The second lady of Ghana, Hajia Samira Bawumia has inaugurated a Museum at Bonwire in the Ashanti region meant for the preservation and projection of one of Ghana’s most cherished traditional woven cloths, Kente, to attract local and foreign tourists.
The facility is the latest addition to Ghana’s tourism attraction and is to be managed by a seven-member management team.
The Museum features a reception area, office space, an exhibition centre, a showroom, a video room, and washroom facilities.
The Kente Museum is a key part of the craft villages’ circuit project initiated by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture under the Ghana Tourism Development project.
The origin of the famous adorable Kente cloth is traced to the ancient Asante town of Bonwire located in the Ejisu Municipality.
Two brothers of the town, Kuragu, and Ameyaw, both farmers, are credited as being the first to have woven it in the 17th century after closely studying how the spider or Ananse, in the Twi dialect, wove its web, having studied the art during one of their hunting expeditions.
Today, the Kente cloth’s recognition and appreciation transcends the borders of Ghana receiving appreciable patronage as one of the most sumptuous fabrics and adorned mostly by the elite for important occasions, cutting across formal, traditional, and religious events.
The Museum at Bonwire is an initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, taking two years to complete, to preserve and project Kente as a worthy tourist attraction to add to boost the sector.
It is co-located with the Bonwire Kente Village which has been in place for many years now serving as the hub for the weaving and sales of the kente cloth.
The Kente Museum has its outside designed in various Adinkra symbols which have also become the dominant designs in modern kente cloths.
The facility has also a reception, audio-visual room, and exhibition hall among others.
Internals of the Museum have been stocked and decorated with the historical designs of Kente with their respective unique names as well as prominent national and international personalities adorned with the cloth.
Wife of the Vice President, Hajia Samira Bawumia, disclosed that the Museum forms part of the government’s agenda to preserve Ghana’s cultural heritage and project tourism as a viable revenue earner for the economy.
According to her even though Kente could be bought anywhere in Ghana including the national capital, Accra, the pieces procured at Bonwire come with a certain high prestige that makes everyone yearn for, hence her applause for the Kente Museum.
The Bonwire Kente Museum is part of a bigger national development programme to position tourism as the number one income earner to increase the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Some members of the Management Board for the Museum were inducted.
They are the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority, representing the GTA, a representative of each of the traditional authorities, and the Kente weavers.
The local Kente Weavers Association outdoored and gifted a newly designed Kente Cloth christened ‘Lady Samira Bawumia’ to the wife of the Vice President.
Two other persons, Afua Asantewaa Aduonum and Serwaa Amihere, who are Tourism Ambassadors, were also presented with different designs of the Kente Cloth in appreciation of their contributions towards the promotion of the cloth.