Black History Month

Each grade level explored different parts of Africa through art!

Kente Cloth

Introduction to Kente Cloth (beautifully colored, traditional woven fabric of West Africa) for K-2nd grade with an Ashanti legend... Two friends who had gone hunting in the forest came across a giant spider (the famous Ananzé) who was weaving her web.  They were so amazed that they stayed welded in place for two days, contemplating the spider at work.  When they returned from hunting, they imitated the animal and wove a cloth out of raffia.  This is how was born the first kente which was offered to the king.  The Asantehene (king) was so amazed by the beauty of the present, that he elevated the weavers to the rank of royalty, and they became the king’s exclusive tailors. The clothes woven for the king were each unique, and whoever tried to reproduce them was severely punished

I love how creative the students were in their designs! 

Supplies: precut strips of paper and shapes, glue sticks, white paper, yarn, hole punch. 

As the students finished glueing pieces down, I showed them how to tie a hitch knot to add yarn to the bottom of their piece.

Mud Cloth

Legend has it that a woman was washing her husband’s clothes when she accidentally dropped them in mud. They were stained brown and the technique of mud cloth dyeing was born.

It was later discovered that fermented mud reacts with tannin and produces black. White is formed by bleaching away the color. The cloth is soaked in a dye bath made from mashed and boiled, or soaked, leaves of the n'gallama tree. Now yellow, the cloth is sun-dried and then painted with designs using a piece of metal or wood. The paint, carefully and repeatedly applied to outline the intricate motifs, is a special mud, collected from riverbeds and fermented for up to a year in a clay jar. Thanks to a chemical reaction between the mud and the dyed cloth, the brown color remains after the mud is washed off. Finally, the yellow n'gallama dye is removed from the unpainted parts of the cloth by applying soap or bleach, rendering them white.

Students practiced paper weaving with earth tones. Once weaving is completed, we filled the cloth with symbols. The symbols (Boglan) are not meant to be universally legible. The motifs are drawn as a code for the initiated, rather than something everyone can interpret. Besides, understanding the symbols used in traditional bogolan is not as simple as understanding a language or an alphabet. There are some basic motifs that are employed by bogolan artists the world over – a twirl for Life, and concentric circles for words – but other motifs are open to interpretation.

Handout showing symbol meanings and space to practice drawing them:

African Trading Beads

The earliest known beads were made from materials such as bone, teeth, ivory, seeds, wood, stone, and resins from a variety of insects and plants. The purpose of the first beads worn is believed to have been protection against uncontrollable events such as harsh weather, to enhance beauty, and as a show of status in the society.

People started using trade beads when trade routes were established and there was a need for currency. However, most of the trade beads in the market today were used even while there were other currencies. These were used by Europeans to trade with people who did not know about currency such as Africans and Native American Indians.

In Africa, trade beads were used in West Africa by Europeans who got them from Venice, Holland, and Bohemia. They used millions of beads to trade with Africans for slaves, services, and goods such as palm oil, gold, and ivory. The trade with Africans was so vital that some of the beads were made specifically for Africans.

Precut strips of magazine pages into long triangles (the length of a magazine page). Starting with the wider end, begin rolling strip around a pencil or straw (try to keep the paper centered and tight). As you get close to the end, apply a small drop of liquid glue and continue rolling. Spread an excess glue around the outside of the bead to hold it together and create a protective coating. I had each student make at least 6 beads depending on if they wanted to make a necklace or bracelet.