University of Groningen
Colourful changes
Kraamer, Malika
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Kraamer, M. (2005). Colourful changes: two hundred years of design and social history in the hand-woven
textiles of the Ewe speaking regions of Ghana and Togo (1800-2000) Groningen: s.n.
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Chapter One. Introduction
Womets‚a miasi fia ame =e dedu me o.
One does not point to one’s hometown with the left hand.
1. Ewe People and Eweland
The word ‘kente’ is, throughout the world, associated with textiles woven in
southern Ghana, comprising cloth woven by Ewe and Asante weavers. However, in
contrast to Asante textiles, which superficially resemble Ewe cloth, textiles woven in
the Ewe-speaking area of the Volta Region in Ghana and southern Togo have so far
received little scholarly attention (see for example Ross 1998)1. Weaving is one of the older
art traditions in this region and an enormous diversity of textiles is produced in several
weaving centres, a variety that cannot be found in any other documented West African
textile tradition. Textiles from the Ewe-speaking area are woven for ceremonial use in
the region, and also for export to other parts of West Africa. Recent studies of Yoruba
weaving, and of textiles in the Niger Delta region (see for example Clarke 1999, Aronson 1982,
and Eicher and Erekosima 1987),
have indicated that Ewe textile design has been a
significant influence in West Africa well beyond the Ewe-speaking region.
In this study I examine several distinct traditions of Ewe weaving through the
19th and 20th centuries. This study will provide a description of techniques, materials
and motifs, and investigate the development of these textiles’ forms and industries, the
relationship between their histories and the emergence of 20th century Ewe identities,
the social networks of making and marketing these cloths, and the significance of
patterns and designs within the wider domains of social practice. I argue that change lies
at the core of these textile traditions, and to understand the ways in which changes have
occurred, one must understand the technology, local fabric classifications and concepts
of creativity, the education system, the production, consumption and distribution of the
textiles, and the practice of designing a new pattern. The study adds extensively not only
to our knowledge of Ewe and adjacent textile traditions, especially the historic
interrelations with Asante and Yoruba cloth, but also to wider issues in the study of
African art such as the nature of innovation, local concepts of creativity, the relationship
between textiles and social identity, and the local historical processes of naming and
classifying art works.
1
One of the reasons being the complex history of the Ewe-speaking area and the plurality of languages of
the main archival sources, including Ewe, French, English and German.
48
Chapter One. Introduction
The geographical area of the research conducted for this thesis forms part of
what ethnographers, historians and anthropologists have often described as Eweland (see
map 1: Ewe-speaking region; e.g. Spieth 1906, Westermann 1935, Sprigge 1971, de Surgey 1988,
Amenumey 1986)2.
In terms of ecology, and the linguistic, social and religious
environments the Ewe-speaking area is noticeably heterogeneous. Even though there
exist a sense of unity among its people, the different group identifications are largely
contextual and have shifted over time. The process of formation of certain group
identities is ongoing and full of contradictions and ambiguities; “Ewe ethnicity” is thus
a problematic term, and so is “Ewe textiles”, which will therefore only be used
henceforth as a convenient shortcut but which has little substance in local terms (see
p.73)3.
To fully understand the use, production and classifications of the textiles woven
in this area (the real subject of this thesis) it is important to explore such questions of
group identities. This chapter therefore describes the physical, linguistic and social
environment of the region to today and provides an account of the history of the area,
and explore regional notions of ethnicity, in particular the emergence of an Ewe identity.
The chapter will also outline the methodologies and sources used for my research, and
look at the different textile traditions, weaving centres and their histories, ending with
an overview of the rest of the thesis.
st
The Ewe-Speaking Region at the Turn of the 21 Century
Some detailed information on the Ewe-speaking peoples is needed to understand
their own sense of identity. The larger portion of Ewe speakers lives in the southern
Volta Region in Ghana, with a smaller number in the Republic of Togo4. Ewe-speaking
communities are also found in the larger towns of West Africa especially Ghana, Togo,
Benin and Nigeria and further afield, in the United States and Europe. Many
2
The boundaries of this area, where the majority of the people speak Ewe, has been defined differently at
separate points in time and even among contemporary scholars. This has partly to do with the
heterogeneous character of the area, but also because the term ‘Ewe’ is used in the literature to define both
a linguistic and a cultural group. Several fields of study use more than different definitions - scholars from
or of Togo and Benin classify the area differently from scholars from or of Ghana (see de Medeiros 1984).
3
I will refer to weavers from the ‘Ewe-speaking area’, but also mention ‘Ewe weavers’ for convenience.
In the same way I will refer to weavers from the Twi-speaking area and Asante weavers. I will interchange
‘Ewe weavers’ and ‘weavers from the Ewe-speaking area’ to remind the reader of the somewhat arbitrary
nature of ethnically labelling people and art, the complex nature between art and ethnicity (which would
be overlooked if we speak just about Ewe textiles), the strong interrelationship between those textile
traditions, and the cultural and linguistic background of weavers who produce these textiles.
4
According to the 2000 Census of Ghana, 2,387,600 Ewe people lived in Ghana, 12.7 % of the total
population. According to the 2002 Togo estimates, 1,008,000 Ewe people lived in Togo, 21% of the total
population.
49
Chapter One. Introduction
descendants of the area can be found in Brazil, the Caribbean and the United States due
to the transatlantic slave trade.
The majority of people living in the Ewe-speaking area today define themselves
as Ewe as a regional identity, but this is juxtaposed against differing social identities5.
The region is also home to other Ewe-related language groups, such as speakers of AjaHwe, Oatchi and Fon, and other non-Ewe-related language groups, including Yoruba-,
Hausa- and Zarma-speakers. However, these regional and social identities are fluid,
situational, and have changed over time.
The Ewe-speaking area can be divided into three physical regions: a southern
coastal lowland, including the coastal area in southern Ghana; a central plain, including
Agotime; and an upland or valley region,
hereafter called the inland area. The
development of larger weaving
communities, of which Agotime and the
coastal area in Ghana have become the
most important, has been partly
influenced by the environment,
Figure 1-1: Coastal Area between Agbozume and
Anlo-Afiadenyigba, June 2000. Photo courtesy Jentie
Kraamer.
especially when other economic
opportunities, such as farming, have
been sparse. Until the mid 20th century,
seasonal weaving in the dry season has been common throughout the area, alongside
farming or fishing, but since then concentrated in the two weaving centres and one or
two full-time weavers in many villages (see p.63).
The coastal lowland consists of dry plains and lagoons, interconnected by small
rivers. Grass, low bushes and mangrove swamps form the natural vegetation (see Figure
1-1).
The coastal strip is still fringed by coconut palms, although many were devastated
by the Cape St. Paul disease in the 1940s. The soil of this strip is poor; the main
economic activity being fishing. On the upper parts of the lagoons there is some
farming, but lagoon fishing and, on the Ghanaian side, narrow-strip weaving are the
main occupations. When the lagoons (especially the largest one, Keta) are dry, they
5
People also refer to themselves, depending on the context, in terms of smaller social units like the Mina,
Anlo and Adaklu, and in terms of nation-state identities, like Ghanaians and Togolese.
50
Chapter One. Introduction
provide salt. Larger settlements are found on the coast, with Lomé6, the capital of Togo,
being the biggest city (Amenumey 1986: 1, Nukunya 1997: 9-13).
The central plain with savannah vegetation rises to the north, broken by a few
isolated mountains such as the Adaklu and Agu. Farming is the main activity. In the
middle of the plain lies Agotime whose
western towns are home to many cloth
weavers (see figure 1-2).
The upland region contains a
series of mountain ranges from Peki-HoKpalimé to Atakpamé with plains in
between. These plains also have
savannah vegetation, but rich forest
Figure 1-2: Agotime-Kpetoe, August 2000.
conditions are found in the valleys and
river-drained mountain slopes. In this fertile area food crops including cocoa and
tobacco are cultivated. Small-scale industries are also found here such as wood carving,
palm oil production, cloth and mat weaving, and some animal hunting (Amenumey 1986: 2,
Agbodeka 2000: 1-4).
Many different languages are spoken in the Ewe-speaking area, including Ewe,
Dangme7, the languages of Central Togo minorities8, Twi, Oatchi, Ada-Hwe, AnaYoruba, Hausa, Zarma, English and French. English is the official language of Ghana;
French, Kabye and Ewe of Togo9.
6
In this thesis, place names are written in the common orthography of the country (Ghana or Togo). In the
list of interviews, place names are listed in Ewe orthography, which may differ (the font used is
AfroRoman). The names of social groups are also not noted in Ewe orthography, following local and
academic use. For instance, E£e is spelled as Ewe, A½l‚ as Anlo, To½u as Tonu, and Yorùbá as Yoruba.
In standard Ewe orthography, the tones are not marked.
7
Dangme is the indigenous language of different Dangme groups in the southeast of Ghana, to the west of
the Ewe of the Volta Region, though several Dangme-speaking groups do live amongst the Ewe-speakers.
Dangme includes various dialects. Sometimes the language Ga is combined with Dangme as Ga-Dangme,
but though closely related, the two languages are not mutually intelligible (Kropp Dakubu 1987: 3). For a
long time, the term ‘Adangme’ or ‘Adangbe’ has been the accepted spelling for the language and as
ethnonym , but ‘Dangme’ is the proper term in standard orthography, as introduced in 1970 (Steegstra
2004: xiii).
8
Since the establishment of the Guan Historical Society in Ghana in the 1970s, these languages are also
called Guan languages, but the suggestion that the Akpafu, Bowiri, Likpe, Logba, Lolobi, Nyangbo,
Santrokofi and Tafi peoples are Guans is a new idea. Self-proclaimed Guan autochthons in the Eastern
Region of Ghana have set themselves against supposed Akan hegemony and have bolstered their position
to associate the Central Togo minorities with the Guan cultural project (Nugent 2002: 226-227).
9
In Togo, a distinction is commonly made between Mina or Guin-Mina (spoken on the coast of Togo and
Benin) and Ewe (spoken in Ghana and the area around Kpalimé). Among scholars, there is discussion
about the classification of languages and dialects in the region. Many classify Guin-Mina as a dialect of
the language Ewe (e.g. Seidel 1906: III, Westermann 1930: xvi, Bole-Richard 1983: 7).
51
Chapter One. Introduction
According to current oral traditions, some of the Central Togo minorities, like
the Akpafu10, perceive themselves as the indigenous people of the Ewe-speaking area11.
Others, such as the Avatime12 and Dangme speakers such as the Agotime)13, trace a
migration history to the same time or just after the migration of Ewe-speakers. The
Agotime people form part of a larger group of Dangme-speakers that started moving to
the area in the 17th century (Sprigge 1969: 90). Many of these settled around Anecho at the
coast and this led to the development of the Guin-Mina dialect; other smaller groups
maintained the Dangme language, including in some villages in Agotime14. Most of the
Agotime people identify themselves as Dangme, but only in three of the more than 30
villages do people speak Dangme as their mother tongue15: all the others speak Ewe16.
Ewe itself has many different dialects, some of the major groupings in Ghana being
Anlo, Tonu, Adaklu, Agotime, Peki, Ho, and Gbi. They can differ to such an extent that
the most eastern and western groups have difficulty understanding each other17.
The religious landscape of the Ewe-speaking area varies in both content and
scale: from individual and familial rites, lineage and cult rituals to regional systems and
local and international churches and mosques (cf. Steegstra 2004: 55)18. Christianity of
different denominations is integral to the lives most inland and many coastal dwellers.
The Tr‚Ò religion which includes Vodu cults is mostly practiced in the coastal and to a
lesser extent, inland area19. Only a small number are Muslim, within several generations
10
On art in Akpafu, see the work K.M. Offei (1980).
Paul Nugent demonstrated the ‘extreme plasticity of their sense of history’; also that claims of origin
and migration sometimes change historically (Nugent 1997).
12
On Avatime, see the work of L. Brydon (e.g. 1976, 1987, and 1996).
13
The oral history of the migration of the Agotime has been variously recorded (Nene Keteku III, May
1999, brochure of the Agotime Kente Festival 1998 and 2003, Sprigge 1969, Akatey 1999, Avornyotse
1968). They show slight variances; a common phenomenon because oral accounts are always subject to
the preoccupation of their time of telling (cf. Nugent 1997).
14
In his Ph.D. thesis, Corminboeuf discusses the different Dangme-speaking groups in the Ewe-speaking
area (1978: 30-94).
15
Already in 1859, a missionary from the Basel Mission (Zimmermann) touring the Ewe-speaking region
commented that people in Kpetoe were speaking Ewe, but in Afegame [Agodsom] they were still speaking
Dangme (BMA D-1.10 Afrika 1859, Odumase Nr. 6/III).
16
The Ewe spoken in Agotime is recognised as a specific dialect (Sprigge 1967; Westermann 1930: xv).
17
The Ewe-speaking peoples in today’s Ghana, classified as the ‘western Ewe’ by Westermann, use
Standard Ewe as the written form of their local language, but speak in their own dialects (Westermann
1973 [1928]: iii). Eastern Ewe dialects are closer to Fon than to western Ewe dialects (Essegbey,
September 2003).
18
For ethnographic studies on the religious practices in this area see Meyer 1999, Rosenthal 1998, de
Surgey 1988, Fiawoo 1958, Rivière 1981 and Spieth 1905, 1911.
19
There is no one local term for the religious practices of the Ewe-speaking people that rooted in the preChristian time; any term to describe these religious practices has its problems. The term ‘traditional
religion’ presumes a static religious tradition. The terms Vodu or Tr‚Ò religion are problematic partly
because of its connotations in the West and partly because it is not an indigenous term. The terms ‘Ewe
religion’ or ‘indigenous religion’ imply that Christianity (or indeed Islam) is not a current indigenous
religion, which is somewhat presumptuous after two centuries of Christianity in the area, a Christian
52
11
Chapter One. Introduction
of the Hausa and Zarma communities. In this and adjacent areas the affiliations of
people often are not restricted to one religious praxis-of-tradition, although strong
competition between, and condemnation of, different religious practices are common20,
especially since the rise of the Pentecostal Churches21. Religion in the area is often
action-oriented and instrumental from consulting a diviner, to praying in a church or
mosque, to falling into a trance. The attitude of people towards religious practices is
often pragmatic, and can be assessed in terms of benefits. Steegstra discusses a similar
religious landscape in the Krobo area in Ghana, and describes this attitude: “Most people
in Odumase believe that their lives, health, success and happiness are affected in varying degrees by
actions of many mystical forces. […] The means of identifying the identity of the mystical agents held to
be responsible and discovering the means to remove their influence if they prove to be harmful, is part of
the work of custodians of deity shrines and Christian priests and prophets (cf. Middleton 1983: 7-8).
Therefore people do not think and worship in terms of religious orthodoxy: their actions exhibit a
pragmatic attitude toward different values, goods and institutions. They may switch from one religion to
another in order to advance their own interest (cf. van Beek 1998; Senah 1997: 88-89)” (Steegstra 2004:
55-56).
Tr‚Ò means a deity in general; Vodu refers to certain deities, especially Voduda or
Eda. Vodu also refers to the totality of deities of which Voduda is one and the rites and
cults associated with each of these. Vodu is, therefore, used differently depending on the
context, location and the position of an individual towards different deities. Tr‚Ò worship
is strong in the Ewe-speaking area, but many Vodu deities and practices are similar to
those found in the nearby Fon area. They also share some features with forms of western
Yoruba Orisha. The most widespread Vodu cult in the Ewe-speaking area is Yewe; its
origin is traced from the east, even though Yewe as such cannot be found there (cf. Green
1996: 95-96).
Other widespread cults (not always considered Vodu cults)22 such as
Blekete, Fofui, Tigari and Goäovodu sometimes claim to trace their origins to the north,
(cf. Mortoo, G., June 2000; Rosenthal 1998: 19-24; Meyer 1999: 62-72). Divination, especially Afa
divination, plays an important role within Tr‚Ò23. Members of a certain cult are also often
members of other cults and can worship individual, family and clan Tr‚Ò.
majority and local Christian churches. The term ‘Ewe religion’ also implies it is a unified entity connected
to an ethnic group – itself a fluid term to be used with care. The southern Volta Region and Togo are not
the only locations of Vodu and Tr‚Ò worship, nor do these worshippers all call themselves Ewe. Moreover,
many religious cults on the West African coast resemble the ‘Ewe religion’. I choose the term Tr‚Ò religion
as the less problematic even when it is not locally-used term.
20
The heated debate around the tr‚Òkosi system is an example.
21
On the (historical developments of) Ewe religious practices see Rosenthal 1998 and Meyer 1999.
22
But even the consideration as Vodu differs from place to place.
23
Three forms of Afa are common in the Ewe-speaking area: Anago Afa (directly linked to Yoruba Ifa),
Dzisa Fa and Tsaké Afa (both considered indigenous Ewe forms). The diviners in each are distinguishable
53
Chapter One. Introduction
Continuities and divergences can also be found in other social practices
throughout the region24, with greater differences between groups of people who are
geographically more remote. Influences from the east (especially the former states in
Dahomey) and the west (especially the Asante confederacy) also changed over time. The
degree and direction of these influences can only be speculated on, but continuity with
western neighbours mostly includes on political organisation and chiefly regalia25,
continuity with the east is particularly evident in terms of religion. These western
continuities are largely due to contact through trade and war; the eastern links support
the proposition of local oral traditions that migration came from the east, although
eastern conquest, especially by the Dahomean Empire, also is likely to have played a
role26.
Migration Movements and History
According to oral history documented in the 20th century, the Ewe-speaking
peoples migrated from the east. After moving with other groups from Ketu (now a town
in western Yoruba), they settled in Notsé and spread out from there (see Aduamah 1963,
1965 and 1966, Amenumey 1986: 1ff, Meyer 2002: 170, Green 2002 and Nugent 2002).
Waves of relocation have characterised the Ewe-speaking area since at least the
mid 17th century27. The ancestors of the two main coastal weaving groups, the Anlo and
the Somé28, settled in the coastal area around the Keta lagoon before 1677, the date
when a group of Ga fugitives from Accra and immigrants from Elmina fled eastward to
the area that became Anexo. This community became known locally as Ge (also referred
to in the literature as Guin Mina). Since then, other Dangme groups have settled among
the Ewe-speaking peoples, fleeing the Akwamu punitive expeditions (e.g. Amenumey 1986:
1ff, Manoukian 1952; Mamattah 1978; Spieth 1906: 53*ff, 1ff; Gayibor 1984, Meyer 1999: 1, Nugent
2002, Green 2002).
The Agotime, the principal inland weaving group, came, for instance,
by the beads they wear. All three forms make use, like Ifa divination, of 256 signs or kpoli to which
different stories, proverbs, plants, a person’s character etc. are connected. Other forms of divination also
exist in this area, mainly performed by amegasi, ‘foreseers’.
24
The importance of textiles in connection to different social practices will be discussed in chapter five on
the use of these fabrics.
25
In his Ph.D. thesis Quarcoopome analyses the influence of Akan regalia on the art of the Dangme and
Ewe speaking peoples (1993: 125-151).
26
Current chiefly regalia are very similar between the Ewe- and Akan-speakers due in part to the Asante
wars of 1869-1874. On a religious level, the practices of the Ewe speakers and their Eastern neighbours
are less similar. This suggests, in this case, that a slow process of migratory rather than military influence
has been stronger.
27
Migration of Ewe groups is an ongoing pattern within and beyond the Ewe-speaking area. For instance,
in Agotime there is a village with descendants from the Aveno, and Anlo people inhabit one quarter of
Agotime-Kpetoe. In every major coastal West African city there are pockets of Ewe people.
54
Chapter One. Introduction
to their present location shortly after 1679 (Sprigge 1969: 95)29. In the lower Volta area
(the Tonu states) there now lives a mixture of Ewe, Dangme and Akan speakers. Further
inland, Ewe-speaking groups settled in their present area through contact, conflict and
mixing with Central Togo minorities (see map 1: Ewe-speaking region)30.
The area east of the Volta was known well into the 19th century as the Slave
Coast (see Law 1991: 13-15) with almost every town functioning as a slave market.
Different European nations had representatives in these towns with the Danes taking the
primary position in this part of West Africa from the 18th century on. They held several
forts including those at Ada and Keta (van Dantzig 1980)31. In 1850, they sold their
possessions to the British who began to sign treaties with local chiefs and made the
southern area of what is now the Volta Region a part of their ‘Gold Coast’ colony.
Well into the 19th century wars and conflicts characterised the Ewe-speaking
area with different alliances existing between Ewe- and non-Ewe-speaking groups
within and outside the area. Several wars were fought between the Anlo-Ge and
Anlo-Ga-Dangme states at the end of the 17th and throughout the 18th century. In these
conflicts, the Anlo and Akwamu were generally allied. From 1734 on, the Akwamu
controlled most inland states, either directly or through the Peki state. Tributes, mostly
in the form of humans, had to be paid to the Akwamu, who in turn had to pay tribute to
the Asante. This power balance was altered in 1833, when many inland states under the
leadership of the Peki rose successfully against the Akwamu. After this alliance the Peki
maintained control over some of the inland states but not, notably, the Agotime (Meyer
1999: 2-3).
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the interrelated groups of people inhabiting
the Ewe-speaking area formed several dukowo or states headed by a fiagaÒ (‘great’ or
paramount chief). Regular contact was already in place between these states and their
neighbours in the form of trade, intermarriage, migration and military conflict. The size
of these dukowo differed considerably as did their political structure, and both altered in
time32.
28
To facilitate the English reader, I write Somé instead of Some (a practice not common in Ewe writing).
The Dane Bioern, at Denmark’s West African forts, reported at the end of the 18th century that some
“Adangbe Negroes” fled to Aflao in 1679, some of them founding the state of Agotime (Sprigge 1969:
90). In 1786, the Dutch merchant Paul Isert mentioned the Agotime as inhabiting a specific region of
Krepee (Isert 1992 [1785]: 82).
30
The settlement history of these peoples, who live among and beside inland Ewe-speaking peoples, has
been difficult to document and depends largely on oral history which, as noted, changes historically (see
Nugent 2002, Gavua 2000: 8-9 and Brydon 1976).
31
The Danish fort in Keta was established in 1785 (Spieth 1906: 35*).
32
Before colonial rule in the 19th century, chiefs played a major role in the political administration of
55
29
Chapter One. Introduction
In the 19th century, the political, economic and social history of the Ewespeaking area was greatly influenced by the arrival of Christian missionaries and
German and English colonisation. The missionaries played a role in the formation of an
Ewe identity (see appendix K). The German Pietist missionaries from the Norddeutsche
Missionsgesellschaft (Bremen Mission Society, hereafter called the NMG) were active
from 1847 in Peki (see p.60). The Catholic Mission of Lyon established an apostolic
division centred in Agoué in the 1830s (Decalo 1996)33. The Catholic Mission was more
active in the eastern area, while the NMG spread within the western part. But only in the
last years of the 19th century did many Ewe-speakers actually start to convert to
Christianity (Protestant and Catholic)34.
In 1884, the German colonial administration began to sign treaties with many
Ewe-speaking states and beyond, changing many chiefs into independent paramount
chiefs, thereby preventing the establishment of larger political units (Meyer 2002: 171).
Except for the Anlo, Somé and Peki areas35, they colonised the whole area and called it
Togoland36. In 1919, after the First World War, the League of Nations divided German
Togoland between the French and the British37. British-mandated Togoland was
administered in the same way as the Gold Coast38. The French part was administered
these states in different capacities. Coastal states tended to be more centralised and comprised hundreds of
villages; inland states (including non-Ewe speaking states) consisted of fewer settlements (often fewer
than five) and were more ‘federalised’ in political organisation. Autonomous states allied themselves with
and fought against each other whenever the political need arose (Amenumey 1986, Wilks 1957, Green
1996, Gayibor 1975, Meyer 1999).
33
In 1890 a Roman Catholic station was established in Keta (Spieth 1906: 35*). In From 1892 German
Catholic missionaries supplanted the French societies for the duration of German colonial rule (Decalo
1996).
34
After the imposition of colonial rule, more people were attracted to convert to Christianity, principally
as it was obvious that Christians profited most politically and economically in a colonial society (Meyer
1999: 11).
35
These areas were essentially already part of the Gold Coast Colony.
36
The British only started to establish their rule among the Ewe states with the arrival of the Germans.
Before then, they only had control over the Anlo area (since 1850 and more permanently since 1874). To
settle their competition for territory, the two colonial powers signed boundary agreements. The states of
Anlo, Tonu, Somé, Klikor and Peki became part of the Gold Coast Colony; the rest became part of the
German Protectorate of Togoland. Some Ewe states and their chiefs (especially those of Peki and Adaklu)
were against this split, but their opposition was quickly overcome (Amenumey 1989: 3-4; Meyer 2002:
171).
37
For the final borders see the map in Amenumey 1989: 5.
38
In British Togoland, this meant the introduction of indirect rule. The British administration was locally
considered as less harsh than its German counterpart, even though the latter offered better social services
and supported mission and governmental schools. But the British allowed freedom of trade, introduced
only custom dues as taxation and interfered far less in the daily administration by chiefs. The differences
in colonial policy led to emigration from Togoland to the Gold Coast (Amenumey 1989: 8-9).
56
Chapter One. Introduction
similarly to the rest of French West Africa39. In the course of the 20th century, the role of
chiefs altered significantly. The colonial states altered the authority and status of the
fiagaÒ by amalgamating many states into larger groups40. Today, these divisions are
known as Traditional Areas in Ghana, and as Cantons in Togo.
Although the British policy of indirect rule gave chiefs greater juridical
competence and administrative authority than the Germans and French had, it proved to
be self-defeating; the colonial government along with the mission churches created an
educated social class, but did not allow them any political influence. The inevitable
intellectual, anti-colonial opposition which led from this to post-Second World War
political movements that strove for independence in Togo and the Gold Coast (Meyer
2002: 192).
Economically, the inter-war years were relatively prosperous thanks to the
cultivation of cocoa (RAH RAO/C2073 [Rattray 1915]), with some disruption during the
Depression. This prosperity led to the influx of European consumer goods, new multistorey buildings in many towns, more roads, and the migration of young people to the
cities in search of better education. The Second World War, together with the outbreak
of 'swollen shoot' cocoa disease brought an end to this prosperity41. The availability of
European goods, including cheap cloth, did not necessarily lead to a decline in local
textile production (Byfield 2002: xxi). This is demonstrated by the flourishing cloth market
of Keta (see chapter 7) and the continued growth and variety of figurative designs from the
early part of the century (see chapter three).
The people of the Ewe-speaking area have always been extremely mobile for
reasons such as trade, family and religious practices. Well before the 20th century, this
area was characterised for especially sea- and lagoon-fishing and farming. Even in the
case of (semi-) permanent migration, people maintained close contact with relatives in
their home towns and older people have often moved back. Since the end of the 19th
century, with the introduction of formal education and cash crops, especially cocoa, and
39
The French continued with direct taxation and diminished the competence of chiefs through a policy of
‘native intermediaries’: the territory was divided into a number of districts (cantons) each with its own
chief (chef de canton), sometimes artificially installed (Amenumey 1989: 20-22). They administered Togo
jointly with Dahomey from 1934 to 1936 and then as part of French West Africa until 1946, when it
became a United Nations trust territory.
40
The British and French colonial administrations labelled as divisions groups of villages that recognised
in the eyes of the colonial administration a fiagaÒ (known to the British as paramount chief and to the
French as chef de canton). This led to many petitions to the colonial state and even conflicts between
states in the 20th century. The case of the Somé and the Anlo whereby the Somé were grouped under the
Anlo is one of the best known examples (e.g. GNA ADM 39/1/237).
41
The benefits of cocoa production were greater in British Togoland.
57
Chapter One. Introduction
with modern means of transport, permanent and seasonal migration patterns have
intensified and mobility has increased42.
People from the north had been coming to the area for trade reasons. Since at
least the second half of the 19th century they have been settling in the coastal region
(Akyeampong 2001: 58). Although most other people of southern Ghana and Togo refer to
them as the ‘Hausa’ (often used as the generic term for Muslims43), they actually include
not only Hausa-speakers from Niger and Nigeria, but also Zarma-speakers from Niger
and Nigeria (in Ghana these are mostly called Zabarma)44 and Fulani people from
different parts of West Africa. They all share the Muslim religion and generally live in
one section of the town or village called, in Ghana, ‘Zongo’45. They have been extremely
important for the trade in hand-woven textiles. Keta, and since the 1960s, Agbozome,
have been the only specialised wholesale cloth market in the Volta Region with a large
Muslim community46.
After the Second World War, the pressure for independence grew in the Gold
Coast, and in British and French Togoland. British-mandated Togoland became part of
the independent state of Ghana in 1957, French-mandated Togoland gained
independence in 1960 as Togo. As will be seen in this thesis, the political and economic
turmoil that followed the two nations’ independence greatly affected cloth production in
the Ewe-speaking area47. The relationship between the two countries has been uneasy
42
The different colonial powers had a particular influence on trade. The German colonisers undertook
major infrastructure works. They introduced cocoa and set up cotton plantations (Maier 1995: 71-95). The
import of goods was restricted to Europeans, and the Togolese could only engage in retail trading. Initially
the British invested less in infrastructure but trading by Ewe-speakers was less restricted than in German
times. Trade in commodities, probably including textiles, expanded in general during the colonial period
(see chapter seven).
43
The reason being that Hausa is the lingua franca for Muslims from the north.
44
The name Zabarma is a Hausa word for the Zarma-speaking people (related to the Songhai). Variants of
this name in use in West Africa are Jerma, Dyerma, Dyarbarma, Zabarima, Zaberma, Zamberba and
Djermabe. Today they live in scarcely-populated areas near Niamey and Dosso in the Republic of Niger,
and in and around the town of Sokoto in northern Nigeria (Pilaszewicz 1992: 19-21). They are also found
in many West African towns with trading as their main occupation. They speak a Songhai dialect called
Zarma.
45
The word Zongo is a Hausa term meaning the lodging place of travellers. The British introduced the
word to refer to the section of a town where Muslim traders lived (Schildkrout 1978: 67).
46
I make the same distinction as Steiner between ‘marketplace’ and ‘market’. The term ‘market place’ is
the physical site where market transactions take place. The term ‘market’ refers to the social institutions of
the market itself: “any domain of economic transactions where prices exist which are responsive to the
supply and demand of the items exchanged” (Steiner 1994: 167).
47
Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, was overthrown in 1966. The economic prospects of
Ghana at the advent of independence were very good, but by 1966 the country was almost bankrupt and
had widespread civil unrest. Several military regimes followed, only twice interrupted briefly by elected
governments. In 1981, J.J. Rawlings staged his second coup d’état and stayed in power until 2000, the last
eight years as an elected president. The current president, elected in 2000, is John Kuffour. Sylvanus
Olympio, the first president of Togo, was assassinated in 1963 when Etienne Gnassingbé (later
Gnassingbé Eyadéma) staged the first West African military coup. After five years of civil rule, he
58
Chapter One. Introduction
since independence, with many border closures affecting local economies and human
mobility.
In the 1970s and early ’80s, economic hardship in Ghana led to widespread
shortage of goods (including raw materials for the weaving industry) black
marketeering, inflation and smuggling to Togo and the Ivory Coast48. Until the 1980s,
Togo’s economy benefited greatly from the revenue from the export of phosphate49. The
unpopular military regime in Togo, fiscal austerity and a huge national debt destabilized
its political system at the beginning of the 1990s50. Many migrants from other West
African countries fled, including Ghanaian weavers, who brought with them their own
weaving techniques (see chapter three). In 1994 the economy recovered somewhat through
strong export earnings. However, the political climate and human rights abuses have
continued to strain the economy and welfare of the people of Togo. The European
Union boycott of Togo after the 1998 elections (in which international monitors were
banned) led to further deterioration of the economy. Consequently, fewer Togolese
traders were frequenting the Agbozume market in the first few years of this century
(Wordu C., September 2003).
The situation in Ghana has generally been improving since the mid 1980s, with
improved infrastructure, greater spread of electricity in rural areas and increased
availability of consumer and production goods (including raw materials for the weaving
industry). During the 1990s, however, the economy destabilised somewhat due to rising
inflation51. Young Ewe-weavers, especially from the coastal area, were unable to find a
declared himself president in 1967, banned all political parties and has been in power since: the longestruling African dictator.
48
Farming, with cocoa as the main cash crop, and fishing have been the main occupations in the Ewespeaking area. Since the 1960s, the economic situation in Ghana in general has been dwindling due to bad
governance, huge foreign debt, and a drastic decrease in world cocoa prices.
49
Togo has one of the largest deposits of phosphate in the world, situated conveniently near the coast. In
the 1970s, the Eyadéma government initiated a free trade policy and turned a blind eye to the smuggling
activities between Ghana and Togo by Lomé market women. The Ghanaian regimes tried to stop the
smuggling activities by tightly controlling borders. Border towns and villages, like Agotime, have a long
tradition of smuggling of, among others, spirits, oil and wax cloth.
50
Demonstrations in 1990 and 1991 for the resignation of Eyadéma were met with bloody military
responses. The regime promised national reforms, but harassments and the government’s delay in
scheduling national elections sparked a wave of general strikes in 1992 and 1993, crippling the economy
even further.
51
In Ghana, the first few years of the PNDL regime of Rawlings (1981 to 1983) were characterised by
economic chaos and frequent clashes between the military and civilians. But Rawlings managed to win
popularity through his battle against corruption. Although he had proclaimed himself a socialist, he
closely followed the advice of the World Bank and the IMF since 1983. In the 1990s internal pressure was
put on the military regime to hand the country back to civilian rule. In 1992, elections were held and
Rawlings was elected as president. Politics became more ethnicised, with the Ewe-speakers
overwhelmingly supporting Rawlings. In March 2001, the new NPP government took the decision to join
the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, thereby acknowledging the country’s dire fiscal
59
Chapter One. Introduction
livelihood at home and moved in large numbers to Lagos and other Yoruba-speaking
areas to weave (see chapter three)52. This new international character of the Ewe cloth
industry, especially within West Africa, meant that political turmoil elsewhere, such as
the recent crisis in the Ivory Coast, has also influenced Ewe textile production (see
chapter seven).
Ewe Ethnogenesis
Many people in the Volta Region of Ghana and the southern part of Togo view
themselves as Ewe. However, the notion of an Ewe identity is a modern phenomenon,
coming into existence at the beginning of the 20th century53. What follows next is an
attempt to reconstruct the Ewe ethno-history, keeping in mind that an ‘Ewe identity’ is
only one of the identities that an individual can refer to, because identity is always
multi-dimensional.
The historical process of construction and dispersion of the notion of an Ewe
identity has been widely discussed (e.g. Amenumey 1989, Nugent 1991, Collier 2002, and Meyer
2002).
It can be divided into three periods. The time before the First World War was a
time when the peoples of this region identified themselves with smaller social and
political units, like the Anlo, the Adaklu or the Ho. The second period is after the First
World War, when coastal people used the unity of the Ewe-speakers as their main
argument to agitate against the division of former German Togoland between British
and French rule. The third period began during the Second World War when a political
Ewe unification movement emanated its main aim being to unify the Ewe-speaking
people54. A discussion of the first period will follow in this section and in more detail in
appendix K. The second and third periods can be fully traced in the discussions by
D.E.K. Amenumey in his book The Ewe unification movement (Amenumey 1989), and the
third period by K.A. Collier in her PhD thesis Ablode: networks, ideas and performance
in Togoland politics, 1950-2001 (2002).
position.
52
Labour migration to and from Nigeria was common throughout the 20th century. Since the end of the
19th century, the Anlo and Somé peoples have been moving back and forth between Badagri (western
Nigeria) and their hometowns for fishing and the cultivation of coconut plantations. A portion of these
have has settled there permanently, but links with the Anlo region remain strong (see Klein 1998).
53
Historians and anthropologists have recently researched the construction of ethnic identity, especially in
Nigeria (e.g. Peel 1989, Doortmont 1990, van den Bersselaar 1998).
54
Despite this aim, the different political parties were divided over which road to follow to achieve Ewe
unification. Some parties were in favour of integration of British Togoland into the coming new
independent state of Ghana, others preferred unification between British and French Togoland, and some
parties shifted their views over time (Amenumey 1989).
60
Chapter One. Introduction
Ewe identity first emerged during the First World War when a small group of
coastal Ewe-speakers (intellectuals along with prominent traders and chiefs) articulated
this identity for the first time (Amenumey 1989: 11) 55. The emergence of an Ewe identity
was the outcome of a complex process in which the so-called Bremen missionaries
played an important though not determining role. Between 1847 and 1914 they were one
of the factors leading to the situation where a discussion and diffusion of Ewe identity
could take place56.
The first Bremen missionaries arrived in an area generally called Krepi in pre19th century sources (Law 1991: 14)57. In 1847, the first Bremen missionary in the Ewespeaking area Lorenz Wolf settled in Peki Blengo thinking that the area between the
kingdoms of Asante and Dahomey was ruled as a centralised state with Peki Blengo as
its capital. Only later did the missionaries realise that the area actually consisted of
several more or less independent states (Meyer 1999: 5).
In Wolf’s first two letters home, he spoke about the “Krepe-sprache” i.e. Krepe
language (MT 1848: 51 and 62), but in his next letter he explained that the people of Peki
called themselves differently, transcribed in the Mittheilungen (MT) as follows:
“Kerrapä or Krepe is the name of the area next to the coastal inhabitants, in which Peki is situated
and where our Wolf pursues his work; but the natives call their country: Eibe” (MT 1848: 66; my
translation).
Upon arrival, the Bremen missionaries realised that the people around Peki
distinguished themselves from the Krepe, but in their missionary work they still
presumed that they were dealing with one people. This is illustrated in the comment of
one missionary, Dauble, on his first visit to Keta (“Quitta”):
“The Eiboe language is spoken by one huge group of people. The Crepe-Neger is only the
nearest tribe to the Volta of the Eiboer and Aungla (that is the name of the country side around Quitta) has
the same language with dialectal differences” (MB 1853: 130; my translation).
Apart from this one-people perception and despite different groupings of Ewespeakers maintaining separate local identities, this quote points to another issue. Dauble
55
On 19 November 1918 at a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Row, the Chief Officer of the British
forces in Togo (Amenumey 1989: 11).
56
Green and Amenumey point out that this meeting in 1918 was the first time in which the notion of an
Ewe identity was used. Even though Green’s book demonstrates the changes in identity among the Anlo,
neither author mentions factors that lead to the possibility of the creation of such an identity, which
gradually became accepted by larger groups (Green 1996: 142-148). Only Birgit Meyer argues, in her
thesis on the appropriation of Christianity, in particular Pietism, by the Peki Ewe, that it was the
missionaries of the NMG who constructed the notion of the Ewe as a people because they saw this as a
necessary step to lead the ‘Ewe’ back to God (Meyer 1995: 99). The NMG’s desire to build a cultural,
rather than a political nation, was based on the assumption that the Ewe groups had once been one people
which needed to be reunified ‘on the national level of Ewe-land (Meyer 2002: 177).
57
Krepi (also called Peki) not only referred to this particular state in the interior, but was more generally
61
Chapter One. Introduction
does not speak of ‘Eibe’, but of ‘Eiboe’, showing how the missionaries struggled to
transcribe ‘E£e’, which is the shortcut of ‘(e)Üeme’, meaning ‘[people] in the valley’, the
name that people around Peki already called themselves (cf. Meyer 1999: 219)58. A few
years later, missionary J. Bernhard Schlegel, the first missionary to master the language
and who wrote the first Ewe dictionary (1857), decided to write ‘Ewe’ instead of ‘Eiboe’.
In the second half of the 19th century, missionaries moved away fully from the name
Krepe. They and other Europeans used different names when referring to these people.
Their starting point remained however the assumption of ‘one people’, the ‘Ewe’, a part
of their evangelisation project (see footnote 56, p.61)59, even though they also acknowledge
differences, on the basis of their work in different parts of the area.
At the end of the 19th century, two particular factors assisted the transmission of
the ambiguous missionary notions of the unity of the Ewe-speaking peoples as one
people and in making Ewe-speakers identify with this new identity: the common dialect
of Anlo as the teaching language in the mission schools, and the general education
taught in these schools (see appendix K)60.
The missionaries were just one of the ‘seeds’ that led to the formation of an Ewe
identity. Meyer already argues that the notion of an Ewe ethnic identity was created by
the Bremen missionaries and transformed into the emergence of an Ewe identity by the
people of the area (Meyer 1995: 100; Meyer 2002). But the missionary education did not
result everywhere in this notion of identity. Mission schools were set up all over the
Ewe-speaking area, but only the people from the coast claimed an Ewe identity before
the Second World War (Amenumey 1989: 349-350). Furthermore, the group who used this
notion in 1918 consisted of an educated elite and chiefs and it is not clear if those of the
latter group went to mission schools. The formation of an Ewe identity was therefore
used for several political units east of the Volta River.
58
Currently, the inland Ewe-speaking area is called Eweme or Ewedome (‘inside the valley’ or ‘Ewe
country’).
59
The missionaries used this notion of culture and nationhood to establish order, and to prevent Ewe
converts from going outside their ‘own culture’ which might have constituted a continuous threat to the
colonial project in which the missionaries participated (Meyer 2002: 169).
60
The first four mission posts set up in the 1850s, after Peki was abandoned in 1853, had limited success
and were partly destroyed during the Asante wars. After 1890 several mission posts were established
throughout the Ewe-speaking region, which also became the district centres under German rule, and in
many villages mission schools were built by native speakers (Meyer 1997: 316).
62
Chapter One. Introduction
concerned with a complexity of internal and external factors of which the establishment
of missionaries in the region was just one61.
The development of an Ewe identity never came to completion, partly due to the
fact that the area never merged into a nation state. World War Two provided a stimulus
for the Ewe unification movement62, with the formation of the All Ewe Conference
(AEC), different political parties, youth movements and an Ewe press resulting in
greater participation in Ewe unification. However, by 1947, Ewe solidarity began to
dwindle when Ewe peoples from British Togoland split from the AEC, forming the
Togoland Congress (TC) with a primary goal of unifying both Togolands without the
Gold Coast Ewes. They feared the supremacy of the Anlo and Peki, who already held
the main position within the AEC, education, trade and administration. The ill-fated
unification movement was fiercely opposed by the British and French governments63 and
by local political parties, including the CPP64. Now, at the beginning of the 21st century,
most Ewe speakers perceive themselves, in certain circumstances, as Ewe. References to
Ewe ethnicity have become more and more relevant in the Ghanaian and Togolese
media and to Ewe-speaking people living outside the Ewe-speaking region.
Weaving Centres
Cotton-thread spinning, indigo dyeing and narrow-strip weaving have been
common in the whole Ewe-speaking area for many years and spinning and weaving
were commonly part of household activities. It is useful to explore how some
communities developed into weaving centres, noting that the historical record is slim.
A number of 19th century British, German and Swiss documents point to a
vibrant weaving industry in the Peki area, the adjacent Akwamu area around Anum65,
and some areas further to the northeast66. The Bremen missionary Schlegel provides the
61
Other factors reasonable to explore - and little researched - are: the importance of the migration of
‘Ewe’ outside the region, the capacity to identify oneself with a larger group, the importance of clearly
distinct other groups as Akan-speaking and Yoruba-speaking people in the region, the classification of
different ‘Ewe’ dialects in one language, the encounter of ‘Ewe’ with traders from Europe and other parts
of Africa over the centuries, the influence of the background of ethnographers on the perception of the
‘Ewe’, the importance of ‘Ewe’ intellectuals and the influence of colonial rule.
62
One factor was that borders were closed between British and French Togoland between 1940-1942 due
to the allied blockade of French West Africa, with the effect of destroying an Ewe network of trade
(Brugman 1993: 8).
63
The French opposed the Comité de l’Unité Togolaise (CUT), (one leader of which was Sylvanus
Olympio) with the result that the CUT and its sister organisation, Juvento, boycotted all elections between
1952 and 1958.
64
One of the main reasons that their leader Kwame Nkrumah opposed unification was the planning of the
Volta Lake project, for which he needed both sides of the Volta River.
65
The Akwamu are a Twi-speaking group on the east side of the Volta Region.
66
J.G. Widmann mentions in his 1848 diary that the amount of weaving activity is greater in the Krepe,
63
Chapter One. Introduction
first mention of weaving in Agotime (MB 1858: 378; see also chapter four)67. In Afegame, a
vibrant weaving industry existed until the beginning of the 20th century when it declined
with immigration to the cacao areas of Akyem, Akuapim and in the north of the Volta
Region (Fansey, April 1999). References to weaving in the coastal area date back to the
18th century, starting with a reference to Anecho, to the east of the Keta lagoon (van
Dantzig 1978: 95; see chapter four). The first
reference to what was probably a weaving
industry in or around Keta dates from 1717 (NLNA: WIC 104; see chapter four). Weaving in
the coastal area is barely recorded in 19th century archival sources, but the existence of
the Keta market, the extant 19th century textiles collected at the coast and local
recollection of older full-time weavers suggest ongoing activity from the 18th century
(e.g. group interview Nolofi, November 1999, group interview Anlo-Afiadenyigba, October 1999; see
chapter four).
In the early 20th century, Bremen missionaries did report on weaving in the
coastal area, but there is more information on Ho by the Bremen missionary, and Ewe
ethnographer, Jacob Spieth. Several sources suggest that weaving was common
throughout the Ewe-speaking region until at least the mid 20th century (see also Maier
1995: 79).
Spieth writes in his 1906 ethnography that the Ewe have known weaving for a
very long time (1906: 55*); he specifically mentions the existence of a weaving industry
in Adaklu, Ho, Sokode, Abutia and Agu, but does not mention any weaving in his short
discussion of Agotime, Notsé or any coastal area (1906: 34*-49*). His account therefore
seems to be impressionistic rather than based on any systematic study of livelihood
throughout the Ewe-speaking area. His ethnography focuses mainly on Ho, including
descriptions of the weaving, use and trading in cloth (Spieth 1906: 406, 408-410). R.S.
Rattray conducted an ethnographic survey of British-mandated Togoland immediately
after the British assumed control in 1915 (RAH RAO/C2073)68. He mainly records weaving
in several communities in the central plain, including Agotime, Ho, Sokode and Adaklu,
than the Akropong area, on the other side of the Volta (BMA D-1.3 Afrika 1849-51, Akropong 1849,
Nr.1). One of the first Bremen missionaries in the Gold Coast, Menge, describes the active weaving
industry in Peki (MB 1852: 78-79). Other visitors in the Akropong area, the main centre of the Basel
missionaries, and British travellers to the west of the Krepe area mention the vibrant weaving industry
around Peki (PRO CO 96/43 [1858]; BMA D-1.4a Afrika 1851-1853, Nr. 14; BMA D-1.13a, Afrika 1862
Teil 1, Christiansborg, Nr. 22; PRO CO 879/9 [1876]). In 1862, Rottmann travelled to Akwamu, Peki,
Sokode, Ho, Agotime, Anyako, Keta and Ada, but only mentions a weaving industry in the Peki and
Anum areas (BMA D-1.13a, Afrika 1862, Teil 1, Christiansborg, Nr. 25). Gouldbury, however, in a
journey in 1876 from Yendi down the Volta notices a lot of weaving in the whole Krepe area (PRO CO
879/9 [1876]).
67
He visited several Agotime towns in 1857 including Kpetoe, but not Afegame.
68
The areas he visited in the Misahuhe district lay in what is today the Kpando, Ho and Hohoe districts,
and adjoining Togo (the mountain and plateau areas, including many areas to the north of the Ewe64
Chapter One. Introduction
confirming that Spieth’s account outside the Ho area is thin (GNA ADM 39/5/73).
Rattray’s work may give the impression of little weaving activity in the upland region
(he only mentions Have and Tafi in the area around Kpando), but he only sometimes
indicates the main occupations of the people (RAH RAO/C2073)69. My own survey in the
Volta Region and partly in Togo (see p.67) suggests that weaving was widespread
throughout the Ewe-speaking region until at least the mid 20th century, although
sometimes only for smaller-scale, domestic use70. I conducted 17 group interviews in the
upland region including two in Togo and six among Central Togolese minorities. In
almost all of these areas, older women demonstrated the spinning of hand-spun cotton,
learned from their mothers, and the weaving of hand-spun cotton textiles with warp
striping was remembered as one of the household occupations of men in the past71. In
many of these areas some weavers and workshops of weavers are active, like in TafiAbuife, but they are mainly from, or trained in, Agotime or the Somé area (group
interviews in Kouma-Adamé, Togo, March 1999, Kpando, Anfoega-Akukome, March 1999, SantrokofiBenua, February 1999, Lolobi-Kumasi, February 1999; Likpe-Mate, February 1999, Kpedze, March
1999, Wli-Afegame, February 1999, Tafi-Atome, February 1999, Alavanyo-Kpeme, February 1999, VeDeme, February 1999, Akpafu-Todzi, February 1999, Kpeve, February 1999; Kwami, October 1998 and
Togbe Tekp‚ VI, December 1998 for Avatime). In
especially the Ghanaian coastal area, a long
history of weaving and spinning of local cotton is recalled (group interviews in AnloAfiadenyigba, October 1999, Nolofi, November 1999, and Agbozume; T‚gbui Addo VIII for Klikor,
Augustine, Y., Amegayie, S., and Al‚v‚dzi, N., July for Srohume). In
Vogan, in coastal eastern
Togo, the old types of cloth are remembered as coming mainly from the central plains,
but more recently most cloth has come from Agbozume (Togbe Kalipe III, March 1999). The
older weaving traditions in Notsé have been recorded by M. Posnansky (1992: 113-132),
and my group interviews in the central plain revealed that weaving was part of the area
until at least the mid 20th century (Kuma, Notsé, March 1999; group interview in Ziofe, October
1999, Ho, November 1999, Peki-Blengo, March 1999, Sokode-Etoe, February 1999, Adaklu-Abuadi,
February 1999, Tanyigbe-Anyigbe, February 1999, Awudome-Anyirawase, January 1999, and group
speaking region).
69
Rattray reports 33 areas in the Misahuhe district (upland region); in 17 areas he indicates the local
occupations none of which are weavers. Of the 15 areas in the Kpando district (upland region); he
indicates the local occupations of which four areas have weaving industries. Of the 18 areas in the Ho
district (central plain); 11 of the 15 are weaving communities (GNA ADM 39/5/73).
70
Several Ghanaian theses mention that weaving was widespread throughout the Ewe-speaking region
(Do 1972: 29, Adugu 1976: 6, Hiamey 1981: 15).
71
According to the paramount chief of the Gbi Traditional Area (Hohoe), women would spin in the past
but sold the spun cotton to weavers in other areas as far away as the coast. Weavers from, or trained in,
Agbozume and Agotime settled in Hohoe since at least the 1930s (group interview Hohoe, February
1999). In Santrokofi, it is said, however, that most of the weaving was done in the Gbi Traditional Area
(Santrokofi-Benua, February 1999).
65
Chapter One. Introduction
interviews at Nordu festival with people from Klave, Shia, Atikpui, Lume, Tanyigbe, Hoe, Dodome, Avee
and Hodzo)72.
The concentration of weaving in Agotime and the coastal area, today the
two principal weaving centres, seems therefore to be a 20th century development, even
though in some interviews it was indicated that the more intricate textiles already came
from these centres before the 20th century73. During the 20th century coastal weaving
communities concentrated on very few specific types of textile. This village
specialisation was mainly caused by the wholesale cloth market, first in Keta, and since
the 1960s in Agbozume (see chapter seven and appendix O). Weaving is still one of the main
occupations in many villages on the upper part of the Keta lagoon, with many weavers
in Anlo-Afiadenyigba. In the larger towns, such as Klikor, Agbozume and Denu, there
are fewer weavers as these towns have a concentration of other economic activities74.
The six group interviews, many interviews and informal talks conducted in
Agotime indicate the long history of weaving in this area which has nonetheless shifted
over time. Afegame was a vibrant weaving centre since at least the mid 19th century
until the early 20th century, when it dwindled (Fansey, April 1999). The prominent weaving
towns during German rule were Afegame, Zukpe, Batume, Gbadzago and Kpadzaxor,
the latter four all in present-day Togo (Gbadago, April 1999, Fansey, April 1999). After the
partition of Agotime between French and British-mandated Togoland, weaving
gradually shifted to the British side. This is due to differences in colonial policy and
fertility of the soil, which is generally more fertile on the French than on the Ghanaian
side75. On the French (later Togolese) side farming increased in the 20th century, a more
lucrative activity than weaving, greatly encouraged by the French (group interview AgotimeAdzakpa, October 1999). Weaving in
most Agotime villages was a part-time occupation,
but became increasingly full-time due to the increased demand for textiles in the 1950s,
on the British and later Ghanaian side (Nene Keteku III, May 1999; see chapter three). Some
weavers even hired help to work on their farms. Since independence, the market for
cloth in Togo has trailed behind that in Ghana, with many Togolese Agotime weavers
selling their cloth in Ghana (Gbadago, April 1999). Also, the greater availability of yarns in
the Ghanaian Agotime towns led to a decrease in the number of weavers on the
Togolese part as some buy yarns in Agbozume or Kpetoe and others moved to Ghanaian
72
In these group interviews, older women often demonstrated spinning cotton, and many of these areas
still have some weavers, although often trained in Agotime.
73
In his documentation of Ewe traditions in the 1960s, Aduamah mentions that the Agotime and coastal
people are most famous for cotton weaving (Aduamah 1965, No.1: 22).
74
See Van der Laan, 1992 for an overview of economic activities in the coastal area in the early 1990s.
75
Still many people living on the Ghanaian side own farmland in Togo.
66
Chapter One. Introduction
Agotime towns (group interview Aguduvu, October 1999 and Adzakpa, October 1999). The main
weaving centres in Agotime are now Kpetoe, Akpokofe, Abenyinase and Adedome on
the Ghanaian side, and Batume, Wudome (both border towns), and Kpodzaxo on the
Togolese side.
Researching Textiles
This study aims to document and analyse changes that have taken place in Ewe
textile traditions. I argue that the creative impetus of weavers that leads to design
changes within the traditions is embedded in and directed by their aesthetic and
technological frameworks. These frameworks are formed by the weavers’ education and
life experiences, and restricted and stimulated by their perceptions of marketable
textiles, which are in turn influenced by the weavers’ interactions with traders,
customers and other weavers.
The evolution of design changes in Ewe textile traditions range from incremental
changes to major innovations76. I use the term ‘incremental’ to describe individual minor
changes such as threading several more warp elements to obtain a wider strip, using
slightly different colours depending on the availability of yarns, or experimental
combinations of colours to create the impression of a new colour (see chapter two).
Incremental changes also take place in weft-float motifs through adaptations in
threading the warp, or 'splitting' warp elements (see chapter two), or in the copying of
motif’s form. I use the term ‘innovation’ to describe a new motif appearing in a wellknown type of cloth, or the use of a new and different type of yarn. “Major design
innovations” refer to bold developments that take place when a completely new type of
textile is invented. It will be seen that, while changes in designs are the intended or
unintended results of actions taken by weavers, traders and customers, they cannot be
classified neatly into the artificial categories of incremental changes and innovations:
rather they form a sliding scale.
This study is based on research conducted in libraries and archives, private and
museum textile collections, and on 16 months of fieldwork in Ghana and Togo. The
study of different textile collections provided me the starting point for an understanding
of styles, techniques and materials in 19th and 20th century Ewe textiles. Information
from museum records on the provenance of these textiles, though only sometimes
76
In the study of African art, the terms ‘incremental changes’ and ‘innovative changes’, follow a
distinction made by A. Giddens (1979), and first used in the study by H.M. Cole on Mbari houses of the
Owerri Igbo (1982: 158).
67
Chapter One. Introduction
available, has been vital to this study. I used my own semi-standardised form to analyse
these textiles in collections77.
The study of the historic developments of Ewe textiles was complemented by
research on Bremen and Basel missionary photographs and historic documents in the
following archives: the NMG in Bremen (SAB and NMGB), the Basel Mission Archive
in Basel (BMA), the Ghana National Archive in Accra (GNA), the Public Records
Office in London (PRO), and the State Archive of the Netherlands (NLNA) in The
Hague. In studying missionary photographs I focused less on circumstances and manner
in which subjects wore certain textiles as the photographic record does not necessarily
reflect actual historical practices, and because the presentation of the individual to a
missionary’s camera is in itself a complex topic outside the realm of this discussion78. I
just focused on identifying the oldest photograph in which a certain textile type or
technique was used. I studied the monthly magazine of the NMG, the Mittheilungen
(MT, 1840ff), and the Monatsblatt (MB, 1851ff), published between 1847 and 1922,
concentrating my reading on missionary travels, and descriptions of Agotime and the
coastal area. Thanks to social historian Veit Arlt who is working on Krobo history, I
read those transcriptions of documents in the PRO (previously, the Colonial Office
(CO)) and the BMA which made reference to cotton or textiles. In the NLNA I studied
records of the second West Indian Company (1621-1791) which refer to textiles and
cotton79. In Ghana, I studied the administration files (ADM-files) and the Colonial
Service Office files (CSO-files) in the GNA, records from the former colonial
administration, with regard to weaving, craft shows, Keta, Agbozume and Agotime.
Any biases of these archival sources need to be taken into account (Arlt 1995, Meyer 1997:
332, Steegstra 2004: 20) especially in
relation to what is left out of the record regarding
cotton growing and weaving. The references that are included are more descriptive than
detailed. Quotes from these archival sources included here were originally in German,
English or Dutch. Unless otherwise noted all translations of German are mine, with
corrections by native German-speaking friends. Translations of Dutch quotes are either
77
More than 200 textiles were analysed in the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen (NMD), the
British Museum in London (BM), the Liverpool Museum (LM), the Museum of Culture in Basel (MCB),
the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden (RMV), the National Museum of African Arts in
Washington D.C (NMAFA), and the private collection of Peter Adler in London.
78
See for example the writings about missionary photography by C. Geary (1990, 1991, 1998, and 2003),
P. Jenkins (1994), and the recent volume on missionary photography (Albrecht, Arlt, Müller and
Schneider 2004, especially the contribution of E. Haney: passim).
79
The summary of these records by A. van Dantzig facilitated the finding of these records (1978).
68
Chapter One. Introduction
mine or Dantzig’s (as published in his 1978 book). I indicate where statements were
originally in Dutch or German.
I conducted fieldwork in Ghana during four periods: eight months from October
1998 until May 1999; four months from August to November 1999; three months from
May to September 2000; and for the month of September 2003. I was already familiar
with some Ewe textiles and weaving on the double-heddle loom after staying in Accra,
Bonwire (the main Asante weaving village) and Agbozume for six months as part of my
M.A. research in 1994.
During my first stay, I lived in the Akotey family house in Ho in 1998 and the
home of Stephan Agbewali in Agotime-Kpetoe in 1999. I also stayed for one week in
Hohoe in January 1999 and several times in Accra. In January and February 1999 I
travelled around Togo visiting Lomé, Tsevie, Vogan and around Kpalimé. I did a greater
amount of research in Ghana than in Togo because weaving is mainly concentrated in
Ghanaian Ewe-speaking villages80. At other stages in my fieldwork I visited Togolese
Agotime towns. After concentrating initially on learning the Ewe language and building
up a network of contacts in the Volta Region, I selected 35 Traditional Areas of Ghana
and Cantons of Togo and conducted group interviews with many individuals in the 35
capitals of these areas to gain an understanding of the different textile traditions in the
area81. These group interviews were organised in collaboration with the National Centre
of Culture (the Ghanaian organisation to promote culture). I visited the capitals of the
selected areas twice, in the areas around Hohoe and Kpando accompanied by one of two
assistants of this Centre, Jacob Senyaglo or Marc-Antoni Cobblah. In Ho, Agotime, and
areas between Ho and the coastal region I was accompanied by Piece Ayittey or
Sylvanus Akakpo, who also acted as my main interpreters in Agotime. I gained a basic
understanding of Ewe to a minimum level of conversational level (a basic requirement
of conducting research in Ghana (cf. Steegstra 2004: 22)), but an interpreter always assisted
me during interviews in Ewe82. On the first visit I would explain to the paramount chief
(or his representative) the purpose of my visit: the inclusion in my study of locallywoven textiles and those considered important in the particular area. I would ask to have
arranged an exhibition of the cloths and a meeting with well-informed people about past
80
Furthermore, the difficult relationship between Ghana and Togo made it difficult to obtain regular visas
for Togo.
81
In 1998, I took regular Ewe classes with Hayford Dzogbenu, a teacher of Ewe and religious studies at
Mawuku Girls secondary school in Ho.
82
Several interviews were in English or French, many others were partly in Ewe and partly in English or
French.
69
Chapter One. Introduction
and present weaving in the area. I made the assumption that textile traditions do not
coincide neatly with ethnic and linguistic groups (cf. Kasfir 1984), and therefore included
in my survey different linguistic groups that do not identify themselves as Ewe,
especially those of the Central Togo minorities. I covered the same standard questions in
all interviews: for instance, the name, weaver and account of the use on recent and
general occasions of each textile, general questions on the local weaving industry, and
the use of particular textiles on certain occasions. Group interviews varied; some were
well organised, with a spokesperson for translating and leading the discussion, women
demonstrating the spinning of cotton and cloth that were neatly exhibited; others were
improvised on the second visit. In addition to providing a mass of information on
textiles throughout the Ewe-speaking region, these interviews also gave me greater
insight on the construction of knowledge83, and best methods on how to conduct
research in the Ewe-speaking area.
During my second and third visits, I stayed with the Akakpo family in AgotimeKpetoe84. On my third stay and in November 1999 I stayed in the home of the Mortoo
family in Anlo-Afiadenyigba, one of the largest weaving villages in the coastal area.
During my last visit I lived in the house of the family Keteku on the junction to AnloAfiadenyigba and, again, the home of the Akakpo family in Agotime-Kpetoe. During
each of my fieldwork visits, I spoke with many weavers, traders and consumers of
textiles in both villages. I frequently visited other Agotime and coastal places to conduct
interviews and have informal conversations, and I did research on the textile market in
Agbozume, Accra and Lomé. Interviews not only involved discussion of open
questions, but also the naming and sorting of cloth samples, the latter as one of the
better ways to understand local classification (see chapter three). The list of interviews,
informal conversations and personal communications provides the details of all
conversations referred to in this thesis. In the coastal area I was assisted by Evelyne Fia
from Anlo-Afiadenyigba or Sylvanus Akakpo, even though the interviews were largely
conducted in English. Elements of the interviews, especially relating to life histories and
weaving ideas, that were discussed in Ewe have been tape recorded and transcribed and
translated by Sylvanus Akakpo. During the last stay, Daniel Akakpo also assisted.
During the conducting of research friends and assistants not only acted as interpreters,
but also helped introduce me appropriately to new people. I also further developed my
83
84
Some group interviews involved less than 10 people, in others the whole village was assembled.
During my second stay, I lodged in the house of Nene Akotose VII, but lived with the Akakpo family.
70
Chapter One. Introduction
own skills as a weaver; my main teachers being several members of the Akakpo and
Mortoo families. Weaving for myself not only helped in understanding the weaving
technology in detail, it also allowed me to be taken seriously in discussions, essential to
gaining a thorough understanding of the terminology of Ewe weaving in Agotime and
the coastal area. The opinions of both male and female assistants, with their own
networks, also helped deepen my knowledge of different aspects of the weaving
industry.
As a participant in daily life, I attended and observed many occasions in which
hand-woven textiles were used, such as events marking a stage in the life cycle and
ritual practices in shrines and churches. I was always allowed to take pictures and
almost always to videotape the events without other people objecting to my camera. I
sometimes participated in the rituals, mainly through dancing, only once going through a
ritual myself, for one Afa consultation. During and after ceremonies, I talked to people
about what was happening and why, especially in relation to the cloth used.
Although I take full responsibility for my account of developments in weaving in
the Ewe-speaking region, it should be kept in mind that this research is the result of an
encounter between me, a white female from the Netherlands using French and English,
my informants (for whom these were often second, third or fourth languages), my male
and female assistants that helped me in areas outside their home-towns and many other
informants from the Ewe-speaking area. I agree with Birgit Meyer that this type of
encounter can be seen as ‘praxis of translation’, in the sense of a “creative meaningtransforming process” (Meyer 1999: xxv), which does not aim for the correct
representation of praxis of ‘the Other’, but “which is instead a product of intersubjective and
intercultural dialogue” (Meyer 1999: xxv).
Quotations of informants and precise references to
the source of my information therefore form an integral part of this thesis. This is
important to note as weavers and traders were the main source for my understanding of
local traditions, creativity, art, textiles etc. as there exists only a small body of literature
on these topics by actual Ewe-speakers (in contrast, for instance, to the Yoruba-speaking
area)85.
85
Although the findings in this thesis sometimes overlap with those found by D. Clarke in his Ph.D. thesis
(1999), the difference in local intellectual work and the more complex nature and diversity of Ewe textiles
accounts for a less engagement with the existing literature in this thesis. As general discussions on textilerelated issues are comprehensively covered by Clarke, I refer to them only where necessary.
71
Chapter One. Introduction
Textile Traditions
There are currently two main weaving centres in the Ewe-speaking region: many
villages along the upper part of the Keta lagoon as far as Denu (mainly in Anlo and
Somé, hereafter called the coastal area) and Agotime, which straddles Ghana and Togo
(see map 2: Agotime and map 3: Coastal area). The coastal area can, at least to describe some
textiles woven there, be divided roughly between the areas of the Anlo and Somé
peoples86. The types of textile produced by the Anlo and Somé weavers often overlap
due to their proximity and common wholesale marketplace, but there have also been
differences. I will henceforth refer both to textiles from the coastal area and, when
appropriate, Anlo or Somé cloth. Their textiles are also related to the textiles from
Agotime and further north; the different types woven in these centres variously merge
and differ from each other.
There have existed many other production areas and today one or two weavers
can be found in most towns and villages (see next section). Many of these weavers are
nowadays either from, or trained in, the two main weaving centres and produce the kind
of textiles learned there. Some weavers still weave in an indigenous style particular to
their area, mostly hand-spun cotton warp-faced textiles. These very distinct, localised
textiles are still produced in the area around Notsé (see figure C3-2), the Adaklu area (see
figures C3-3 and C3-4) and, to a lesser degree, in some
of the areas of the Togo Central
minorities like Avatime (see figure C3-6) and Likpe (see figure C3-9), but the same weavers
can often also weave textiles with wider distribution. The trade in textiles is not new in
the Ewe-speaking area and cloth collections in many locations often have a variety of
textile types (individual and group interviews including in Adaklu-Abuadi, February 1999, AkpafuTodzi, February 1999, Likpe-Mate, February 1999, Avatime-Vane, December 1998 and Notsé, March
1999).
There is also a temporal dimension to the distribution of hand-woven textiles in
the area with a complicated interrelationship between the textile traditions87. In terms of
86
The Somé live to the east of the Anlo. Inland Ewe mainly refer to both groups as Anlo, whereas in the
coastal area people make differences between these; the Somé stress their own identity in contrast to the
Anlo but the Anlo themselves maintain that the Somé are a subset of the Anlo. This has much to do with
the particular history of the area: a war in 1792 between the Anlo and Keta peoples (of which some
considered themselves as part of Anlo), resulted in the latter moving to land given by the Klikor people
and founding the Somé state with Agbozume as its capital. Under the British amalgation policy the Somé
were considered as part of Anlo which resulted in sometimes violent reactions during the whole colonial
period.
87
In contrast to Clarke’s assessment of aÙsoÙ o¾ke¾, which he rightly characterises as one textile tradition,
textile production and use in the Ewe-speaking area is far less unified and more complex than the textile
production in the Yoruba-speaking region (Clarke 1999: 72-75, chapter three).
72
Chapter One. Introduction
textiles with designs, and the technique and composition of the different elements
within a cloth, the Agotime and Somé traditions were more closely related at the
beginning of the 20th century today; the Anlo produce essentially the same textiles as the
adjacent Somé since the second half of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, the weaving of
textiles with supplementary weft and warps has become popular in all these weaving
areas whereas previously only the Somé and Anlo were the primary producers of such
textiles (see chapter three; see figures C6-10 and C6-19 for early 20th century, and figures C8-5 and C97 for late 20th century textiles).
Textiles in a Heterogeneous Area
The Ewe-speaking area is very heterogeneous. The definition of Ewe as used in
the contemporary literature to refer to a language, territory or ethnic group, has changed
over time through the classifications offered by people inhabiting the area and by
outsiders.
No imagined space, for instance a certain group identity, is homogenous, though
users of this notion often treat it in essential and totally encompassing terms. Although it
is important to acknowledge the necessity of this kind of claim in processes of
identification, especially in movements of emancipation and political struggles, within
this thesis a more fluid and partial notion of such group identities will be used (e.g.
Fardon 1995: 1-18).
Such a notion facilitates the understanding of the complex
interrelationships, developments and local importance of the several textile traditions in
the Ewe-speaking area.
The term ‘Ewe textiles’ will be used as a shortcut for textile traditions woven in
the Ewe-speaking area or developed by Ewe-speaking weavers. It is a common category
in the literature, but it will be qualified in this thesis. Ewe- and non-Ewe speakers
outside the Ewe-speaking area refer to these textiles as Ewe textiles (speaking in
English of French). It loosely defines not only cloth woven in the Ewe-speaking area,
but also textiles produced by Ewe weavers outside this area and cloths in a perceived
Ewe style produced by any weaver. Within the Ewe-speaking area, the term £eäo, ‘Ewe
textile’ is only used for warp-faced plain weave textiles88. Other textiles have generic
names, sometimes different in different weaving areas, based mainly on technique,
appearance and/or weaving process (see chapter three).
88
The name refers therefore to the older 19th century use of the word Ewe (see p.60).
73
Chapter One. Introduction
In this chapter, the focus has been on the complex linguistic and cultural history
of the Ewe-speaking area, the historic development of weaving centres in this area, the
emergence of an Ewe identity, and the methodologies used in this thesis. In chapter two,
the impact of raw materials and technology on the development and interrelations of
these textile traditions will be discussed. Chapter three provides a geographical and
historical overview of the different types of textiles based on local classifications and
their historical trajectories. In chapter four I propose a radical revision of the early
evolution of design and techniques of Ewe and Asante weaving based on hard
technological and archival evidence. In chapter five, the different uses of these textiles
are described and I argue that these are hardly about an ethnic identity but rather social
position, wealth and individual taste. Not only is the term ‘Ewe’ contingent, as became
clear in this chapter, but the connection between certain kinds of textiles and a specific
group of people is not straightforward. Chapter six discusses the production of weaving,
and education of weavers, based mainly on life histories of weavers and contractors, and
its impact on the development of these textile traditions is discussed. Chapter seven
examines the distribution of these textiles and the importance of different marketing
networks on the development of these textile traditions. In Chapter 8, I consider local
perceptions of creativity and describe the design process in detail. I argue that design
changes, ranging from minor incremental changes to major innovations, are at the core
of these textile traditions and I discuss the ways in which these changes have taken
place.
74