Creative Arts industries in Ghana: an Exploration of the Characteristics of the Bonwire Kente Weaving Village

Abstract

The kente weaving subsector in Ghana as part of the creative industries is a potential economic booster. It can create avenue for wealth generation and job creation. In spite of these potentials, scholarship on the subsector specifically the physical and economic condition of businesses has received little attention. Most of the existing scholarship centre on historical narratives of the subsector, textile weaving in the educational sector, tools and techniques in textile weaving and the effects of the socio-political climate on the weavers and the market. Though these narratives are important contributions to scholarship on the textile industry in Ghana, much need to be done especially in assessing the basic geographical and physical standing of this sub-sector which act as the crust of the survival of the sub-sector. Using interviews and observation and the Bonwire Kente weaving village as the unit of analysis, this research sought to explore the conditions of the physical and economic features of the weaving village in Ghana. The study revealed that features such as physical structure, infrastructure network, technology/equipment and raw materials are challenged. The challenges were caused by some factors such as lack of funding, poor infrastructural network, unavailability and costly nature of raw material and technological lag. These challenges, according to participants, could be improved when various actors (weavers, government, educational institutions, community) create enabling conditions in the areas of funding, education, technological advancement and provision of raw materials locally.