Bobbo is a master weaver. He was born in Agbozume, a village famous for its weavers. As all young men born into weaving families, he began to weave at the age of 10, after first carefully observing his uncles and father at the loom and assisting them at supplementary tasks such as bobbin winding and the plying of multiple-colored threads. Contrary to generations past, Bobbo also received a formal education and studied to become a secondary school teacher.

As a young adult he was faced with the decision of whether to become a master weaver or a school teacher, and chose the former inspired, he says, by the enthusiasm of a Peace Corps volunteer who was his secondary school math teacher.

For the past 20 years he has been a major spokesman for West African weavers, traveling widely throughout the United States, Canada and Switzerland, giving lecture-demonstrations and teaching traditional Ewe strip-cloth weaving techniques everywhere he went. He has been on a mission and has frequently been referred to as the "cultural ambassador of Kente cloth". Audiences young and old are fascinated at hearing the stories Bobbo tells which bring this "talking cloth" to life! These stories tell of the vast imaginative world of these traditional people rooted in the textile art form longer than anywhere in Europe.

Bobbo has now constructed a weaving school near his home in Denu in the Volta region of Ghana, along the coast and the border with neighboring Togo. The school will soon open to anyone interested in learning to weave Kente cloth.

Schedule of upcoming Workshops and Demonstrations in the United States:

Week of July 13-17, 1998
Augusta Heritage Center, Davis & Elkins College
100 Campus Drive, Elkins, W. Va. 26241
for info: 1-800 624-3157 ask for Rachel Law.

July 20-22
3-day pre-conference workshop at Convergence '98 (see their website for details)

July 24
1-day demonstration workshop at Convergence '98 (see their website for details)

July 25
2-4:30pm
Lecture and slide presentation on Ewe-Kente weaving at Convergence '98 (see their website for details)

Still to be confirmed:

Aug. 1-2, 1998
Workshop at Georgia State University - Art Dept

Aug. 15-30, 1998
Children's Workshop in Oregon
+ Hawowo Drumming + Dancing Festival