Kente cloth-inspired craft available throughout African Heritage Month

Craft projects in the libraries are a big draw for many families and children. Throughout the pandemic, many take-home craft kits were created, keeping the community engaged.

“We kind of got away from the take home, focusing on passive activities,” said Fleuren-Hunter. “We thought we’d use it as an opportunity.”

Looking around at the readily available supplies at the library in Antigonish where she works out of, Fleuren-Hunter noticed an abundance of various coloured paper.

The idea behind the craft isn’t to replicate kente weaving, but take inspiration, using it to educate youth. The various colours and shapes traditionally used in kente weaving have significance behind them. Children are encouraged to make a paper weaving that is meaningful to them, choosing whichever colours and shapes they desire.

“These are things we could be doing the whole year,” she said.

According to Fleuren-Hunter, families are always looking for engaging crafting opportunities.

Kente cloth, the most widely known cloth produced in Africa, is brightly coloured and made from thin strips woven together. Typically, men weave the cloth.

The kente garment is a fabric worn around the shoulders and waist, varying slightly in design for men and women.

The original cloth was said to be taken from the web of a spider, just a piece of the unique mythology behind the cloth.

The traditional colours represented in the weavings have different meanings. Blue is used to represent love, green is used for growth and energy, yellow or gold represents wealth and royalty, red is violence and anger, white represents victory and good, grey depicts shame, and black is used to symbolize death and old age.