VIDEO: An Ewe Historian explains meaning of ‘Kete’; Says Ewes were not slaves to Asantes
A man weaving Kete
An Ewe Historian known as Osorfo Kofitse Ahadzie has explained the meaning of ‘Kete’ weaving in the Volta Region.
He has completely shattered the misleading and unsubstantiated notion that “Kete” now called “Kente” weaving was taught by or learnt from spiders. He lucidly broke down the system of “Kente” weaving in binary terms. According to him, the original word is “Kete” (open and close), not “Kente.”
Explaining further, he said ,the system of weaving is opening, pass the wap through it and close it. The practice of opened and closing is what was described as “Kete” by our forefathers.
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He again said, never in history has the Ewes ethnic groups ever been in servitude under the Asantes. As a matter of fact, it was the Asantes who came to Anlo State to plead that Ewes never wage war against them.
According to history, this was contained in a covenant signed by the blood of the Asantehene, a copy is still with the ‘Aʋadada’, overlord, of the Anlo state, Torgbui Agbesi Awusu II.
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“To individuals who believe ‘Kete’ was learnt from the Asantes, are rather misinterpreting and misinforming the Public on the History of Ghana.” Said.
The Ewe ethnic groups are worried over how people want to misinform and indoctrinate the younger generation with such falsehood.
His video surfaced on social media after publishers of History of Ghana published unapproved bigotry and derogatory textbooks against the Ewe ethnic groups.
Earlier, the Volta Regional House of Chiefs led by Togbe Tepre Hodo IV has reacted to the bigotry publications and asked the Publishers to immediately apologize, withdraw and destroy all the textbooks.
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In the textbooks intercepted by Coverghana.com.gh, the Publishers in unapproved History of Ghana textbooks said,
How the Ewes Dress
The Ewe make their own cloth called Kente and it is similar to the Asante Kente clofn because they learned it from the Akans when they we there into siavery. They used the name Kete to describe their woving dress. they dress in large Loin cloth of kente wrapped around the body, including a pan on their shoulder.
Language
They speak four dialects. Ewe is a community language of some African States. The language can be found in the four West Africa countries, namely, Ghana, Togo, Benin and the Republic of Nigeria. There are other languages such as Fon, Phla, Phera and Aja.
Political Institution of Ewes
The Ewe ethnic group had their system of governance where their main chiefs were the overall boss. That is, they had all powers over the twons. They controlled all the affairs of the towns.
Below is the textbook from Publishers.
But, the Ewe ethnic groups believe that, the publications from the Publishers are misleading and does not portray the culture of the Ewes.
Please watch the video of Osorfo Kofitse Ahadzie and clear your doubt on who actually learnt Kete weaving from who.
SOURCE: Coverghana.com.gh
