By: Ewoenam Kpodo | Voltaonlinegh.Com |
The chiefs and people of Agotime Traditional Area in the Volta Region have called on all to partake in their annual festival, Agbamevorza also known as Kente Festival which will be climaxed by a grand durbar on Saturday, October 20, 2018 at Kpetoe.
Activities for the annual festival which promotes the Agotime tradition of weaving Ewe kente (kete) had begun with church services in selected towns in the area on Sunday 14 and traditional prayers on Monday 15.
The Warlord of Agotime Traditional Area, Nene Akoto Sah VII in an interview with Voltaonlinegh.com promised tourists and visitors to the 2018 Agbamevorza an interesting experience.
“Agotime will be alive with colourful activities from Thursday through to Saturday. On Friday, there will be kente weaving competition which is usually an exhibition of dexterity and alacrity of the local weavers to come out with quality work and new designs. When you talk of quality and unique kente, it is Ewe kente and Agotime is home to that.”
Nene Akoto Sah added that “there will also be musical concerts, a Miss Kente beauty contest, drawing of water from River Tordzi, musketry ritual, war-like display, and on the day of the durbar, thousands of kente designs to feed your eyes on.”
The Warlord who took his time to give a little bit of history of the festival said the people of Agotime revived the purification of the weaving loom and accessories into a traditional festival known as Agbamevorza over 20 years ago to market the woven cloth which started with the Ewes and importantly, Agotime Kpetoe.
He explained that the first settlers in the Agotime area were Dangmes but were later joined by Ewe groups, adding, the Dangmes along with the Ewes learned to spin cotton several years ago and turned these into woven loom-cloth before they arrived at where they are today.
He said their forebears used to cultivate cotton, harvest, turn it into yarns, dye them and then use them to weave the cloth. To him, the story of kente coming from the Asantes as it had come to be known was not factual and that the Ewe weavers took the art of kente weaving to them.
Nene therefore called on all to visit Kpetoe on the special event of the 2018 Agbamevorza for quality and variety of kente woven using more cotton combined with silken thread, making it stronger, thicker and sturdier on the wearer.”
Kete as it is called in Ewe, is the method of producing the cloth in the loom (agbatsi) by opening (ke) with the foot-pedal and then using one hand to pull the thread tight (te). And so, the cloth (avor) produced from the loom is called “agbatsimevor” shortened to “agbamevor” making the festival (aza) the people of Agotime Kpetoe celebrate, Agbamevorza.
Source: www.voltaonlinegh.com
