This woman's wrapper, handsewn of five panels in geometric block patterns, was reported as being worn as a scarf. In West Africa, cloth is made of wool, cotton or silk, or combinations of these materials. Woven on narrow strip looms, they are then hand or machine-sewn together to create large wrappers, cloths or blankets with patterns dyed or woven into the fabric.
Weft designs cover the entire background of the cloth. The intricate composition, called adweneasa, "my skill is exhausted" or "my ideas have come to an end," requires three pairs of heddles to weave. The designs are usually restricted to alternating nwatoa and adwin, eliminating the more easily executed babadua bands. The cloth is one of the best known, and weavers who can make it are considered masters. This type of cloth is also known as asasia. The term, however, is sometimes restricted to cloth that employs twill weave, which is not present in this piece. Adweneasa cloth, the most prestigious of the Asante cloths, was once reserved for the Asantehene and his close associates.
Description:
Wrapper or woman's scarf composed of five panels handsewn at the selvedges in geometric block patterns of red, light green, yellow, blue brown and white.
Provenance:
Venice and Alastair Lamb, England, purchased in Bonwire, Ghana, 1969 to 1985
Exhibition History:
Patterns of Life: West African Strip-Weaving Traditions, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1987-February 29, 1988
Published References:
Gilfoy, Peggy. 1987. Patterns of Life: West African Strip Weaving Traditions. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 89, no. 36.
Ross, Doran. 1998. Wrapped in Pride. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, p. 299, no. 9.
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National Museum of African Art, National Museum of Natural History, purchased with funds provided by the Smithsonian Collections Acquisition Program, 1983-85, EJ10577
