Written piece
Ancestral Quilt
Nuong Faalong
Ghana
About this piece
We find a grandfather weaving a fabric where each thread represents different landscapes, cultures, and histories of Ghana. The finished cloth symbolizes ancestry, and reminds us of the intricate but unifying identity of Ghanaians made of many inherited stories.
Grandpa sits a master at the loom,
feet spinning like a spider.
His low hum blends the warp and weft into the rich ancestral quilt .
He throws a weft of indigo and sea-spray
Where southern mangroves hold the shifting sand,
and coconut palms whisper of untaken journeys.
He shifts to a heavy, thick green thread
The deep, wet lungs of the Western realm,
Where mahogany pillars block the blinding sun and golden cocoa pods hang like lanterns.
His rhythm slows,
A yellow-tan shuttle flies through the middle belt
Where elephant grass dances and scattered shea trees stand like knots in the yarn.
Into the Upper lands, where hollow baobabs stretch like weathered hands toward a burning sky.
The threads weaves into the intricate patterns of kente,
Into the colourful stripes of fugu.
He locks the final thread on the loom,
''We are not made of just one thread, we are the entire tapestry:
Colourful and intricate''.
He pulls the finished strip and hangs it over my shoulders.
I am the inherited tongues, the vibrant, defiant threads, the smoke of fireside tales and palm oil warmth.
I am the raw, beautiful, intricate strands,
I am the tapestry that remembers,
I am the ancestral quilt.