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
Introduction[1]
West Africa, stretching southwards from Mauritania to Sierra Leone and then eastwards along the Bight of Benin to the Nigerian border with Cameroom, is in many respects the heartland of African textile production.
A cap maker from Kano (Northern Nigeria).
Indigo dyeing is practised to a greater or lesser extent in both the coastal regions and further inland. Resist techniques such as tie-dye, stitched and folded resist, wax batik and starch resist are common modes of surface decoration.
A young tailor sewing finely woven Ewe cloth (Ghana).
Narrow strips from 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide to 45.70 cm (18 inches) wide are woven by men throughout the region to be sewn together, selvedge to selvedge, to form garments for men and women.
Nigerian women wearing a variety of body wraps, some hand-printed and others machine printed.
Cotton is the main textile, though in the not too distant past raphia (the dried stripped leaves of the raphia palm) was in widespread use. Undyed wild silk is spun in Nigeria, both for embroidery and weaving. A broad upright loom is used by women to weave plain or warp-stripped cloth in southern Nigeria.
An Ashanti weaver weaving strips for kente cloth.
West Africa is by no means cut off from external influences. Kano, the ancient trading city of northern Nigeria, was visited by the noted Arab traveller Ibn Battutah in the 14th century. He remarked upon the indigo dye-pits of Kofor Mata, which nearly seven hundred years later are still in use.
Spindles of hand spun cotton (Mali).
The whole region is greatly influenced by two major world religions, Islam and Christianity. From the 11th century on, Islam was adopted via merchants from the caravan routes in North Africa, often for the practical reason that it made trade easier if both parties conformed to the same moral, religious and ethical code.
Wodaabe woman's embroidered cotton blouse (Niger).
Christianity was a relatively new comer, arriving in coastal regions with the Portuguese caravans that sailed around Cape Verde in the 12450s and landed by the Gambia River. Over the next five centuries Christianity spread along the coast, and at the end of the 19th century, inland, as British and French colonial power penetrated into the hinterland.
Glazed, indigo dyed Tuareg veil from Kano (Nigeria).
It is well known that the European traders - the Portuguese, soon followed by the British, Dutch and French and even the Brandenburgers and Danes - were attracted by gold, ivory and slaves. A vast trade arose often based on the classical triangular pattern of consumer goods going from Europe to the West African coast, slaves to the Americas, and rum and sugar back to Europe.
Tuareg mat of leather-bound reeds (Mauritania).
There were many variations on this trade, with products often coming direct from North Africa to West Africa, but the essentials of the trade remained the same. European and North African fabrics were major trading items on the coast.
Tuareg leather grain bag with painted lucky designs.
In addition, locally woven cloth was brought to be traded further along the littoral. It is important to mention specially made cloths such as the Pano d'okra woven by enslaved weavers on the Cape of Verde islands, which was so desirable and standardized that they functioned as money units.
Masquerade costume of grass-netting (Cross River, Nigeria).
Local production on the coast and in the near interior was stimulated by external trade, but in the hinterland, the adoption of Islam by the courts, rich merchants and others of influence had a more profound and long-lasting effect.
Tuareg embroidered panel (Central Sahara).
On the humid coast and in the hot dry interior, there is little need for protective clothing. However, with the introduction of Islam and so with its requirements for male, and in particular for female modesty it engendered a vast market for woven cotton cloth.
Tuareg painted leather cushion (Mali).
The wide shirts, trousers, and head-dresses were worn, not only by men who converted to Islam, but also by non-converts wishing to emulate the prestige of the Muslim community, who simply adopted their attire, but not necessarily their religion.
Strip-weave (Burkina-Faso).
Women conformed to the strictures of the new religion by adopting a range of voluminous wraps. Similar requirements of modesty were demanded by Christianity, but as this religion arrived comparatively late, they were often met from imported, rather than locally woven cloth, though most local needs came from local sources. The requirements of the two world religions stimulated local production of mainly strip woven cloth.
Painted Senufo strip woven cotton cloth (Ivory Coast).
The origins of creating a cloth by means of sewing strips together (selvedge to selvedge) are obscure, though there are both Asian (Uzbek Gudgeri) and North African (Berber flat weaves) precedents. Whether strip weaving is an adaptation of a technique that crossed the Sahara or is indigenous to West Africa is a matter of speculation, though evidence from the caves of the Bandiagara escarpment in Mali suggests it was practised in West Africa as early as the 11th century.
Picking indigo leaves for dyeing (Oshogbo, Nigeria).
It is not known how long the Fulani of Niger Bend have been weaving their woolen strip weaves, but as they are of Berber origin it is highly likely that they absorbed influences such as weaving technology from North Africa.
Skeins of wild silk for sale in Kano market (Nigeria).
By the 18th century complex strip weaves were being created in Kong in the present-day Ivory Coast. The neighboring Ashanti were at the same time creating a powerful kingdom based on gold around the city Kumasi. The wealth afforded by the gold trade enabled the Ashantahene (i.e. the king) and the Ashanti court to commission sumptuous and densely patterned strip weaves from the main source for royal textiles, the weaving village of Bronwire. The Ewe, located in south-eastern Ghana and Togo, and also the Yoruba of Nigeria, are very sophisticated strip weavers. Nigeria is also home to the vertical loom, on which women weave.
Spindles of handspun cotton and indigo dyed veils wrapped ready for sale in Kano market (Nigeria).
Indigo dyeing is one of the main means of coloring cloth in West Africa. The deep-blue hue is esteemed from the Senegal river down to the Cameroon border. Lonchocarpus cyanescens is the main plant for indigo dyeing. Various methods are used to prepare the indigo: either fresh leaves are steeped in wood ash lye vats or in deep pits, covered with lids that are set into the ground; or balls of dried leaves are used that were kept back from the harvest or acquired through trade.
A Hausa shopkeeper selling synthetic indigo balls (Keno, Nigeria).
Indigo cloths and clothing are still very popular, whether dyed in natural or synthetic indigo. However, it is mill-woven cloth, either locally made or imported that provides the bulk of everyday wear. Western models of clothing, often with regional modifications, are in vogue for both women and in particular for men.
A Hausa trader selling indigo-dyed veils (Kano market).
Two factors help to preserve the African handcrafted cloth making tradition. First, national cloths are still deemed essential for change-of-life ceremonies in general and for funerals in particular. Second, cloths such as bogolanfini mud cloths of Mali became fashionable in the West, which in turn influenced the local urban élite. African weavers, dyers and embroiderers will continue to produce fine cloth as long as there is a local market for them. Standards will decline if craftspeople have to rely on export orders and tourist-orientated production. The textiles required for the traditional change-of-life ceremonies will, it is hoped, keep traditional textile producers in steady work for many years to come.
A Nigerian village trader selling handwoven cloth.
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
Introduction[1]
West Africa, stretching southwards from Mauritania to Sierra Leone and then eastwards along the Bight of Benin to the Nigerian border with Cameroom, is in many respects the heartland of African textile production.
Indigo dyeing is practised to a greater or lesser extent in both the coastal regions and further inland. Resist techniques such as tie-dye, stitched and folded resist, wax batik and starch resist are common modes of surface decoration.
Narrow strips from 2.5 cm (1 inch) wide to 45.70 cm (18 inches) wide are woven by men throughout the region to be sewn together, selvedge to selvedge, to form garments for men and women.
Cotton is the main textile, though in the not too distant past raphia (the dried stripped leaves of the raphia palm) was in widespread use. Undyed wild silk is spun in Nigeria, both for embroidery and weaving. A broad upright loom is used by women to weave plain or warp-stripped cloth in southern Nigeria.
West Africa is by no means cut off from external influences. Kano, the ancient trading city of northern Nigeria, was visited by the noted Arab traveller Ibn Battutah in the 14th century. He remarked upon the indigo dye-pits of Kofor Mata, which nearly seven hundred years later are still in use.
The whole region is greatly influenced by two major world religions, Islam and Christianity. From the 11th century on, Islam was adopted via merchants from the caravan routes in North Africa, often for the practical reason that it made trade easier if both parties conformed to the same moral, religious and ethical code.
Christianity was a relatively new comer, arriving in coastal regions with the Portuguese caravans that sailed around Cape Verde in the 12450s and landed by the Gambia River. Over the next five centuries Christianity spread along the coast, and at the end of the 19th century, inland, as British and French colonial power penetrated into the hinterland.
It is well known that the European traders - the Portuguese, soon followed by the British, Dutch and French and even the Brandenburgers and Danes - were attracted by gold, ivory and slaves. A vast trade arose often based on the classical triangular pattern of consumer goods going from Europe to the West African coast, slaves to the Americas, and rum and sugar back to Europe.
There were many variations on this trade, with products often coming direct from North Africa to West Africa, but the essentials of the trade remained the same. European and North African fabrics were major trading items on the coast.
In addition, locally woven cloth was brought to be traded further along the littoral. It is important to mention specially made cloths such as the Pano d'okra woven by enslaved weavers on the Cape of Verde islands, which was so desirable and standardized that they functioned as money units.
Local production on the coast and in the near interior was stimulated by external trade, but in the hinterland, the adoption of Islam by the courts, rich merchants and others of influence had a more profound and long-lasting effect.
On the humid coast and in the hot dry interior, there is little need for protective clothing. However, with the introduction of Islam and so with its requirements for male, and in particular for female modesty it engendered a vast market for woven cotton cloth.
The wide shirts, trousers, and head-dresses were worn, not only by men who converted to Islam, but also by non-converts wishing to emulate the prestige of the Muslim community, who simply adopted their attire, but not necessarily their religion.
Women conformed to the strictures of the new religion by adopting a range of voluminous wraps. Similar requirements of modesty were demanded by Christianity, but as this religion arrived comparatively late, they were often met from imported, rather than locally woven cloth, though most local needs came from local sources. The requirements of the two world religions stimulated local production of mainly strip woven cloth.
The origins of creating a cloth by means of sewing strips together (selvedge to selvedge) are obscure, though there are both Asian (Uzbek Gudgeri) and North African (Berber flat weaves) precedents. Whether strip weaving is an adaptation of a technique that crossed the Sahara or is indigenous to West Africa is a matter of speculation, though evidence from the caves of the Bandiagara escarpment in Mali suggests it was practised in West Africa as early as the 11th century.
It is not known how long the Fulani of Niger Bend have been weaving their woolen strip weaves, but as they are of Berber origin it is highly likely that they absorbed influences such as weaving technology from North Africa.
By the 18th century complex strip weaves were being created in Kong in the present-day Ivory Coast. The neighboring Ashanti were at the same time creating a powerful kingdom based on gold around the city Kumasi. The wealth afforded by the gold trade enabled the Ashantahene (i.e. the king) and the Ashanti court to commission sumptuous and densely patterned strip weaves from the main source for royal textiles, the weaving village of Bronwire. The Ewe, located in south-eastern Ghana and Togo, and also the Yoruba of Nigeria, are very sophisticated strip weavers. Nigeria is also home to the vertical loom, on which women weave.
Indigo dyeing is one of the main means of coloring cloth in West Africa. The deep-blue hue is esteemed from the Senegal river down to the Cameroon border. Lonchocarpus cyanescens is the main plant for indigo dyeing. Various methods are used to prepare the indigo: either fresh leaves are steeped in wood ash lye vats or in deep pits, covered with lids that are set into the ground; or balls of dried leaves are used that were kept back from the harvest or acquired through trade.
Indigo cloths and clothing are still very popular, whether dyed in natural or synthetic indigo. However, it is mill-woven cloth, either locally made or imported that provides the bulk of everyday wear. Western models of clothing, often with regional modifications, are in vogue for both women and in particular for men.
Two factors help to preserve the African handcrafted cloth making tradition. First, national cloths are still deemed essential for change-of-life ceremonies in general and for funerals in particular. Second, cloths such as bogolanfini mud cloths of Mali became fashionable in the West, which in turn influenced the local urban élite. African weavers, dyers and embroiderers will continue to produce fine cloth as long as there is a local market for them. Standards will decline if craftspeople have to rely on export orders and tourist-orientated production. The textiles required for the traditional change-of-life ceremonies will, it is hoped, keep traditional textile producers in steady work for many years to come.
Reference:
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).
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