Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Diversity of African Textiles [1]
African textiles have been the subject of much study over the last few decades. The approaches of investigation have varied from: (i) studying aesthetics of African design; (ii) to framimg them in an anthropological approach; (iii) to responding to the visual stimulus and excitement of their patterns, design and combination of colors; (iv) to uncovering their techniques associated with the making and the decorating of African cloth.
A hint of the diversity of African textiles.
This series on African textiles be will organized on a regional basis; that is, the handmade textiles of West, North, East, Central and Southern Africa.
Hence we shall outline the techniques used to make them, some of which - such as strip weaving and cut-pile raphia embroidery - are virtually unique to the continent.
African textiles: strip weaving (Ghana).
Mid-20th century. Raffia cloth panel flat-weave and cut-pile.
Note: The traditional textile techniques and what ceremonies they were used for, have been maintained in many areas, whilst they have died out in others.
In Africa job demarcation between the sexes is the norm. Usually men dominate the commercial market whereas women dominate the domestic production of textiles. However, there have always been exceptions to this general rule. In more recent times, women in countries such as Nigeria have become commercial weavers on looms hitherto the domain of men.
Strip weaver in the village of Sulgo, Burkina Faso, 2007.
Photograph courtesy of K Ladd.
Ancient Egyptian Women Weaving.
A visit to any African marketplace provides an assault on one's visual senses. Market women dressed in brightly colored machine prints bustle through, carrying baskets of vegetables or bales of cloth. Villagers come to the market wearing either the same colorful garb or more sober handwoven cloth, and very often a mixture of the two.
Typical gathering at a Market place in Africa.
Northern Togo (a country in West Africa).
Africa's people are of varied origin, from Arab and Berber descent in the north, Khoisan speakers and European colonists in the extreme south. There are Nilotic speakers in the north-east, but the vast majority of the population south of the Sahara belong to the Bantu language group.
Language Groups.
Tobr Left: Warrior from Biskra, Algeria.
Top Center: Swahili family group East Africa coast. The women are wearing machine printed kangas in pairs.
Top Right: Warriors adorned with body paint parading before battle, Congo.
All of Africa's population have the same basic clothing needs as the rest of humanity. They need an array of materials to protect themselves against the elements and usually a piece of fabric to cover the genitalia of both sexes in order to ensure modesty in the public arena. Special garments are required for different stages of life such as birth, circumcision, first menstruation, marriage, birth of a child or death.
Hizam bridal girdle, woven on draw looms in Fez, using the highly complex lamps technique.
North Africa is part of the Mediterranean world. Though inhabited for millennia by Berbers, it has been influenced by invasions of the Maghreb by Arabs and Turks. Egypt, which was always the gateway for Asian cultural and religious influences to enter the continent, has experienced the same invasions, but, due to its geographical proximity to Europe, it has adopted Levantine ways. The Maghreb has a great tradition of weaving, with the Berbers and Arabs using horizontal, ground and vertical looms.
Primitive vertical loom for weaving.
Embroidery is used for decoration in those areas because it was subject to Arab, Turkish or European immigration or influence.
Appliqué embroidered Egyptian silk coat, late 1920s.
Historically, North Africa was cut off from the habituated regions to the south by the vast Sahara desert. Though it is inhospitable, it is nevertheless home to nomads like the Tuareg and some groups of Arab pastoralists. Crossed by caravan routes such as those linking Timbuktu in modern Mali to Gabes in Tunisia, North Africa experiences heavy trading in such highly saleable products as precious metals, spices, dyes, salt, leather, ivory, beds and slaves.
Islam came to West and Central Africa, largely by these caravan trade routes. It was brought to East Africa, relatively close to Arabia, by sea, but trade was again the primary force. It was very much to the advantage of the newly arrived Muslim merchants to convert the locals, so that they all would be working with the same code of ethics, a fact that was not lost on Christian missionaries when they arrived in Africa.
Major Trade Routes.
Conversion to Islam or Christianity had a profound effect on the clothing of sub-Saharan Africa. The Muslim faith had strict requirements with respect to the modesty of men and especially, of women. People whose clothing needs in a warm and humid climate had been minimal before the arrival of Islam. Now men wore gown-like shirts, turbans and baggy trousers which still can be seen in modern Nigeria, both in the Muslim north and in the Christian south. Hence, weavers, dyers, tailors and embroiderers were now required.
Nigerian Native Attire Styles for Men.
The influence of the Europeans trading on the west coast from the mid-15th century on, was also of great importance in encouraging the demand for textiles, which was partially satisfied by foreign imports. There was also a market for African woven cloth from a different region, which could be bought from the sea-borne traders.
Prestige cloth consisting of tripod-loom woven cotton strips made for a British official in Sierra Leone.
In many places this demand encouraged the weaving of 'country cloths' in the West African interior. They were taken up to the coast to sell to the Europeans, who would trade them along the coast.
Basket design tie-dyed indigo cotton wrapper from Yorubaland, Nigeria.
Sold as curtain material in Brixton market, London.
Traditionally made textiles have in many parts of Africa been superseded by factory-made cloth, which is often preferred for its brightness of color and ease of washing. It is considered fashionable and modern, and can be tailored easily to create clothes on the Western model.
Nevertheless, there are two main factors in preserving the African handcrafted cloth making tradition. First, it is still considered essential that traditional cloths are worn at change-of-life ceremonies in general and at funerals in particular.
Tanshifa 18th-century Algiers counted thread embroidered scarf with motifs of wild flowers.
Worked in silk on linen.
Woven raphia woman's wrap of the Bunda people, Idiofa region, Congo.
Second, fashion has an important role to play. When textiles such as bogolanfini mud cloths from Mali becomes fashionable in the West, this trend influences the clothing habits of the local élite.
Fine fabrics will continue to be produced by African weavers, dyers and embroiderers as long as there is a local market for them. Although export orders and tourist-orientated production help to keep these craftspeople in work, it is essential, if standards are to be maintained, for there to be a local demand for their products. However, traditional beliefs are still very strong in many places and so it is hoped that traditional textile producers will be kept in work for the foreseeable future.
The two slides below are an arid chest or bed cover embroidered in silk on linen from Chefchaouen, northern Morocco. Both this urban style and examples in more free-form rural design were, by the beginning of the 20th century, but a distant memory in their place of origin.
I hope you will enjoy this series!
Reference
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Diversity of African Textiles [1]
African textiles have been the subject of much study over the last few decades. The approaches of investigation have varied from: (i) studying aesthetics of African design; (ii) to framimg them in an anthropological approach; (iii) to responding to the visual stimulus and excitement of their patterns, design and combination of colors; (iv) to uncovering their techniques associated with the making and the decorating of African cloth.
This series on African textiles be will organized on a regional basis; that is, the handmade textiles of West, North, East, Central and Southern Africa.
Hence we shall outline the techniques used to make them, some of which - such as strip weaving and cut-pile raphia embroidery - are virtually unique to the continent.
Note: The traditional textile techniques and what ceremonies they were used for, have been maintained in many areas, whilst they have died out in others.
In Africa job demarcation between the sexes is the norm. Usually men dominate the commercial market whereas women dominate the domestic production of textiles. However, there have always been exceptions to this general rule. In more recent times, women in countries such as Nigeria have become commercial weavers on looms hitherto the domain of men.
Photograph courtesy of K Ladd.
A visit to any African marketplace provides an assault on one's visual senses. Market women dressed in brightly colored machine prints bustle through, carrying baskets of vegetables or bales of cloth. Villagers come to the market wearing either the same colorful garb or more sober handwoven cloth, and very often a mixture of the two.
Typical gathering at a Market place in Africa.
Africa's people are of varied origin, from Arab and Berber descent in the north, Khoisan speakers and European colonists in the extreme south. There are Nilotic speakers in the north-east, but the vast majority of the population south of the Sahara belong to the Bantu language group.
Tobr Left: Warrior from Biskra, Algeria.
Top Center: Swahili family group East Africa coast. The women are wearing machine printed kangas in pairs.
Top Right: Warriors adorned with body paint parading before battle, Congo.
All of Africa's population have the same basic clothing needs as the rest of humanity. They need an array of materials to protect themselves against the elements and usually a piece of fabric to cover the genitalia of both sexes in order to ensure modesty in the public arena. Special garments are required for different stages of life such as birth, circumcision, first menstruation, marriage, birth of a child or death.
North Africa is part of the Mediterranean world. Though inhabited for millennia by Berbers, it has been influenced by invasions of the Maghreb by Arabs and Turks. Egypt, which was always the gateway for Asian cultural and religious influences to enter the continent, has experienced the same invasions, but, due to its geographical proximity to Europe, it has adopted Levantine ways. The Maghreb has a great tradition of weaving, with the Berbers and Arabs using horizontal, ground and vertical looms.
Embroidery is used for decoration in those areas because it was subject to Arab, Turkish or European immigration or influence.
Historically, North Africa was cut off from the habituated regions to the south by the vast Sahara desert. Though it is inhospitable, it is nevertheless home to nomads like the Tuareg and some groups of Arab pastoralists. Crossed by caravan routes such as those linking Timbuktu in modern Mali to Gabes in Tunisia, North Africa experiences heavy trading in such highly saleable products as precious metals, spices, dyes, salt, leather, ivory, beds and slaves.
Islam came to West and Central Africa, largely by these caravan trade routes. It was brought to East Africa, relatively close to Arabia, by sea, but trade was again the primary force. It was very much to the advantage of the newly arrived Muslim merchants to convert the locals, so that they all would be working with the same code of ethics, a fact that was not lost on Christian missionaries when they arrived in Africa.
Conversion to Islam or Christianity had a profound effect on the clothing of sub-Saharan Africa. The Muslim faith had strict requirements with respect to the modesty of men and especially, of women. People whose clothing needs in a warm and humid climate had been minimal before the arrival of Islam. Now men wore gown-like shirts, turbans and baggy trousers which still can be seen in modern Nigeria, both in the Muslim north and in the Christian south. Hence, weavers, dyers, tailors and embroiderers were now required.
The influence of the Europeans trading on the west coast from the mid-15th century on, was also of great importance in encouraging the demand for textiles, which was partially satisfied by foreign imports. There was also a market for African woven cloth from a different region, which could be bought from the sea-borne traders.
In many places this demand encouraged the weaving of 'country cloths' in the West African interior. They were taken up to the coast to sell to the Europeans, who would trade them along the coast.
Sold as curtain material in Brixton market, London.
Traditionally made textiles have in many parts of Africa been superseded by factory-made cloth, which is often preferred for its brightness of color and ease of washing. It is considered fashionable and modern, and can be tailored easily to create clothes on the Western model.
Nevertheless, there are two main factors in preserving the African handcrafted cloth making tradition. First, it is still considered essential that traditional cloths are worn at change-of-life ceremonies in general and at funerals in particular.
Worked in silk on linen.
Second, fashion has an important role to play. When textiles such as bogolanfini mud cloths from Mali becomes fashionable in the West, this trend influences the clothing habits of the local élite.
Fine fabrics will continue to be produced by African weavers, dyers and embroiderers as long as there is a local market for them. Although export orders and tourist-orientated production help to keep these craftspeople in work, it is essential, if standards are to be maintained, for there to be a local demand for their products. However, traditional beliefs are still very strong in many places and so it is hoped that traditional textile producers will be kept in work for the foreseeable future.
The two slides below are an arid chest or bed cover embroidered in silk on linen from Chefchaouen, northern Morocco. Both this urban style and examples in more free-form rural design were, by the beginning of the 20th century, but a distant memory in their place of origin.
Reference
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).
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