A fugu is also a traditional garment worn by men in Ghana. It is made from gonja cloth, woven by the Gonja of northern Ghana (Gonja used to be an independent kingdom before the Ashanti conquered them and the British in turn conquered the Ashanti); the more famous kente cloth is really just a colourful and more complex variation of gonja cloth.
Gonja cloth is traditionally made from cotton hand-picked and spun by women, though the cloth itself is woven by men on horizontal hand looms. The cloth is generally dyed blue with indigo or left its natural off-white, and so the traditional colours of the cloth, and the fugu, are blue and white, though today other colours may also be used. The looms on which gonja and kente cloths are woven yield strips of material 5 or 6 inches (12-15 cm) in width and up to 15 or 20 feet long (5-7 m). To make a fugu, the strips are cut into appropriate lengths and sewn together into a loose tunic-like garment which can be sleeveless or with half-length sleeves. Fugu are generally worn quite loose and may have triangles of cloth sewn into the bottom of the garment to make it even looser, almost bell-shaped; they can hang to the waist, the knee, or even lower. Fugu are often paired with trousers made of the same material, baggy at the top and tight at the ankles, and sometimes an embroidered skullcap. Kente cloth, by contrast, is traditionally sewn into large swaths which are wrapped around the body and draped across one shoulder, toga-style.
Ghanaian decorative arts include embroidery that used to be done by hand, though today sewing machines are more often used. Whatever the tool, the intricate patterns embroidered around the necklines and hems of fugu and trousers are beautiful to behold. It is remarkable that such elaborate and gorgeous costumes prepared in such a labour-intensive way were everyday wear for men in northern Ghana.
African independence movements spawned a resurgence of interest in traditonal arts, and Ghana was no exception. In 1957 Kwame Nkrumah wore a fugu when he declared Ghana's independence, and he encouraged educated nationalists to adopt the fugu as a symbol of pride in indigenous Ghanaian arts.
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