All activities / Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) / Adanwomase
Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) in Adanwomase
An Ashanti weaving town about 20 kilometres north of Kumasi, Adanwomase has produced kente cloth for more than four centuries and runs a community tourism project where visitors sit at the loom with master weavers of the Ashanti kingdom's most storied craft.
Why here
Kente is West Africa's most recognisable cloth, and Adanwomase is one of the villages where it is still woven by hand the old way. Weaving has been practised here for more than 400 years, and about half the town works in kente production, sending strips to Ashanti royalty and to buyers worldwide. On a community-run visitor tour you sit down with a master weaver at a narrow treadle loom, learn how the hundreds of named patterns carry proverbs, histories and clan meanings, and try the warping and weaving yourself. Each colour and motif has a message, so the cloth reads almost like text once a weaver decodes it for you. The visit sits inside a wider village walk that takes in the chief's palace, a house standing for three centuries and a cocoa farm, making it a grounded half-day in the Ashanti heartland rather than a shop stop.
Best months
The workshop runs year-round on weekdays, and the community visitor centre is the place to start and pick up a guide. Weekends are quieter for the wrong reason, since many weavers attend funerals on Saturdays and take Sundays off, so a weekday visit finds the most looms working. Kumasi's own dry-season months are the most comfortable for the drive and the village walk.
Getting there & around
Adanwomase is about 20 kilometres north of Kumasi on the Mampong road, roughly 40 minutes by taxi or ride-hailing car from the city. Kumasi has an airport with flights from Accra and is the natural base. Tours are arranged through the town tourism committee at the visitor centre on arrival, and cloth is bought directly from the weavers.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Adanwomase Kente Visitor Centre
OrganizerAdanwomase is an Ashanti town where kente cloth has been woven for more than 400 years, and its community tourism project, run by the Adanwomase Town Tourism Committee, welcomes visitors at a visitor centre. Guided tours pair you with a master weaver to learn the history of the patterns and to try warping and weaving on a treadle loom yourself. The village walk takes in the chief's palace, a house standing for three centuries and a cocoa farm, and cloth is bought directly from the weavers.