensure the viability of ICH. In part, the basis for the Convention’s legitimacy is its synergy with human rights instruments and its ability to advance opportunities for social, cultural, and economic development in cultural communities. Given the contextual sensitivity for the experience and practice of aspects of ICH, the Convention’s interface with human rights consideration is a site for the age-old debate over the universality and cultural relativity of human rights norms.Footnote ⁹⁵ In our view, it is also a site for indirectly plugging gender discrimination or gender gaps in the implementation and realization of the objectives of the Convention.

The Convention obligates states to involve communities in the identification and safeguarding of ICH. The use of the expression “shall endeavor” in Article 15 has overtly been criticized regarding its vagueness. It is regarded as a “soft” and exhortatory responsibility lacking in concrete commitment.Footnote ⁹⁶ However, it represents the best available compromise in the negotiation of the ICH Convention. Indeed, no provision paralleling the content of what is now Article 15 was foreseen in the first draft of the Convention. Such a provision was introduced as Article 5-bis by the intercessional working group of governmental experts.Footnote ⁹⁷ That version was modified in 2003 by the third Intergovernmental Meeting of Experts, later becoming Article 15. Although the negotiators stressed the importance of the participation of the bearers of the ICH in the implementation and management of national measures, a stronger expression than “shall endeavor” was not agreed upon.Footnote ⁹⁸

Another major gap posing a challenge for the safeguarding of ICH is the lack of explicit or direct consideration of gender. Women are key to the preservation and vitality of some cultural heritage and diversity. During the negotiation of the Convention, the role of women in the context of ICH elicited polarized reactions. According to UNESCO:

From the above narrative, gender poses a delicate subject matter within the context of the Convention. The lack of direct recognition of gender could nonetheless be understood within a context of varied, complex, and contested views on gender and the need to prevent the universal application of specific ideas of gender.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ In a way, it is also a subtle recognition of existing cultural sensitivities around gender, which are integral aspects of ICH. Nonetheless, perceived gender deficits in the instrument appear to be leveraged by controlling norms of human rights, especially prohibitions of discrimination and supplementary interventions through Operational Directives (OD).Footnote ¹⁰¹ The role of women in relation to ICH encapsulates fundamental domains and expressions of cultural heritage, which are usually key to preserving cultural identity.Footnote ¹⁰² From a gendered perspective, “women custodians and researchers should be involved in identifying and documenting intangible cultural heritage as well as in designing policies for safeguarding of such heritage”;Footnote ¹⁰³ needless to say, within operative and relative cultural sensitivities.

Unfortunately, public institutions do not have the financial and human resources to successfully enforce the Convention. Understanding the practical ramifications of the concepts embodied in the Convention is usually a state problem, both at public and community levels.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ This is especially clear when it comes to inventorying the design and enforcement of safeguarding measures, cooperation with other state parties, preparation of nomination files (both national and multi-national) for ICH items, and community consultation and participation in all these areas.Footnote ¹⁰⁵

The narrow focus of the Convention on safeguarding is an acknowledged site of its weakness. On a pragmatic level, it is hard to contemplate the kind of intervention needed to ensure safeguarding. Culture is not static; it is living and evolutionary. For example, cultural practices of the past are diluted, even rejected when they fail to be functionally useful or meaningful to a community. It is hard to imagine UNESCO or its member states putting themselves in a position that would make the preservation of ICH mandatory. Nor should they encourage particularly “harmful practices” or “freeze” any harmful cultural practices under the guise of preserving cultural diversity or defending against cultural globalization.Footnote ¹⁰⁶ A more realistic and modest goal of the Convention is to aid traditional cultural practices and their practitioners so that they can sustain the dynamic evolution of culture without any specific guarantee of an outcome.Footnote ¹⁰⁷ However, as indicated, considerations for human rights, albeit with sensitivity to cultural relativism, constitute delicate balancing necessary for operationalizing the Convention’s cardinal safeguarding objective.

Aside from human rights, another technical consideration and possible setback is the consistency of the Convention with other international laws. The Convention has a “savings clause,” which stipulates it has no effect on any rights or obligations concerning intellectual property.Footnote ¹⁰⁸ This gave rise to a considerable conflict between those who wanted the Convention to support the debate for national control over traditional cultural expressions and those who were inclined to leave such an argument to future treaties, such as the pending UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention and other agreements under consideration at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).Footnote ¹⁰⁹ Perhaps more importantly, the saving clause defers or skips over the question of ownership of culture.Footnote ¹¹⁰ The bifurcation approach may not be reconcilable to the diverse stakeholders and worldviews around ICH. Nonetheless, it is pragmatic with regard to jurisdictional demarcation and the coexistence of WIPO and UNESCO. Were the latter to delve into economic, proprietary, and intellectual property rights relating to ICH and culture in general, the ball will be dropped on the non-economic and intangible essences thereof, even at the risk of avoidable jurisdictional duplicity and conflict with WIPO.

Another shortcoming of the Convention, already nuanced above, is its lack of a theory of change and an overall results framework with realistic objectives, timeframes, indicators, and benchmarks. The cumulative effect of this is the difficulty of capturing demonstrable results through the Convention’s required periodic reports on implementation.Footnote ¹¹¹ Ghana’s current report is highlighted below. However, for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the Convention globally, the reports are biased and uncritical. Alone, they hardly provide all the required information. The reporting arrangement could be rendered more efficient, and include measurable outcomes and indicators. The monitoring committee can benefit from information from other complementary sources such as shadow reports of non-governmental organizations from the various states so that a more complete data set on results achieved and lessons learned can be established.Footnote ¹¹²

Ghana’s commitment to the implementation of the convention

The cultural sector in Ghana is progressively being acknowledged for its importance to national development. In safeguarding cultural rights and cultural heritage in Ghana, certain legal provisions have been incorporated into the 1992 constitution.Footnote ¹¹³ These include Articles 26 and 39, both of which recognize cultural rights, including choice of and respect for cultural identities and access to cultural heritage. In addition to these laws, institutions have also been established to protect cultural heritage in Ghana.Footnote ¹¹⁴ At the institutional level, the management of the ICH devolves into government agencies. The agencies include the National Commission on Culture and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.Footnote ¹¹⁵ That Ministry is in charge of the development and promotion of tourism-related activities in Ghana. Law 2338 of 1990 – the Provincial National Defense Council (PNDC) law – established the National Commission on Culture (NCC) with a mandate to superintend over the cultural life of Ghana on a holistic outlook. The NCC, which is nested under the supervision of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has responsibility for the implementation of the Culture Policy of Ghana.Footnote ¹¹⁶

Like many countries worldwide, Ghana recognizes the need to safeguard its valuable ICH. Ghana ratified the ICH Convention of January 20, 2016.Footnote ¹¹⁷ In collaboration with some departments of government, the National Commission for UNESCO conducted fieldwork on how to protect Ghana’s ICH. Following the fieldwork, which was conducted in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale, and Cape Coast, the UNESCO office in Accra organized a needs assessment validation workshop in 2018.Footnote ¹¹⁸ The workshop attracted diverse participants from the government, civil society, academia, social enterprise, the private sector, as well as youth.Footnote ¹¹⁹ The workshop elicited a needs assessment and a multiyear project proposal focusing on policy and legislation, public awareness and education, and community-based inventorying, as well as sustainable development.Footnote ¹²⁰ As part of the global capacity-building strategy for the implementation of the 2003 Convention toward sustainable safeguarding of ICH, it was expected that Ghana would lay a solid domestic foundation for strengthening capacity in safeguarding ICH.Footnote ¹²¹

The question of whether Ghana has laid a solid foundation for safeguarding its ICH is still begging for an answer. However, Ghana’s 2020–2024 cycle of periodic progress report on the Convention demonstrates significant progress.Footnote ¹²² Not surprisingly, though, one major issue in the implementation of the Convention is the invisibility of women’s contribution to (re)creating and safeguarding ICH.Footnote ¹²³ However, as indicated, the Convention is not explicit about gender and the role it plays in the safeguarding of ICH, even though understanding the intimate relationship and cultural nuances between gender relations and ICH can open new avenues for effective impact.

It would appear that the Ghanaian Government has failed to implement robust gender mainstreaming provisions in all ICH promotion and protection activities in Ghana.Footnote ¹²⁴ There is no intentional legal protection for women in Ghana regarding their right to participate in the recreation and safeguarding of ICH.Footnote ¹²⁵ For one reason, interest in gender in this space has to be carefully managed to avoid the superimposition of external ideologies that may be in conflict with the cultural contexts in Ghana. Also, the ways in which women and cultural heritage interact are very complex and often raise highly nuanced and sensitive issues,Footnote ¹²⁶ particularly in patriarchal societies such as Ghana.Footnote ¹²⁷ There is a perceived conflict between promoting the human rights of women and advancing the cultural rights of the people. The state and its institutions therefore must find ways toward reconciling these two goals.Footnote ¹²⁸ These goals may not necessarily conflict if regard is given to cultural relativism in human rights.

Women’s contributions to the safeguarding of ICH are underrated. In Ghana, women’s capacity for effective participation in some ICH identification, which is a foundational step in cataloging or preserving ICH, could be better than sub-optimal.Footnote ¹²⁹ In the view of Chiweshe and Mutopo, “access and participation in culture is a fundamental right that applies to everyone without distinction of any kind including gender.”Footnote ¹³⁰ However, it is recognized that gender roles and limitations can be integral parts of culture. Yet as a foundational force in the socialization and nurturing of children, women are the first to share the humanizing phenomenon of language with children. Women have a leg up and a prime advantage in assuming responsibility for passing on the values and heritage at the early stages of life,Footnote ¹³¹ even when such values include the perpetuation of patriarchy and sanctioning the limited role of women in specific cultural domains. A 2001 Iranian report on the activities of women in the domain of intangible heritage states that:

It is evident that women play a very essential role in the transmission of culture. In the case of Akan and Ewe kente-weaving traditions, their gender-sensitive nature results in marginal roles for women in the process and mainstream of cultural production.Footnote ¹³³ Whether under a matrilineal or patriarchal system of inheritance, women have extremely limited space to participate in this iconic cultural heritage and associated inheritance rights. Clearly, the conundrum that cultural practices around kente pose for women in Ghana, even if rooted in culture, requires more progressive attention, especially regarding Ghana’s obligations under the ICH Convention.Footnote ¹³⁴ It is the responsibility of the Government to provide effective legal protection for women to access and participate in the transmission of culture. There is a need to pay attention to gender caveats related to the discussion of culture in patriarchal societies in Ghana.Footnote ¹³⁵ On its own, the implementation of the Convention in Ghana is not able to effect any change in the status quo regarding the gendered nature of kente production as it perpetuates the conflict between cultural rights and gender equality. As Ghana progresses with implementing the Convention, there is a need to focus more on gender.Footnote ¹³⁶ Conceivably, the Convention represents the ground floor of expectation toward the protection of ICH. It does not preclude a proactive national focus on gender, especially on women in the ICH space. Perhaps the most viable entry point for a progressive reconsideration of gender in Ghana’s experience with ICH in the context of Kente production is to consider whether the marginal role of women in this cultural space amounts to human rights infraction, especially regarding various impugned categories of discrimination. There may not be a ready and definitive answer to this proposition or inquiry. But it is worth a pensive consideration. To be objective such consideration needs to take into account the progressive and inclusive escalation and expansion of the women-friendly kente value chain and ecosystem.

Scholars have proposed the establishment of a monitoring system for ICH implementation with specific indicators for progress towards gender equality.Footnote ¹³⁷ These indicators can be used by the government to see how gender mainstreaming within the culture sector, especially in the kente-weaving industry has progressed. These indicators include an equal percentage of women in the Ministry of Culture’s decision-making staff and women’s organizations committed to cultural issues. Gender experts have suggested that “women custodians and researchers should be involved in identifying and documenting intangible cultural heritage as well as in designing policies for the safeguarding of such heritage.”Footnote ¹³⁸ The onus therefore falls on the Ghanaian Government to ensure that affirmative action laws are enacted to provide gender parity in institutions that oversee the cultural sector. The Constitution of the national ICH Committee must be made with sensitivity to gender balance. Periodic conduct of expert training on gender for the committee is desirable to equip members with the skills to perform their duties effectively. Gender sensitivity must become an essential part of preservation and safeguarding activities.Footnote ¹³⁹ The idea of gender balance does not necessarily mean that it is a license to upstage culturally rooted gender roles in kente production unless where they are against human rights. While some human rights advocate change in traditional gender rules, such may not be consistent with elements and experience of ICH in specific contexts nor for cultural relativity imperative of human rights. Article 5 of the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) provides that “a change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and the family is needed to achieve full equality between men and women.”Footnote ¹⁴⁰ The Government and other key players in the heritage sector should therefore be concerned about how to reconcile the rights of women with cultural rights as described in the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity. In the case of kente, gender inequality runs deep and requires a dedicated sensitization and delicate but hopeful trepidation around the inclusion and participation of women, perhaps beginning from existing but marginal vents in which their roles are already engaged. However, as kente production and kente products extend to variegated accessories beyond fabrics and increasingly become global and cosmopolitan, there is an opportunity for the pendulum of cultural evolution and dynamism to swing toward expedited even if fortuitous inclusion of women as a pragmatic economic strategy.Footnote ¹⁴¹

A group of scholars have argued that gender analyses of the law cannot be based solely on the patriarchal dominance of women as legal subjects.Footnote ¹⁴² Gender intersects with other factors such as culture, poverty, and illiteracy to produce different kinds of legal subjects. Women are affected by the patriarchal nature of the law; however, those consequences differ depending on factors that include culture, poverty, and illiteracy. These factors are distinct from race. While constituting part of the core of gender analysis in other jurisdictions such as the US,Footnote ¹⁴³ race is a factor of limited application in gender analysis in many African countries. In Ghana, there is the feminization of poverty. Most of the poor in Ghana are women, as in the rest of Africa. Poverty reduces the chances for women to acquire higher education, limiting employment opportunities, which is linked to the lack of economic success.Footnote ¹⁴⁴ It needs to be appreciated that, since 2022, Ghana’s distinctiveness progress in women’s education at secondary and post-secondary constitutive a showcase for the United Nations.Footnote ¹⁴⁵ Specifically, according to Statista, in 2022 only 69% of men trailing behind 73% of women in Ghana completed primary school, a trend consistent across other cadres of education.Footnote ¹⁴⁶ This progress aside, the lack of financial means limits women’s access to the courts to seek legal redress and advocate for change, especially when they face discrimination that may be constitutionally objectionable. Besides poverty, illiteracy is also a major disadvantage. Most women in Ghana are ignorant of the law and the rights they are entitled to under the law. Those who are educated to know the law are not necessarily conversant with the legal terminologies, technicalities, and proceedings of the court.Footnote ¹⁴⁷ Even the limited windows of opportunity under the law as well as the pragmatic praxis of cultural evolution would be hard to leverage by women, owing to poverty and illiteracy that keep them away from seizing available opportunities,Footnote ¹⁴⁸ including those to deal with gender discrimination and inheritance; not to mention the economic power to seek legal redress. In providing effective legal protection for women, the state needs to take a “broader approach” to tackle factors that intersect with existing cultural barriers to produce unique forms of oppression in women’s economic opportunities, as in kente production.Footnote ¹⁴⁹ It also needs to be accountable to its international obligations, ensuring responsibility even if delicate balancing act with specific or entrenched cultural practices.

Finally, there is paucity of financial and human resources for implementing the Convention. The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture manages the annual budget for the cultural sector.Footnote ¹⁵⁰ The Ministry allocates few funds to the cultural sector. The Ministry of Culture must allocate a portion of its budget to adequately safeguard existing ICH. Like countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana can also tap into UNESCO funding support to supplement its state allocation in the ICH sector.Footnote ¹⁵¹ Overall, the Convention has established minimum standards to which state parties can contribute to gender mainstreaming within the ICH system. However, Ghana must move beyond the gap in the Convention and establish a robust policy that will protect women. State Parties, including Ghana, can lead with gender-friendly state practices to animate and advocate for such gender provisions to be included in the Convention.

Community involvement in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage

Communities are central to the development of the ICH system. They are the main partners in the whole safeguarding process; without their participation, ICH elements will be in danger.Footnote ¹⁵² Article 15 of the ICH Convention provides that “in safeguarding activities of the intangible cultural heritage, each state party shall endeavor to ensure the widest possible participation of communities, groups and where appropriate, individuals that create, maintain and transmit such heritage and to involve them actively in its management.”Footnote ¹⁵³ State parties are required to facilitate cooperation between communities, groups, and individuals, and to establish a consultative body or coordination mechanism to facilitate the participation of these stakeholders in the implementation activities at national levels.Footnote ¹⁵⁴ This is especially true with regard to the identification and definition of the different elements of ICH. It also relates to the drawing up of inventories, elaboration, and implementation of programs, projects, and activities, and, finally, the preparation of nomination files for inscription on the list. State parties are also expected to adopt the required measures to sensitize communities, groups, and individuals about the significance of their ICH and the Convention and take effective measures to ensure capacity-building.Footnote ¹⁵⁵

To ensure that women’s stakes in kente weaving skills and techniques, including related rights of inheritance, the government would have to deliberately collaborate with and engage the kente-producing communities and traditional authorities in Ghana’s major ethnic nationalities.Footnote ¹⁵⁶ It could do this using human rights and the constitution as entry points to interrogate existing discriminations. So far, there is no strong evidence of community involvement in the decision-making process for safeguarding ICH. Some questions remain unanswered about issues concerning community involvement. There is no legal provision for identifying legitimate community representatives.Footnote ¹⁵⁷ That is a source of opportunity for the government to effectively engage with the dynamic of each local community to identify authentic leaders and even draw in women, where feasible. As a default, community representatives are mainly chiefs, elders, and leading kente weavers who could be educated about the issue of discrimination, the important role women play in safeguarding ICH, and the need for their participation as stakeholders in promoting the kente weaving industry. As part of the education and promotion of ICH, these core community leaders could be exposed to principles of equal rights embedded in the formal laws in Ghana.Footnote ¹⁵⁸ With proper guidance, education, and supervision, these traditional authorities could internalize the principles of equality and non-discrimination, albeit with cultural sensitivity that is amenable to negotiated changes over time as the basis of its legitimacy. From that vantage, the agency of the traditional authorities could be catalytic in mainstreaming gender consideration in ICH, especially in kente production and protocols among community members. This could result in gradual changes to entrenched socio-cultural norms on inheritance and gender roles.Footnote ¹⁵⁹ As well, it brings the implementation of the Convention in line with other human rights considerations in a culturally sensitive dynamic. The foregoing approach arguably accommodates the universality and cultural relativity of human rights norms.

In traditional Ghanaian society, cultural rights as collective rights precede individual rights. This is consistent with the African humanity philosophy of Ubuntu, in which the collective infuses the individual – the latter being the product of the former. Ghanaian culture demands that men rather than women inherit the skills and knowledge associated with kente weaving. To address the tension between women’s rights and cultural rights, individual rights must appeal to the culture of the people. This is because culture provides the context in which universal notions of rights must be interpreted and appropriated to be meaningful and effective.Footnote ¹⁶⁰ Therefore, the state needs to collaborate with community representatives for women’s rights to be effectively implemented pursuant to progressive transformations of society and Ghana’s obligation and membership in the international community. When the state supports the dedicated pursuit of community rights in their gendered and complex intersections, the outcome would be an all-inclusive national outlook that derives its legitimacy from the community. The state’s vested interest in a national outlook is not necessarily in conflict with the community’s priorities. Community members and chiefs may be able to appreciate the imperative for cultural dynamism of rethinking kente weaving protocol from a gender-inclusive paradigm, which carries subsidiary economic benefit.

Applied to kente weaving, the acknowledged agency of women in the transmission of cultural heritage generally may be required to ensure the cultural and economic sustainability of kente. This is obvious, starting from such sites where the marginal roles of women are not contested. They include the context of intangible narratives and embedded morality and ethics of kente, procuring of yarns, unadvertised participation of daughters of master weavers in the craft and practice of kente, and deference to women owing to seniority and age, to mention a few. Collectively, these demonstrate that the subjugation of women in this space is hardly absolute. As well, they also show that women’s capacity as strategic subverters of norms holds the potential for progressive change in the direction of gender. The Convention recognizes communities as equal partners with reference to gender, with State initiatives aimed at safeguarding their ICH.Footnote ¹⁶¹

Applying bottom-up, grassroots, or participatory approaches will create what Sally Falk Moore calls a “semi-autonomous social field” – a field of social interaction that lies outside the realm of state law.Footnote ¹⁶² State law includes the opinions of those in authority while peoples’ law refers to the social and cultural realities of the people. Creating a semi-autonomous social field will ensure that the domain of law and legality is not restricted to official sources of state law, but must include social and cultural realities and transformations of the people. After all, the law is perceived as being sociologically “thicker,” denser, or more complex in relation to state law. Conversely, it is regarded as “thinner,” which is sociologically simplified or less complex than a range of factors such as the social interactions and institutional arrangements that undergird the social order. When focusing on the law, we lose sight of the fact that these fields “have their own customs and rules and the means of coercing or inducing compliance.”Footnote ¹⁶³ Not surprisingly, policymakers have traditionally preferred top-down research that equates law with state law, which is often disconnected from the social and cultural realities of the people.Footnote ¹⁶⁴ Therefore, gender-sensitive state collaboration with individuals or communities toward safeguarding ICH must be community- or grassroots-driven. Involving communities in establishing state initiatives helps the initiatives to include the opinions of the people and be accepted at the grassroots level. Community representatives will also ascertain gender-sensitive initiatives that can be included in community initiatives. Such initiatives or approaches can offer insights for aligning, justifying, and reconciling community or cultural practices with extraneous expectations, whether premised on the constitution, international human rights obligations, or both. As indicated above, this will make both state and community initiatives feasible options for protecting ICH.

Maintaining the expertise of kente weaving in both ethnic groups is necessary for the transmission of kente weaving skills and techniques by agents or master weavers outside the customary family framework.Footnote ¹⁶⁵ As part of a collaboration with the community, the government could leverage master weavers and encourage the extension of their apprentice agency in gender-inclusive ways to manage opportunities for young girls interested in the craft. With the mutual collaboration of kente weaving customary authorities, the opportunity could open for young girls to obtain special training at no charge, while the government incentivizes the master weavers through available funding windows.Footnote ¹⁶⁶ As a job creation development strategy, such an investment would attract a resounding social and cultural dividend while making kente production more competitive and inclusive,Footnote ¹⁶⁷ which has positive economic ramifications.

The Republic of Korea’s experience and investment in the Living Human Treasure initiative can serve as an inspiration for Ghana on women’s potential in the ICH space. Traditionally, South Korean women are engaged in certain traditional crafts such as weaving.Footnote ¹⁶⁸ This is evident in the Living Human Treasures initiative, which contributes to training more women in the techniques of their art thereby promoting gender equality. However, without creating an apples-and-oranges scenario, the point needs to be made that, unlike Ghana’s experience with Kente, Korean women are traditionally involved in weaving as a living heritage. As such, their experience reflects an inversion of the role and experience of women in the kente production ecosystem as ICH. Nonetheless, its inspirational significance for gender in the ICH is instructive. The Korean living human treasure receives 100,000.00 Korean Won (about 850 US Dollars) a month, free medical treatment, and other special privileges.Footnote ¹⁶⁹ Trainees may gradually transition into assistant trainers under the Korean scheme and receive stipends from the government. These incentives motivate participants to contribute to promoting the cultural sector. There are also large-scale projects where public institutions and non-governmental organizations work together with the cultural communities to help sustain ICH.Footnote ¹⁷⁰ The success and positionality of women in Korean weaving make it inevitable to imagine such potential in a different cultural space taking into account contextual sensitivities, as the case may be in the Ghanaian kente context.

Non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders as the actors in safeguarding ICH

There are several other non-state actors; for example, international and home-based organizations that have made remarkable contributions to the cultural sector, including safeguarding ICH in Ghana.Footnote ¹⁷¹ Included in this group are overseas Christian organizations that liaise with local churches on short-term single projects of cultural significance. Limited projects/initiatives aimed at training women in kente weaving have been implemented with success. A notable example of the latter is the Bonwire Women’s Weaving Project. The project was initiated to empower women of Bonwire to weave kente. These are complemented by the activities of home-based organizations, some of whom engage in local and overseas fund-raising to support their work within local communities in Ghana.Footnote ¹⁷²

An NGO, the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), has developed robust advocacy strategies aimed at the inclusion of women in kente weaving and protocols. It partnered with the Anglican Mother’s Union to support the Bonwire weaving project. CEDEP adopted a collaborative fundraising model, reaching out to several other organizations such as the North American Women’s Association for financial assistance as part of its devotion to encouraging women’s weaving.Footnote ¹⁷³ CEDEP advocates for teaching kente weaving to both girls and boys in schools. Its strategic approach includes drawing Ghana Education Service personnel into the CEDEP Board. It also deploys the instrumentality of older women to break the cycle of male domination in the trade. Part of CEDEP’s advocacy strategy includes leveraging the religious front by nudging religious leaders, including Anglican priests, to denounce gender-based taboos around kente weaving from the pulpit.Footnote ¹⁷⁴

CEDEP sponsors women who have already learned the craft to events such as the International Trade Fair. CEDEP enlists willing queen mothers’ support in the effort to encourage and recruit women interested in learning kente weaving. As a result of these efforts, some elders and the Kentehene have extended their support to women weaving, using it as an incentive to stem the increasing tide of women migrating to urban centers, which tide surpasses the rate for men.Footnote ¹⁷⁵ These collaborations and strategies are complemented by various prizes and promotional incentives for female recruits. CEDEP is a model of non-state actors’ influence and agency in community and grassroots partnerships for ICH.Footnote ¹⁷⁶

Aside from NGOs, other actors in various capacities have contributed to addressing the gender gap in kente weaving and promotion of women’s participation in ICH in Ghana. Individual legacies, such as those of Lionel Idan and his instrumentality in setting up the Rural Art and Development Department at the University of Science and Technology and the National Culture Centre (NCC) in Kumasi, are well documented.Footnote ¹⁷⁷ The initiative influenced positive changes, especially gender inclusion in the Ghanaian weaving industry.Footnote ¹⁷⁸ The program at the university is research-based and aimed at ameliorating and improving local technology, as well as adjusting kente cultural production practices to the modern industrial reality. The NCC was a platform for exhibiting local crafts and technology. Idan introduced both the European broad loom and his own innovation, the boku loom, as integral to the evolution of kente weaving.Footnote ¹⁷⁹ He drew his inspiration for women to weave from his experience of witnessing Japanese women weave.Footnote ¹⁸⁰ He was convinced that cultural barriers excluding women from weaving kente were detrimental to both the women and the kente industry. Arguably, because he was not Asante and so not steeped in the cultural protocols, he was not bothered about flouting any taboos. He opened possibilities for partnership with institutions and state agencies for the inclusion of and formal training of women and their capacitation in kente weaving.

Each of the above institutional and individual attempts at opening kente to inclusive gender participation occurred in highly nuanced and contingent contexts. The degree of their success including the tradeoffs, if any, in navigating the culturally rooted gender dynamic in kente production is outside the scope of this project. However, a deliberate evaluation of such experiences would have important ramifications for policymaking in the kente sector of ICH in Ghana.

It is not as if Ghana has made little progress on gender in the context of ICH broadly. A review of the 2023 periodic report on the ICH Convention (Cycle 2020-2024), which adopts the UNESCO reporting template, is revealing. Focused on the inventorying of ICH, the report deals with all categories of ICH in four inventorying domains: “Performing Arts, Oral Traditions and Expressions, Traditional Craftmanship [including kente weaking] and Social Practices, Rituals and Festive Events.”Footnote ¹⁸¹ The mainstreaming of kente weaving and the theme of inclusivity runs through the report. However, gender is arguably a peripheral aspect of inclusivity, which is benchmarked to community, group, institutional, geographical, etc. inclusivity. Across a range of cultural policy, legal, and administrative measures, including informal and informal educational immersions, Ghana demonstrates an elaborate and penetrating flurry of activities across over twenty thematic areas covered by the report, concluding across the board that “Ghana has made tremendous progress.”Footnote ¹⁸² It demonstrates in some detail the extent to which Ghana “embraces gender and sexual preference, social class, ethnic and geographical diversity.”Footnote ¹⁸³ The report reiterated that in Ghana, “[a]ll dimensions of gender considerations, cultural and geographical diversity are taken into account by engaging local communities in the [ICH] design and implementation activities.”Footnote ¹⁸⁴ Ghana continues to make efforts regarding the integrity of ICH and in identifying authentic community representatives and stakeholders, incorporating its traditional institutions through regional houses of chiefs, queen mothers, market leaders, or queens in furtherance of gender inclusivity in the kente economic ecosystem as well as in ICH in general. A unique feature of the UNESCO Periodic Report is that it allows state parties to voluntarily project and set targets of accomplishment in the next reporting cycle (2025-2029). This leaves ample room for intentionality over inclusivity and improvement of gender concerns in the kente weaving space.

Advantages of promoting kente weaving among women in Ghana

While the last section sampled men’s impressions or biases and opposition to women weaving, it is also imperative to highlight the benefits of women weaving kente in Ghana. Those opposed to the gendered nature of kente weaving have had to contend with a litany of culturally entrenched objections highlighted above.Footnote ¹⁹⁷ Opinion is rife, on the basis of education and other factors, that in the modern age, those cultural barriers are declining but they are not necessarily about to disappear. The economic argument in favor of inclusiveness in kente weaving continues to gain evident traction. In modern Ghana, women are no longer entirely supported financially by their families; neither do they depend solely on their husbands.Footnote ¹⁹⁸ Women’s engagement in weaving renders them financially capable of taking care of themselves and their children. In the past, weavers were synonymous with “breadwinners,” and by engaging in weaving, and indeed other skills, women’s capacity for breadwinning is established. The weaving-induced economic transformation of women is due to and consistent with globalization and the growing economic independence of women all over the world.Footnote ¹⁹⁹ In addition to their domestic, even if unrequited, roles, women are key economic players on their own or alongside their husbands. Their economic activities contribute to paying bills, the education of their children, and the overall quality of life of their family. Subject to inevitable cultural dynamism and simultaneously enduring cultural sensitivities, opening up the kente weaving space for women’s participation provides a panacea for some social issues in the local communities in Ghana. One notable social issue in that regard is teenage pregnancy and its disruptive effects.Footnote ²⁰⁰

Women’s participation in kente weaving could contribute to lowering the incidences of domestic partner violence in Ghanaian society. As with other African countries, domestic violence is rife in Ghana due in part to a cultural system that entrenches male superiority and domination and the socio-culturally constructed concepts of masculinity and femininity.Footnote ²⁰¹ Those are constantly being stalked by a global socio-economic dynamic that pragmatically exerts both genders in economic production. According to research conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service, almost three out of ten women in Ghana experience domestic violence. The typical forms of domestic violence reported were economic violence (12.8%), social violence (11.6%), psychological violence (6.0%), and sexual violence (2.5%).Footnote ²⁰² A major cause of domestic violence is financial dependency of women on their husbands or partners. Research shows that most women are not able to leave abusive relationships because they are trapped financially in marriage. As an economic venture, kente weaving has a liberating effect and potential for Ghanaian women to achieve self-sufficiency and escape from poverty and forms of domestic violence.Footnote ²⁰³ But for all that to happen, women participating in kente weaving must be delicately negotiated in ways that preserve highly entrenched cultural and gender sensitivities that are integral aspects of kente as ICH. Those sensitivities constitute forms of the customary legitimacy to the status quo.

Research has shown that women’s participation in kente weaving increased production and sectoral growth, attracted tourists, and naturally resulted in an increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and overall economic output.Footnote ²⁰⁴ Kente is exported as one of the main symbols of pride for Ghanaians and indeed African diaspora.Footnote ²⁰⁵ The continuous expansion of kente as a cultural treasure, which now spans beauty products, souvenirs, arts, dress accoutrements, and various feminine aesthetics and accessories provides an opportunity for women to participate in ways that could offer a significant economic opportunity for Ghana. Apparently, this progressive expansion in the contours of kente provides logical opportunities for the accommodation of women and renders malleable entrenched gender roles in the kente ecosystem. In addition, the role of women as kente cultural bearers (actively wearing, showcasing, and modeling kente) is one yet to be factored in the gender-inclusive and gender-appreciation debate. There is much more opportunity for tourism, economic growth, and national development with continued investment in women’s participation in kente weaving.Footnote ²⁰⁶

Providing an equitable framework for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Ghana

There are many possible pathways to improve and advance the role and contributions of women as creators, custodians, protectors, and transmitters of ICH, as evident in Ghana’s experience with kente. As already mentioned, gender mainstreaming in the cultural sector is an imperative that involves several measures. First, there is a need for representativeness – recruitment of women in the cultural sector, including the Ministry of Culture, at the highest levels of decision-making.Footnote ²⁰⁷

In addition to progress in this direction, as evident in the 2020-2024 cycle periodic report on ICH, the involvement of women in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage would require continuing reform in Ghana’s education systems. First, the educational curriculum could intensify the incorporation of various aspects of ICH in the curriculum, including kente weaving, in a manner that is respectful but culturally progressive to mitigate culturally entrenched discrimination. Ghana could draw inspiration from such regions as Cyprus, which, through the Culture Ministry, has incorporated various ICH elements in the primary and secondary school curriculum.Footnote ²⁰⁸ Such an initiative has the potential to pursue an increase in the number of women in tertiary institutions in the creative and fine arts, humanities, and other ICH-relevant disciplines.Footnote ²⁰⁹

The use of museums in protecting existing ICH is also important. Museums are recognized as a place of representation, preservation, and conservation of the tangible cultural property of the past.Footnote ²¹⁰ Ideally, museums are neither directly implicated nor do they contribute to the safeguarding of ICH. However, museums could be important sites for the creation, recreation, and transmission of ICH given the fuzzy boundary between tangible cultural property and intangible cultural heritage. In partnership with communities and stakeholders, museums could exhibit not only the kente patterns, especially those woven by women. They could showcase the expansion of kente-inspired and branded accessories, mapping how those may have enhanced gender inclusiveness. As well, museums also highlight accompanying narratives that include the role of women in relation to moral, social, and ethical values, and other range of intangible cultural aspects of kente. Women should be reasonably represented in the human resources in the museums to ensure that the vision of women’s active participation in the cultural industry is realized.Footnote ²¹¹ In addition, poor representation of women in the media is another site where proactive inclusion of women promotes and advances women’s patronage and contributions to kente and all manner of skill-building for safeguarding of ICH.Footnote ²¹² Again, Ghana’s 2020-2024 cycle report is replete with active involvement in virtually all strata of media, TVs, FM radio stations, etc. Specifically, it cited the collaboration of the National Folklore Board (NFB) with “GTV, TV3, Adinkra TV, Metro TV, HSTV and radio stations such as Adinkra Radio, Joy FM, Peace FM etc.”Footnote ²¹³ Some intentionality and sensitivity for gender activism in this space would have a significant impact.

Women need financial power and capital to effectively participate in the progressively negotiated and transformative space for kente weaving and entrepreneurship in order, for example, to overcome disadvantage over decreased access to weaving materials. Not only is the price of synthetic yarns expensive,Footnote ²¹⁴ there is a preference for synthetic yarns by most weavers to a degree that does not allow for the optimum operation of local cotton yarns in Ghana. Some of these yarns are imported from neighboring Nigeria at a premium, a situation that can be hopefully reversed with the onset of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The lack of access to capital renders women less competitive in an unregulated and import-oriented market for synthetic yarn.Footnote ²¹⁵ Given the economics of capital with gender implications, the government must revitalize and promote local cotton spinning industries to reduce the cost of yarns, which would have a positive effect on women’s participation in weaving, in addition to repositioning local Ghanaian yarns to compete with the imported synthetic yarns.Footnote ²¹⁶

Support for the vibrancy of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is important. This is also captured in the 2020-2024 cycle report.Footnote ²¹⁷ NGOs have proven to be key actors in the kente-weaving economic sector. As highlighted above, several NGOs contribute to the training and support of women in the kente weaving industry. To be able to contribute, NGOs can benefit from the helping hands of the public sector in a number of ways, such as logistical support and other incentives.Footnote ²¹⁸ In the absence of optimal government financial support, NGOs could be supported through matching grants. Notably, some of the activities undertaken by CEDEP in Ghana are financed by governments in other countries. For example, since 1993, Japan has supported over 100 projects through the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust for the safeguarding of ICH. Also, in Jordan through governmental funding, NGOs are able to carry out important work in the field of ICH protection to ensure the effective execution of tasks, assisting in building capacities of the community.Footnote ²¹⁹ In Mexico, the government has created the National Fund for the Development of Crafts (FONART), the Mexican Federal Government’s public trusteeship based in the Secretariat of Social Development, which promotes domestic handcrafts.Footnote ²²⁰

Like in other informal and medium and small-scale entrepreneurial contexts (SMEs), intellectual property over kente designs is a source of concern for most weavers in Ghana. Weavers create very interesting designs but awareness of copyright is low and difficult due to the lack of legal support for weavers. The intersection of Ghana’s 2005 Copyright Act with ICH, including the context of kente weakening, expressions, traditional craftsmanship, etc., is also highlighted in the 2020-2024 cycle report as aspects of legal measures necessary for the promotion of ICH (p.47).Footnote ²²¹ Some textile printing companies freely appropriate woven kente designs in their prints. Those prints, which are mass-produced abroad, reduce the patronage of the local kente cloth while undermining the value of the original designs. Low patronage leads to uncertainties in the kente market.Footnote ²²² Women’s creativity and design are unique, and in an industry where women are struggling to redress their historic marginalization, their intellectual creation deserves protection. However, there are new opportunities and support for the industrialized appropriation of Ghanaian women’s handcrafted textiles by women cloth traders who control the market in manufactured textiles.Footnote ²²³