Ghana: Global Gateway Summer 2025 (Reflections)

Ashlee B: Final Reflections

As a designer with a deep love for African-American and Africana Studies, and a child of the African Diaspora, being able to visit the “Motherland” with such a lively, kind, and attentive group has been such a blessing — an opportunity not many get. Throughout this beautiful experience, the art has resided with me the most.

On the campus of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology is a museum, featuring students’ work. I observed art in many mediums. Wire bent sculptures with rocks looped in, paintings with phototransfer and amazing texture layered underneath or on top of the paint, ceramics tall and wide, and hand weavings. As an artist, being in UW-Madison, although it is not required for my major, it is very common that people came in with previous knowledge of artistic skill. I thought it was beautiful to have conversations with the students at the university, some who create such profound pieces yet learned everything they can do in school.

While Kente may stereotypically hold an image of orange fabric with blue, green, and red geometric shapes, it is the term for a certain type of weaving native to Ghana, specifically in the Ashanti region. Kente comes in a variety of colors and is woven in three different ways. A single weave, using only one color. A double weave, where there is a design, in inverse colors on opposite sides. And the most intricate, a triple weave, where the design is the same on both sides. It is created using a loom where the weaver uses their toes to switch between each warp, and their hands to gracefully pass the weft through, and beat it down to make it compact and tight, making a beautiful rhythmic sound. Kente is art.

In the many markets of Ghana are fabric vendors and seamstresses. Ghanaians will shop for a fabric and give it to their seamstress to have a one-of-a-kind garment sewn to fit their bodies. In the Kaneshie Market, I had the pleasure of spending all the time we had there contemplating a fabric, and having a blouse created by a fashionably, self-styled seamstress. The process of working with people to bring a design to fruition is art. The way in which the women and men sewing work to output a garment in an efficient manner is art.

Art is weaved into the vibrant, extensive culture of Ghana. It holds great importance and is all around anyone who resides here or has the amazing opportunity to visit. I cannot wait to bring everything I’ve taken in back to my design practice at the university!