FAREHAM, HAMPSHIRE.- The Westbury Manor Museum opens today Fabric of a Nation: textiles and identity in modern Ghana. This British Museum exhibition features a wide variety of the gorgeous printed cloths worn in Ghana, many of them produced in Manchester.

Cutting across ethnic and language differences, these textiles highlight the cultural, social and economic importance of wax and 'fancy' prints in modern Ghana.

Printed cloths play an important role in daily life and ceremonies and are worn as clothes by men, women and children. They are used to communicate status or wealth. Cloths are also widely used as a powerful mass communication media, for commemorative, political, religious and social messages.

This exhibition was produced in partnership with the Department of Archaeology of the University of Ghana at Legon Museum. This collaboration is part of the British Museum's ongoing 'Africa Project'.

Fabric of a Nation is a British Museum Tour, supported through the generosity of the Dorset Foundation.