Members Of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. Wearing One Or More Kente Cloth Stole/s With Their Graduation Cap & Gown

D'Andre Stewart, Jun 12, 2019

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me along the way. On May 5th, I received my Bachelors of Arts in Environmental & Sustainability. This is chapter performance we did after 2 other brothers and myself crossed the stage. I’ll continue to vlog it just won’t be college vlogs anymore for now!

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Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision: May 25, 2025

This pancocojams post showcases videos of  some members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. wearing one or more kente cloth stole/s with their graduation cap and gown.

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and thanks to all those who published these videos on YouTube.
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This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series about kente cloth graduation stoles. 

A pancocojams post on this subject has been published for each of the "Divine Nine" historically Black Greek letter organizations. Click the "kente cloth graduation stole" tag below or click the name of the historically Black Greek letter organization in the tags below to find the pancocojams post on this subject that showcases videos of that paticular Black Greek letter organization wearing kente graduation stoles and/or another type of kente stole during university graduations.

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THE BLACK AMERICAN CUSTOM OF WEARING KENTE CLOTH STOLE/S DURING UNIVERSITY GRADUATIONS
by Azizi Powell (latest revision May 25, 2025)

"BACKGROUND
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kente_cloth [retrieved May 25, 2025]
"Kente refers to a Ghanaian textile made of hand-woven strips of silk and cotton.[1] Historically the fabric was worn in a toga-like fashion among the Asante, Akan and Ewe people. According to Asante oral tradition, it originated from Bonwire in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. In modern day Ghana, the wearing of kente cloth has become widespread to commemorate special occasions, and kente brands led by master weavers are in high demand.

Due to the popularity of kente cloth patterns, production of mass-produced prints with the kente patterns have become popular throughout West Africa, and by extension the whole of Africa. Globally, the print is used in the design of academic stoles in graduation ceremonies worn mostly by black people in the United States and Canada."...

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WHY KENTE CLOTH GRADUATION STOLES ARE WORN IN THE UNITED STATES
Since the 1970s in the United States, kente cloth has become a widely recognized short cut symbol of African heritage. Kente cloth is the most widely known example and often the only known example of traditional African fabric in the United States.

There are countless contemporary usages of kente cloth designs in the United States including as clothing fabric, book marks, and Kwanzaa ornaments. However, the most widely adopted use of kente cloth in the United States has been Black Americans choosing to wear one or more kente cloth stole/s with the standard cap and gown (robe) during graduation ceremonies. This custom is especially found among Black Americans who are graduating from a Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU), although Black Americans graduating from a Predominately White Institution (PMI) may also choose to wear one or more kente cloth graduation stole/s. While wearing a kente cloth stole is a voluntary decision, it has become traditional to do so among those graduates of either a HBCU or a PMI (Predominately White Institutions) who are members of a historically Black Greek letter sorority or fraternity.*

The kente cloth stole represents the graduate's connection to and pride in their African heritage, and their pride in their accomplishment of graduating. If they are members of a historically Black Greek lettered fraternity or sorority, the favored stole is in the two colors of their organization and includes that fraternity's or sorority's three Greek letters.
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*Members of these organization that aren't Black may also follow that custom of wearing one or more kente cloth stole in their graduation ceremony.

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DESCRIPTIONS OF KENTE CLOTH GRADUATION STOLES IN THE UNITED STATES

"Kente cloth is a traditional fabric of the Akan people of Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Togo West Africa. The custom in the United States of African Americans wearing kente cloth as stoles during graduation (particularly from universities, but sometimes also from high school and from middle school) is an adaptation of the ways that kente was traditionally worn. Since 2012, it has become customary for many African Americans who are graduating from universities (colleges) to wear a particular design of kente cloth stoles that has a green, gold, red, and black color combination. Because those are the colors for the Pan-African flag, I refer to this kente graduation stole as the "pan-African kente graduation stole".

Instead of or in addition to wearing this green, gold, red, and black colored kente cloth stole, some members of historically Black Greek letter fraternities or sororities (regardless of their race or ethnicity) often choose to wear one or more customized kente cloth stole/s. A customized graduation stole has the two colors that represent that Greek letter organization and also includes that fraternity's or sorority's three Greek letters (representing that organization's name). Graduates who wear the pan-African kente graduation stole and/or their fraternity or sorority's customized kente stole may also wear other academic stoles that they have earned. based on my YouTube video searches, it doesn't appear to be a custom for  African American university students in general or for members of Black Greek letter organizations to wear pan-kente cloth stoles or customized kente cloth stoles at any other time other than during these graduation ceremonies and after graduation stepping or strolling performances.

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 green, gold, red, and black pan-African kente cloth graduation stole seems to be the standard kente graduation stole for African Americans as a whole since at least 2012. It appears to be customary for some members of historically Black Greek letter organizations who are graduating from a university to also wear a customized stole for their fraternity or sorority as well as any academic stole that they have earned in addition to or in place of that pan-African kente graduation stole. The customized fraternity or sorority kente graduation stoles have that organization's two colors, the organization's name, and its three Greek letters (such as Alpha Phi Alpha ΑΦΑ). 

In the admittedly informal YouTube searches that I've conducted, I haven't found any videos that show kente cloth stoles being worn by members of any  historically Black Greek letter organizations at any time other than for their university graduation ceremony and their stepping, strolling, hopping, singing performances that may spontaneously occur immediately after that formal graduation ceremony.

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 Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (video published August 10, 2010;  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-delta-sigma-theta.html.

Two other early examples of kente cloth graduation stoles are Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-phi-beta-sigma.html (video published in May 2011) and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (published in June 2011) https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-omega-psi-phi-fratrnity.html .

Prior to around 2010 or 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 2010 and 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).

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/how-color-combinations-for-kente-cloth.html  for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "How The Color Combinations For Kente Cloth Stoles Have Changed For African American Graduating Students." That post provides more descriptions of the pan-African kente cloth graduation stole.

Also, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/black-university-graduates-in-united.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Black Fraternity & Sorority Tradition Of Strolling During Or After A University Graduation Ceremony". That 2018 post provides information about the historically Black Greek letter organizations traditions of stepping and strolling.".

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ADDITIONAL SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These are the YouTube videos that I found which met my criteria for this pancocojams post (i.e. members of  Iota Phi Theta Fraternity wearing one or more kente cloth stole/s with their graduation cap and gown). 

These videos are given in chronological order (except video #1) and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: Iota Phi Theta - Centaur Walk & UF Graduation Fall 2010

tonystark1963, May 6, 2010

My Fall 2010 graduation & another brother at the University of Florida (Gamma Omicron Chapter). We also did the Centaur Walk after.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: 

UAlbany Iotas, May 23, 2017

On behalf of the brothers of the Delta Rho "DeathRow" Chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc. , we would like to congratulate brothers Jarius Jemmott, Matthew Sierra, Richard Ogarro, Nathan Honegan, Cameron Crawley and Nicholas Reyes for graduating SUNY Albany with their Bachelor's Degrees. Keep paving the way brothers. OW OW!

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