Agbozume Kente weavers cry for help

Kente Weavers at Agbozume in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region have appealed to the government and other stakeholders to help curb the canker of middlemen in the Agbozume Kente market.

According to them, this urgent request is to stem the canker of cheating by middlemen in the Agbozume Kente Market.

Mr. Paul Awuku, a renowned weaver and member of the Agbozume Kente Weavers Association, who spoke to this reporter said, Kente weaving has for several decades been a source of livelihood for indigenes of the area.

He said, the trade which had helped a lot of people in the area to pay for their tuition to acquire higher education, is no longer lucrative and attractive due to cheating and other financial challenges.

Awuku said, the number of weavers in the business now as compared to some years ago is on the increase which has reduced the business to a hand-to-mouth one.

He further stated that "the activities of these middlemen in the market has worsened the trade in a way that many weavers are running at a loss and cannot even make ends meet."

"These middlemen, because of the low patronage of our Kente these days, will offer us pittances, take our Kente to Accra and Kumasi and even Nigeria and sell them at exorbitant prices, depriving us of our earnings".

He appealed to the Ministry of Trade and Industry to intervene in this disturbing situation, adding that, the trade Ministry's intervention would help revive the occupation in the area and to boost the Kente industry in the country.

Awuku further called on the authorities to assist in putting measures in place to bring some sanity to their operation in the market so as to sustain their livelihoods.

Mr. Godson Sena Adjavon, a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) resource person who has worked closely with the Kente weavers in the area, in an interaction with this reporter said, the UNDP was working with the weavers in the areas of training and capacity building to enable them to improve upon their trade and maximize their incomes, to earn better livelihoods and to cater for their dependents.

He said the UNDP had concluded plans to build a Kente village in the enclave to assist the local people to harness their potential and to catch up with new market trends in the industry.

He revealed that land and feasibility studies have been concluded for the construction of the Kente village and assured of the execution of the project in a couple of months to benefit the local weavers.

Kente weaving is particularly famous with the people of Sóme Traditional Area of Ghana, with its capital located at Agbozume.

As with other Ewe people of South-Eastern Ghana, kente weaving is an occupation that the people brought along with them from Hogbe, the centres of emigration including Ketu in Yorubaland and Ŋɔtsie in the present-day republic of Togo.

The occupation used to be a lucrative one, but things have in recent times taken a downward trend, which is taking a toll on the lives and livelihoods of the indigenes.

The youth of the area who in the past joined their parents in the occupation soon after completing junior and senior high schools, to help raise funds to further their education, have all now abandoned the business for the fact that it was no longer viable and yielded next to nothing.