My name is Andy Peter, I am an immigrant from Ghana and I am a student at Berkshire Community College. In our country Kente is very popular, it is a kind of special cloth. Kente is a type of silk and cotton fabric made of interwoven cloth strips and is native to the Akan ethnic group of South Ghana. Almost everyone in my country has one; some of them are inherited from their elder relatives, and some of them are specially tailored to them. The reason why I choose Kente is my grandmother gave me this and I miss her so much since arriving to the United States. I always bring my Kente with me and whenever I see my Kente, I am reminded of her. Every Kente is different and on every Kente the color and the pattern has a different meaning such as black means maturity, green means harvest, health and rejuvenation, white means purity and sanctity. Mine is blue and gold. Blue means love and peace and gold means riches, royalty and prosperity. The Kente is very difficult to make, it is made by hand and the process is very complicated, so there are just a few people who know how to make it. But because it is handmade it is very durable, it can be used for many years. However, now that more and more people are aware of Kente, it is being used in a lot of different ways such as making shoes, making ties, etc. My Kente is a very important part of my life and I am very happy that more and more people know about Kente, and also Kente is one of symbol of my country and I want to let you know more about my country. That’s also a reason why I chose it.

– Andy Wu

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant