The Ultimate Guide To Kente Cloth Graduation Stoles
One of the most important days of a student’s life is graduation day. Looking good on graduation day is extremely important, especially when graduation photos are some of the most viral photos on the internet. While looking good, you want to communicate wants important to you as well. The Kente Stole is one of those pieces that help you look better and communicate what matters to you most at the same time. The Kente Cloth Graduation Stole is a special item which is usually given out at many educational, religious, and royal ceremonies, such as graduations. Here are all of the facts about the most sacred item that is used at rites of passage ceremonies, the Kente Cloth Graduation Stole.
What Are Kente Cloth Graduation Stoles?
Many students who attend Colleges and Universities know that they will receive a Graduation Stole also known as the Kente Cloth. However, many students may not realize that the Kente Cloth has a deep, long, sacred history and purpose that all students, who are entering their education or even are graduating from their long, successful journey should know about.
The Kente Cloth Graduation Stole is a cloth that comes in a variety of colors and designs that represent various meanings. There are also many purposes of why people from all around the African Diaspora would use a Kente Cloth.
The Kente Cloth has been used throughout the world for many events, as a rite of passage for different occasions, touching the lives of many people around the world for as long as 378 years. The Kente Cloth originated in Ghana with a group of people called the Ashanti people.
What many students and people may not know about the Kente Cloth is that there is a legend behind this Cloth. Two brothers from a village called Bonwire by the names of Kurugu and Ameya found a spider. The brothers were amazed by the spider because they saw that the spider was able to spin webs and create beautiful patterns within these webs. The brothers were so inspired by this that they decided to create cloth with patterns just like the spider had done with its web; so the brothers decided to create their first Kente Cloth.
The first Kente Cloth, as well as the Western version of Kente Cloth, was made with fibers that were black and white and came from a tree called the raffia palm tree. The raffia palm tree is a tree that grows in Africa, Madagascar, and the Philippines. The raffia palm tree takes about 20 to 25 years to grow and five years to grow a fruit known as the fiber. The fiber from the raffia trees are used to create items that people use every day such as baskets and hats.
Today, many students wear Kente Cloth Graduation Stoles in popular ceremonies such as their graduation ceremonies or a rite of passage such as the Sankofa Rite of Passage ceremony. The Sankofa Rite of Passage Ceremony is similar to students who complete their Associate's College Degree because it celebrates a student’s completion of their first two years in college. Universities such as the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida hold the Sankofa Rite of Passage every year for Sophomore students entering their Junior year of college.
The Kente Cloth Graduation Stoles are given to students who are celebrating the Rite of Sankofa. They receive their Stoles in their school colors. The colors that Bethune-Cookman University students on their Sankofa Rite of Passage Ceremony are Maroon and Gold. The Kente Stoles that are given to students are made in the colors, black, yellow, red, gold and green. These Kente Stoles and rites of passage have been given out since the 1970s.
The idea of wearing Kente Stoles during graduations originated with the Pan African Movement in the 1950s. The Pan African Movement began in the African Diaspora in the Western Hemisphere by W.E.B Du Bois. W.E.B Du Bois created the psychological and emotional idea of Pan-Africanism. The purpose of the Pan-African movement was to bring the people of the African Diaspora closer to success in educational, economic, political and psychological power with other races of people in the world which is also the idea of Pan-Africanism.
The Kente Cloth was cherished by those who were apart of the Pan-African Movement because of its representation of how far African-Americans have come in creating a change in their lives educationally which has led to a change economically. On May 15, 1993, a ceremony known as the Kente Commencement Ceremony was started by four individuals from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Two faculty members, Dr. Franklin Simpson, Director of Affirmative Action and Jerome “Skip” Hutson, Director of Minority Affairs, met with two English professors, Drs. Christian Awuyah and C. James Trotman. They came together to create the ceremony as a way to celebrate their students’ graduation. At the ceremony, selected students would wear a Kente Stole during their graduation ceremony.
Today, middle school students, high school students, and college students wear Kente Stoles during graduation to represent the difficult journey from student to graduate while being a part of the African Diaspora. A Kente Cloth Graduation Stole is given to students as a celebration and a privilege for their experiences in completing their education at colleges such as Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, Howard University in Washington D.C., FAMU in Tallahassee, Florida and many more. However, each Kente Cloth comes with its own meaning.
Some Kente Cloth displays different patterns such as the Golden Stool, Your Heart’s Desire, and Baako mmu man. The Golden Stool represents the absolute power or the sunsum of the Ashanti Kingdom. There is also a legend of the Golden Stool in which it is translated to sika ‘dwa, a word from a language of the Ashanti people called the ‘Akan language. The Golden Stool came from a cloud full of white dust from heaven. The Golden Stool then fell onto Nana Okei Tutu who was the king of the Ashanti Empire from 1701 to 1717. Today, each King of the Ashanti or Ashanti Asantehene will sit on top of the Golden Stool anytime he appears in public.
Baaku mmu man is part of the Akan language of the Ashanti Kingdom and its translation states that it takes two men to lead a country. Cloth of the Baaku mmu man involves green, choral and gold colors and the cloth for Your Heart’s Desire includes the colors, green, gold, and purple. The colors in the Kente Stoles also have a meaning of their own. For example, in a Kente Cloth Graduation Stole, yellow represents growth, gold represents status or power, green represents renewal, blue represents purity or harmony, red represents passion or love for something. Brown represents healing because it is associated with the mother. Purple represents femininity since it is a color that many women wear. Pink also represents feminists but it represents the way of feminine life. The way of the feminine life could be how a woman would present herself in society such as love and sweetness. Silver represents joy along with peace and black represents the spiritual connection with those who lived before us.
The symbols in a Kente Cloth Graduation Stole such as triangles and circles also have meaning. In a Kente Stole, the square represents the earth and its association with femininity. The triangles in a Kente Stole represent multiple things. The three sides of the triangle represent family and life while the base of the triangle represents mortality and the existence of someone. Another shape on the Kente Cloth is the diamond. The diamond has two triangles one that is upside down and another triangle that is downside up. Though both triangles show a monarchy, each triangle represents different meanings. The triangle that is right-side up represents the King or the Chief in a monarchy and the upside-down triangle represents the people or the followers of the monarchy. Today, College graduates who were Kente Cloth Graduation Stoles place their own symbols and words to represent their majors, names, schools, sayings or graduation year.
Some of the most important leaders in history such as the first prime minister of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah wore a Kente Stole in 1958 to meet President Eisenhower in the United States. In the 1970s, the Kente Stole became a popular garment within the fashion world. Even various leaders from the Black Panthers such as Fred Hampton wore a Kente Stole to symbolize black power. The Kente Stole would later become a staple of Urban Black life in the 1980s along with Dashikis.
The Kente Cloth is really a reflection of the Ashanti people who were from the Ashanti Empire in Ghana, West Africa who were enslaved to the modern life of Ghana. The Kente Cloth Graduation Stole should always be represented as an important piece that reminds everyone of where you have come from and how hard you have worked to get to where you are. Everyone should continue to see the Kente Stole as apart of themselves and to remember the history of the Pan-African Movement and the slavery the Ashanti people endured as well as our ancestors who have had to fight through the world as slaves without losing touch of their history.
