This year’s week-long Kente Festival of the people of Agotime in the Volta Region was rounded off with a grand durbar at Kpetoe last Saturday.
The Agotime Kente Festival-2026 was on the theme: Agotime Kente – Honouring Our Heritage, Safeguarding Our Future.
The Chief of Staff of the Office of the Vice-President, Alex Segbefia, who was the guest of honour, said kente held an extraordinary place in Ghana’s national life.
“It carries our values and identities, accompanies us through important moments in our lives and has become one of the most recognisable expressions of Ghanaian culture worldwide,” he added.
In that context, Mr Segbefia commended the ongoing work on the Kente Village and Centre of Excellence, initiated by the Governing Council of the Agotime Kente Festival, saying the project brings together cultural preservation and bright prospects of economic development.
It also has the potential to expand training, support artisans and enterprises, in addition to encouraging research and innovation, as well as helping to protect traditional designs and strengthen Agotime’s position as a destination for cultural tourism, he said.
The guest of honour, therefore, urged other institutions and development partners to contribute to the successful completion of the project.
He said the project was consistent with the government’s broader vision for Ghana’s creative economy, adding that the nation’s cultural heritage was an inheritance, and the knowledge and creativity behind it were assets.
“Our weavers, designers and other creative professionals must be able to turn their knowledge and talent into sustainable enterprises and decent livelihoods,” he added.
Mr Segbefia, who was enstooled as Nene Dufozi I at Kpetoe during last year’s Kente Festival celebration, maintained that an artisan’s ability to build a successful enterprise did not depend solely on talent.
It rather required investment in infrastructure that connected communities to markets and opportunity, he explained.
“Safeguarding heritage also means creating the conditions in which people and enterprises that sustain it can prosper,” he told the gathering.
Big Push
Touching on the Big Push project, Mr Segbefia said the Ho-Kpetoe and the Kpetoe-Afiadenyigba roads would make the Agotime Traditional Area more accessible to visitors and strengthen the potential of the festival, the upcoming Kente Village and Centre of Excellence and other local enterprises to contribute to tourism and other economic activities in the area.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) of Agotime Ziope, Alfred Eklu Odikro, pledged the assembly’s firm stance to work with traditional authorities and other stakeholders to raise tourism in Agotime to astonishing heights.
He, therefore, entreated the people to remain united and live in peace always, to pave the way for the rapid realisation of the dream.
The Member of Parliament for Agotime-Ziope, Charles Agbeve, urged the youth of Agotime to embrace kente weaving, saying the elderly weavers were exiting the vocation.
He said Agotime was definitely the best place for kente and that craftsmanship must be preserved with great zeal and enthusiasm.
Kente living soul of Agotime
The Konor of Agotime, Nene Nuer Keteku IV, said kente was far more than an export commodity to be admired at ceremonies.
He said kente was the living soul of Agotime, representing the collective wisdom of the ancestors, preserved and expressed through the rhythmic movement of the loom.
Nene Keteku said it was, however, not enough to praise the craft in public, but it must be sustained through deliberate practices.
“If we fail to transmit this traditional knowledge to young people in our home, schools, and workshops, we will become mere caretakers of a dying art, left with memories, while the skill itself fades into history,” he cautioned.
Nene Keteku said the Kente Village and Centre of Excellence project sought to give that tradition a permanent foundation to serve as a viable economic engine for local employment, a source of foreign exchange, and a micro-enterprise capacity across the rural economy.
That, he said, would also safeguard the traditional kente designs against counterfeit imitation.
The chairman of this year’s festival planning committee, Cephas Kafui Apenuvor, said the celebration was yet another testimony of the shared unity, deep-rooted cultural pride and inspiration among the people to protect the kente craft, which defined the people of Agotime.
