How The Color Combinations For Kente Cloth Stoles Have Changed For African American Graduating Students

Sankofa Edition, Nov. 1, 2021

A video showing how sankofaedition.com Authentic Kente Cloth Graduation Stole is woven. -snip- Notice the gold, red, green, and black color combination of the kente cloth stole. Since at least 2012, that color combination appears to be the one that is most often worn by Black students who are graduating from a university. **** Edited by Azizi Powell Latest revision: June 12, 2025 This pancocojams post provides some information about the custom of wearing kente cloth stoles during graduations in the United States. This pancocojams post also showcases YouTube videos of various color combinations of kente cloth stoles that have been worn or are being worn as graduation stoles by Black people in the United States.

The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes. All copyrights remain wit h their owners. Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to all those who published these videos on YouTube. -snip- Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/02/wearing-kente-cloth-stoles-during.html for a 2014 pancocojams post on this subject. That post provides additional information and showcases additional videos on this subject. Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/examples-of-how-gold-green-red-black.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Examples Of How The Gold, Green, Red, & Black Colors Of Pan-African Flag Have Been Used In The African Diaspora". Among its other showcase videos, that post featured two additional videos of donning kente cloth ceremonies in the United States.
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INFORMATION ABOUT WEARING KENTE CLOTH General Information From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kente_cloth "Kente (Akan: nwentoma; Ewe: kete) refers to a Ghanaian textile, made of handwoven cloth, strips of silk and cotton.[1] Historically the fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion by royalty among ethnic groups such as the Ashanti and Ewe. In modern day Ghana, the wearing of Kente cloth has become widespread to commemorate special occasions, with highly sought after Kente brands led by master weavers.

Due to the popularity of Kente[2] cloth patterns, Kente print, which is a mass-produced version, is popular throughout the West. Globally, the print is used in the design of academic stoles in graduation ceremonies.[3].... -snip- As of the date of the publication of this pancocojams post, I've not come across any YouTube videos or any articles or comments about kente stoles being worn by Black graduates of universities (colleges) or other academic institutions outside of the United States an, to a much lesser extent Canada. If you know of this custom being practiced outside of the United States, please share that information in the comment section below. Thanks!

**** How Is Kente Traditionally Worn?

From https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-africa/west-africa/ghana/a/kente-cloth. Kente cloth (Asante and Ewe peoples)

by Dr. Courtnay Micots. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker. [no publishing date given]

...There are differences in how the cloth is worn by men and women. On average, a men’s size cloth measures 24 strips wide, making it about 8 feet wide and 12 feet long. Men usually wear one piece wrapped around the body, leaving the right shoulder and hand uncovered, in a toga-like style. Women may wear either one large piece or a combination of two or three pieces of varying sizes ranging from 5-12 strips, averaging of 6 feet long. Age, marital status, and social standing may determine the size and design of the cloth an individual would wear."...

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What Are The Earliest Dates For The Custom Of African American University Graduates Wearing Kente Stoles During Their Graduation Ceremony?
Excerpt #1 From http://articles.latimes.com/1991-10-27/news/vw-1049_1_kente-cloth

October 27, 1991|Donnette Dunbar  'Everybody Wants a Piece of Africa Now' : Culture: Kente, a cloth rich in color and tradition, weaves its way into wardrobes of African-Americans. 'It makes me feel stronger,' one wearer says. ...."Many high school and college students wear strips of kente around their necks during graduation ceremonies. At prominent black colleges such as Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Morehouse, Hampton and Spellman in Atlanta, kente--in the form of scarves, hats and book bags--has become commonplace.

Cal State Northridge students have been wearing the cloth sporadically since the early '70s, says Margaret J. Brown, 53, coordinator of the university's black graduation ceremonies. She says wearing kente stoles at graduation has become a tradition."...
-snip-
I added italics to highlight this sentence.

I've been watching YouTube videos of historically Black Greek letter organizations searching for examples of kente cloth stoles that are worn by members of those fraternities/sororities. I haven't found any videos that show kente stoles being worn by members of those historically Black Greek letter organizations other than for their university graduation ceremony and their stepping, strolling, hopping, singing performances immediately afterwards.* Prior to around 2011 members of historically Black Greek letter organizations wore customized graduation stoles made out of some shiny materials [?] or made out of cloth. Graduation stoles made out of kente cloth began to be seen in those videos from 2011** on, although those customized graduation stoles made from other fabrics appear to still be worn by some members of those historically Black Greek organizations (BGLOs).
Starting around 2011 or 2012, a  number of YouTube videos can be found of members of historically Black fraternities/sororities wearing what I refer to as the pan-African kente cloth graduation stole that has the color combination of green, gold (yellow), red, and black (with a narrow white row). Those kente cloth stoles also have a Asante (Ashanit) Golden stool symbol, the graduation date, and the name of the university from which the student is graduating..  
*If you know of any examples of customized kente stoles being worn by members of historically Black Greek letter organizations other than as graduation stoles, please share that information in this post's comment section below. Thanks!
** 2011 is the earliest year that I found for members of historically Black Greek letter organizations wearing customized kente cloth graduation stoles.

The earliest YouTube video that I've found that shows a member of a historically Black fraternity/sorority wearing a customized kente graduation stole is 2011 in the video given as Video #1 in the pancocojams post about Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity and kente cloth graduation stoles  

https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-phi-beta-sigma.html  

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Excerpt #2 From https://inside.charlotte.edu/news-features/2021-12-15/donning-kente-more-graduation-tradition-%E2%80%98symbol-achievement%E2%80%99#:~:text=It%20is%20generally%20believed%20that,West%20Chester%20University%20in%201993 "The kente stole is a symbol of achievement and overcoming hardship. It pays homage to the ancestors’ sacrifices, reunites African Americans with Africa, and asserts their hope and confidence in the future. It is generally believed that the use of the kente strip as graduation stole began at West Chester University in 1993."

-end of quote-
*West Chester University is is in the state of Pennsylvania (USA). 

Note the 1970s date for wearing Black graduates in the United States wearing kente cloth stoles that is given in Excerpt #1 above.
-snip-
Members of historically Black Greek letter fraternities or sororities (regardless of their race or ethnicity) may wear customized kente cloth graduation stoles instead of or along with the green, gold, red, and black kente graduation stole. Those graduates might also wear other academic stoles. Much less frequently, kente cloth stoles may be worn by Black graduates in the United States at other levels such as children graduating from elementary school or teenagers graduating from high school. The only YouTube video that I've found as of this date of Black students wearing kente cloth stoles during their graduation from an academic institution other than a university (college) is this 2012 video. (My guess is that these students are graduating from middle school to high school.)

Fresno County 2012 African American Graduation

LeachMedia, May 23, 2012

2012 Fresno County African American Graduation ceremony held at Fresno Memorial Auditorium. Hosted by San Joaquin Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. -snip- Notice the different designs of kente stoles that these students are wearing.

**** What Appears To Be The Most Common Kente Design (color combination) in the United States? Kente cloth can be one color, or more than one color. Kente cloth also traditionally includes one or more adinkra symbols. As of June 2025, the most widely found type of kente cloth stole that is worn by Black university graduates in the United States is what I refer to as the "pan-African kente cloth stole". That design has a black base with a very narrow white row, followed by a wider row of light green, and the same width of gold (yellow) and red. The green, and yellow is then repeated. Those stoles then have the stylized symbol of the Ghanaian Asante (Ashanti) golden stool over the color black. The stole repeats that above pattern and then has the graduation date towards the end of one side of the stole and the name of the university toward the end of the other side of the stole.

Based on my experience (and reinforced by online sources including YouTube videos), most kente cloth stoles that were worn in the United States prior to (around) 2012 had a orange (gold/yellow?) red, green, blue, and black color combination. That particular color combination appears to have been the one that was most often worn by African Americans and other Black students in the United States who were graduating from universities or other academic institutions.

The 2018 YouTube video that is given immediately below has a screen shot of a Black man wearing an African hat (kufi) shows that particular color combination.

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Kente cloth - Different colors and designs 

Africa Imports, Dec 10, 2018  #instruments #African #fabrics

www.africaimports.com

Africa Imports | Kente: The Cloth of Kings is about what is Kente cloth used for and the representation of colors and their meaning.
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A 2020 Video Example of Different Color Combinations of Kente Cloth Here's a 2020 YouTube video of some Democratic members of the United States Congress wearing kente stoles with a gold, red, green, blue, and black color combination. I believe this kente design was the most commonly used color combination (if not design) in the United States prior to the adoption of the gold, green, red, and black kente graduation stoles for African American students around 2012.

Pelosi Kneels With Other Democrats in 'Moment of Silence'

VOA News, June 8, 2020 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led House and Senate Democrats in a moment of silence at the Capitol Building's Emancipation Hall, Monday, June 8. -snip- The members of Congress wearing kente cloth for this moment of silence was in honor of the memory of George Floyd was very controversial. Click https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/08/politics/democrats-criticized-kente-cloth-trnd/index.html for a CNN article about that subject.

** According to Kwasi Ansare*, quoted in the June 11, 2020 NPR show entitled Kente Cloth: From Royals To Graduation Ceremonies ... To Congress? "So the strip that you saw Congress wear on their backs was an Asante design called Kyembre — this symbol represents knowledge, experience and service."

*"Kwasi Asare grew up weaving kente — his father created the kente piece commissioned by Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president after declaring independence from Britain, to hang outside the United Nations General Assembly building in 1960. The younger Asare made a replacement for the original piece in 1995, which still hangs at the U.N. in New York City." Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/11/875054683/kente-cloth-from-royals-to-graduation-ceremonies-to-congress

**** What is the Kente Design (color combination) That Is Most Often Worn By University Graduates In The United States Since Around 2011 or 2012?

Based on YouTube videos, it appears that since at least 2012*, one particular pattern of green, gold, red, and black has become the customary color combination for kente cloth graduation stoles that are worn by African American university graduates and other Black graduates in the United States. That kente cloth pattern consists of seperate, equal size strips of the colors green, gold, and then followed by a larger black rectangle that has an Akan adinkra symbol in the middle. This color pattern repeats itself until the end of the stole and the stole hs fringers on the bottom. *2011 is the earliest date that I've come across for a YouTube video of the kente cloth stole design and color combinations that are described above. Here's that video:
Jamesha's 2011 Howard University School of Business Graduation 

 

NT Creative Partners, May 14, 2011
**** However, I've seen videos of that kente cloth stole design and color combinations worn by certain Black and integrated music groups and choirs in the United States as early as "the early 90s" [Sounds Of Blackness - I believe" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JviNJJpp0wU&ab_channel=mysteriousmurasame at 2:07 in that video.

My position is that this design and the green, gold, red, and black combination has overtaken the previously popular yellow, red, green, blue, and black kente cloth color combination in the United States not because of the traditional Akan meanings that have been ascribed to those colors but because green, gold, red, and black are pan-African colors. Here's a portion of an article about pan-African colors:

From https://medium.com/illumination-curated/why-most-african-flags-use-the-red-yellow-and-green-colors-61e90d6164c Why Most African Flags Use the Red, Yellow, and Green Colors? The Untold Story Behind Most African Flags by Bisi Media, Feb. 22, 2021
"On October 11th, 1897, a year after Ethiopia defended itself from Italian colonization at the Battle of Adwa, Emperor Menelik II authorized the creation of a flag containing a rectangular tri-color from top to bottom: red, yellow, and green.

[...]

These three colors red, green, and yellow with the inclusion of black will later be known as the Pan-African colors.

Although the meaning of the individual colors used in a country’s flag may differ from country to country; the countries of the flags that make use of the Pan-African colors have similar meaning with green representing the unique nature of the continent having good land for agriculture, red representing the blood, and common heritage of Africans during the fight against oppression from colonialism, yellow representing the wealth of Africa, and finally, black which signifies the color of the people."...
-snip-
The overarching meaning of pan-African colors are Black unity and Black pride. As such, I refer to these kente graduation stoles as "pan-African kente cloth graduation stoles".

**** MORE DESCRIPTIONS OF THESE PAN-AFRICAN KENTE CLOTH GRADUATION STOLES Wearing one or more kente cloth stole's during graduation or otherwise is a Black American adaptation of the use of traditional Ghanaian kente cloth fabric The color preferences for those stoles has changed over time. Since about 2011, the preferred pan-African color kente stoles have included a symbol of the Ghanaian (Asante/Ashanti)* golden stool embroidered over a black background.

Kente cloth usually includes one or more adinkra symbols. The Golden stool isn't listed in any list, or article, or YouTube video that I have found on Ghanaian traditional adinkra symbols. For instance, this online article (with drawings) of 98 adinkra symbols https://www.adinkrasymbols.org/ doesn't include the Asante (Ashanti) Golden Stool symbol.

However, the Golden stool symbol serves the same cultural and spiritual purposes on kente cloth fabrics (including kente cloth stoles) as adinkra symbols: The inclusion of the Asante (Ashanti) Golden Stool being embroidered on the pan-African color kente cloth stoles represent the historical connection that members of the African Diaspora (including Black Americans) have with Africa and the rich cultural legacy that members of the African Diaspora (including Black Americans) have with Ghana, West Africa, and by extension, with other regions of Africa.

Here's some information about the Asante Golden Stool from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Stool "The Golden Stool (Ashanti-Twi: Sika dwa; full title, Sika Dwa Kofi "the Golden Stool born on a Friday") is the royal and divine throne of kings of the Asante people and the ultimate symbol of power in Asante.[1] According to legend, Okomfo Anokye, High Priest and one of the two chief founders of the Asante Confederacy, caused the stool to descend from the sky and land on the lap of the first Asante king, Osei Tutu.[2] Such seats were traditionally symbolic of a chieftain's leadership, but the Golden Stool is believed to house the spirit[3] of the Asante nation—living, dead and yet to be born."...

* "Asante" is the name of a prominent ethnic group in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, West Africa. The word "Ashanti" is an incorrect but very widely used referent for that ethnic group in the United States and in some other nations outside of Africa. Note that the population name "Asante" doesn't have the same meaning as the East African/Central African KiSwahili word "asante" which means "thank you" in that language.

**** Some other common kente cloth color combinations and embroidery on kente cloth graduation stoles in the United States

Most members of historically Black Greek letter fraternities/sororities (regardless of their race/ethnicity) wear the two color combinations that represent their organization. For example, members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. usually wear a purple and gold kente cloth stole with the three Greek letters for their fraternity embroidered at the end of one of the sides of that stole and the graduation year embroidered on the other side. Click the name of each of those organizations + kente cloth for a pancocojams post about that subject. **** ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE VIDEOS OF PAN-AFRICAN KENTE CLOTH GRADUATION STOLES (STOLES WITH A SPECIFIC GREEN, GOLD, RED, AND BLACK COLOR PATTERN)

SHOWCASE VIDEO #2:  Black Graduation 2012 at Michigan State University

Brittany Holmes,May 20, 2012

A video from Michigan State University's Black Graduation 2012. **** SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: Jabulani Black Graduation 2014 SFSU

JaRon McReynolds, March 8, 2015
-snip-
SFSU= San Francisco State University (in San Francisco, California, USA)

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #4: Kente Stole Ceremony

Regis College, May 4, 2017 Regis seniors from the Class of 2017 share what the Kente Stole means to them. As a community that welcomes all without distinction, we are proud to celebrate diversity and inclusion, and to recognize students from diverse backgrounds for all their accomplishments over the years. -snip- Regis College is a private university in Weston, Massachusette.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #5: Behind the Stole: Donning of the Kente Ceremony
WUVA, May 19, 2019

WUVA sheds light on the Donning of the Kente ceremony hosted by the Office of African-American Affairs, which awards graduating black students with stoles made of kente cloth imported from West Africa. -snip- "WUVA "refers to independent student owned and operated communication media at the University of Virginia (in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA)
**** SHOWCASE VIDEO #6: Kente Graduation Stole Meanings and Symbolism

Sankofa Edition, Oct. 21, 2021 Learn what the symbols on Kente Stoles mean -snip- Click https://www.aaihs.org/the-history-and-significance-of-kente-cloth-in-the-black-diaspora for the 2017 article entitled "The History and Significance of Kente Cloth in the Black Diaspora"  **** SHOWCASE #7: Marshall University's "The Donning of Kente 2018"

MarshalU, April 27, 2018 The ceremony takes place each spring for African and African American students who graduated from Marshall University during the winter and those slated for graduation in May or during the upcoming summer terms.

**** Thanks for visiting pancocojams. Visitor comments are welcome.