Sankofa Edition, Nov 1, 2021
A video showing how sankofaedition.com Authentic Kente Cloth
Graduation Stole is woven.
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This video showcases the kente cloth pattern that has become the standard colors and standard design among Black people in the United States, particularly worn as a stole over a university graduation gown by HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & University ) graduates.
The kente cloth pattern in this video features the pan-African colors of green, gold, and red along with the color black. The colors green, gold, and red are known as pan-African colors because they are used as the colors for the flags of a number of African nations including Ethiopia and Ghana. (Kente cloth is most often associated with Ghana, West Africa.)
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-African_colours for information about pan-African colors. That page includes depictions of African nations whose flags have the colors green, gold, and red, or green, gold, red, & black, or red, black, and green.
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part I of a two part pancocojam series on the custom of some African American male or females students who are graduating from a college/university wearing at least one kente cloth stole with their graduation gown.
This post showcases a YouTube video of a Kente cloth color combination and pattern that has become standard in the United States, during graduations and for other uses (such as various decorations, book marks, clothing designs etc.)
This pancocojams post also includes my notes about the history of the voluntary custom of African Americans wearing kente cloth stoles during university/college graduation.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/05/seven-youtube-videos-of-2025-hbcu.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases several 2025 videos of Black graduates from historically Black colleges and universities wearing kente cloth stoles in their graduation ceremony.
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, entertainment, and aesthetics purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to all those who are featured in this showcase video and thanks to the publisher of that video on YouTube. -snip- This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series about kente cloth graduation stoles.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/some-members-of-alpha-phi-alpha.html for a 2022 pancocojams post entitled "Members Of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Wearing One Or More Kente Cloth Stole/s With Their Graduation Cap & Gown". A pancocojams post on this subject has been published for each of the other "Divine Nine" historically Black Greek letter organizations.
Click the "kente cloth graduation stole" tag below to find more pancocojams posts on this subject, including a post on this custom with the same title that is given for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity except for the name of the specific historically Black Greek letter fraternity or sorority that you are interested in reading about and seeing videos of.
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THE AFRICAN 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[2] 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."
KENTE CLOTH GRADUATION STOLES IN THE UNITED STATES
Since the 1970s in the United States, kente cloth has become
a 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’ wearing one or more kente
cloth stole 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), university or college, although Black
Americans graduating from a Predominately White Institution (PMI) may also wear
one or more kente cloth graduation stoles. While wearing a kente cloth stole is
a voluntary decision, it has become traditional among those graduates in either
a HBCU or a PMI (Predominately White Institutions) who are members of
historically Black Greek letter sororities and fraternities.*
The kente cloth stole represents the graduates' 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.
DESCRIPTION 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 2010, 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).
It's important to note that it has become traditional for members of a historically Greek letter fraternity or sorority to wear a kente cloth stole during their graduation ceremony that represents that fraternity or sorority (with the two colors of that organization, and the organization's three Greek letters). It also appears that graduating members of historically Black fraternities or sororities often wear a traditional pan-African green, gold, red, and black kente cloth stole along with their fraternity/sorority kente cloth stole. In addition, that graduating senior can wear other honor stoles with these aforementioned stoles.
It's important to note that these customs aren't limited to graduating students at HBCUs. Some Black graduating seniors at PWIs (predominately White institutions) also follow the kente cloth customs that I've described, particularly if they are members of a historically Greek letter fraternity or sorority. For Black graduating students who aren't members of any Black Greek letter organization at a HBCUS or at a PMIs, wearing kente cloth stoles is a voluntary decision. The decision to wear a kente cloth stole may be positively influenced by the fact that especially a HBCUs, a University President and at least some of that university's staff may wear a pan-African kente cloth stole or some other kente cloth stole over their robe along with another or some other stoles.
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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 also provides information about the historically Black Greek letter organizations traditions of stepping and strolling.".
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This concludes Part I of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams. Visitor comments are welcome.
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