Crimson & Green & Indigo

Crimson is the Sika futuro — the deep vivid crimson-to-red of the 'Sika futuro' (gold dust) — one of the most important Asante kente patterns, typically woven with a vivid red-to-crimson warp against gold and black weft elements. The Asante kente cloth tradition (from the Twi language: ke — spider, nten — web — 'woven like a spiderweb') developed from at least the 17th century CE in the Asante Kingdom (the most powerful and most culturally sophisticated state in West Africa from approximately 1700-1900 CE, centered at Kumasi in what is now Ghana). The specific deep crimson-to-red of kente is produced traditionally from the dried and ground powder of the root bark of the Baphia nitida tree (camwood — producing a vivid red-to-crimson natural dye) or from red cochineal dye introduced through the Atlantic trade. In the most ceremonially significant kente cloths, deep crimson represents specific spiritual and political meanings in the Asante color symbolism system: red (specifically the deepest, most vivid red) is associated with death, sacrifice, and the shedding of blood — and appears in the most formally significant ceremonial kente cloths worn at funerals and at the most solemn royal occasions. Green is the woven yarn — the vivid mid-green of the woven green yarn strips that are one of the most immediately recognizable elements of the most elaborate kente compositions. The specific Asante green symbolism: in the Asante kente color system, green (specifically the most vivid green — sometimes called 'Asante green') is associated with growth, vitality, and the forest (the dense tropical forest of the Ashanti Region of central Ghana — one of the most biodiverse forest regions in West Africa — is the physical and spiritual environment of the Asante people). The specific mid-green of kente woven strips is achieved traditionally using plant-based dyes from the leaves of Cissus populnea and from the bark of various West African trees that produce vivid green mordant combinations. Indigo is the ancient dye — the deep indigo-blue of the indigo-dyed kente yarn, using the West African indigo tradition (specifically Lonchocarpus cyanescens — the West African indigo plant, also called 'elu' in Yoruba and 'Gara' in Sierra Leone — which produces essentially the same indigotin molecule as Indigofera tinctoria). The West African indigo-dyeing tradition — practiced throughout the Sahel, West African forest zone, and Atlantic coast from Senegal to Nigeria — is among the most ancient and most technically sophisticated natural dyeing traditions in the world, with evidence of indigo-dyeing in West Africa dating to at least the 11th century CE (specifically from excavations at Benin City, Nigeria).