Kwasi Asare grew up weaving kente — his father created the kente piece commissioned by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president after declaring independence from Britain, to hang outside the United Nations General Assembly building in 1960.
According to NDiaye, the colorful patterned fabrics known as kente can be traced back to the Asante people of the Akan kingdom in what is now Ghana.
NDiaye notes that kente cloth became especially symbolic when Ghana gained independence in 1957 and the country's president and strong proponent of Pan-africanism, Kwame Nkrumah, wore it often.
NDiaye says the style of wearing strips of kente around the shoulders, like those donned by U.S. legislators this week, most likely became commonplace when students at historically black colleges and universities — like Morehouse College in Atlanta — began wearing kente cloth at graduation.
Asare says he didn't feel comfortable with the use of kente upon seeing the photographs, but now takes a more "relaxed" stance towards what the intentions of the members of Congress were in wearing the traditional handwoven cloths.
