Man's cloth

Both Ewe and Asante weavers create unusual, dynamic cloths by alternating two or more stripe patterns. The Asante name for this style is Mmbam (mixed cloth); the Ewe refer to it as Sasa. The strips are often dramatically different from one another, but the pattern blocks usually share a similar color palette and design features which unify the disparate elements. The use of multiple stripe patterns reflects a conscious design choice and is not a way to use up odds and ends of leftover strips or to recycle older cloths. The use of two-color plied weft threads and figurative motifs identifies this particular piece as the creation of an Ewe weaver. In the lower right hand corner is an area patched with a third stripe pattern; this may be a repair to the garment or it may make up for a shortage of that particular stripe pattern. Almost every cloth in this installation has a patch or a miscalculation of some sort; these aberrations are not considered flaws nor do they diminish the value of the cloth.