This traditional kente cloth pattern commemorates the marriage between Kwame Nkrumah and Fathia, the daughter of President Nassar of Egypt, and was called Fathia Fata Nkrumah (Fathia Deserves Nkrumah).
Nkrumah was the first Prime Minister and President of contemporary Ghana.
As sought to promote continental African Unity, he married an Egyptian as a gesture of his desire to unite the Arab North Africa and the black sub-Saharan Africa. When Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the military in 1966, the cloth’s name was changed back to its original name: Obaakofo Mmu Man (one person does not rule a nation) as a metaphorical comment on his dictatorial rule and it also relates to the proverb Tikoro nko agyina (one head does not constitute a council).
As Nkrumah’s legacy is being rehabilitated, it is now more popular to hear people refer to the cloth as Fathia Fata Nkrumah. Symbol of marital relationships, unity, participatory democracy, and warning against dictatorial rule.
(via dynamicafrica)