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10 Popular African Textiles And Fabrics

10 Popular African Textiles And Fabrics

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Textiles are more than just the fabric that make up African clothes. Their colors, patterns, and material often tell stories about African culture and history. One way Africans have defined themselves is through textiles, using them as a form of expression and a medium of communication in addition to personal adornment.

Tradition plays an important role in African fabrics. Today’s African textiles often marry tradition and contemporary influences to inform artistic expression, giving social, economic and religious insight into Africa’s many regions and communities. Here are 10 popular African textiles and fabrics.

Sources: Mg.co.za, DaGama.co.za, FashionDistrict.co.za, BBC.co.uk, Contemporary-Africa-Art.com, BritishMuseum.org

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1. Shweshwe

No South African textile tells a better story than the Shweshwe. Ironically, but not surprisingly, this distinctly-African fabric originates in Europe.

Indigo cotton fabric has its origins in East Asia. It was the Europeans who figured out how to print patterns on the fabric though. In the 1860s, a German invented a synthetic type of indigo. The fabric then became very popular in Europe because the blue indigo dye didn’t need to be sourced from Asia.

The printed indigo fabric first made its way into Africa in the 1840s when French missionaries presented it to Lesotho’s King Moshoeshoe. He popularized the fabric and it is from him that the fabric gets its name — shweshwe. In the1950s, German settlers came to the Eastern Cape and Natal. They saw the indigo fabric in stores and it reminded them of the fabric they had at home. Soon there was a huge demand for shweshwe textiles. The textile caught on with the locals and soon the local Xhosa were swapping animal skins and red blanket clothing for shweshwe. In Sotho, the fabric also goes by the name “sejeremane,” which means “German print.”  In Xhosa, it is known as ujamani fabric.

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2.  Aso Oke

Woven by the Yoruba people in Nigeria, aso oke is a hand-loomed cloth. Meaning “top cloth” in English, the fabric is usually used for making women’s wrappers (iro), men’s gowns (agbada) and men’s hats (fila).

Aso oke fabrics are worn by Nigerians all over the world on weddings, holidays, funerals and other special occasions. There are three types of this traditional fabric: alaari – bright red aso oke; sanyan – brown aso oke and etu – dark blue aso oke.

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3. Adire

Also woven by Yoruba people, adire is an indigo dyed cloth made by Nigerian women. The cloth’s basic shape was that of two materials stitched together into a women’s wrapper cloth.

New techniques of resist dyeing developed making mass production easier. Around the end of the 1930s, however, a collapse in demand occurred due to a spread in the synthetic indigo and quality problems. Nowadays, some simplified stencilled designs are still produced, but locals favour kampala. This is a multi-colored wax cloth, sometimes known as adire by a few.

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4. Barkcloth

Barkcloth, or bark cloth, is a versatile painted cloth from Uganda. The fabric comes mainly from moraceae trees. Soaked strips of fibrous inner bark from these trees are beaten into sheets and finished in various items.

These days, barkcloth is a thick, soft and textured fabric with a rough surface resembling that of tree bark. The fabric is made of woven cotton fabric and used mainly in home furnishings such as curtains, slipcovers and drapery.

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5. Kitenge

Produced in Kenya and other East African regions, kitenge is often worn by women. It is used as a baby sling, over the head as a headscarf or around the waist and chest, being a resistant, thick cloth.

Kitenge is quite popular in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Sudan and known as chitenge in Zambia and Namibia, where even men wear it around their waist on hot days.

This fabric is often decorated with different patterns, colors and even slogans. Depending on the region, the fabrics can be used for dresses, decorative pieces at dinner tables, as wrap over bathing suits or hung up on the wall as decorations.

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6. Kente Cloth

Popular among the Akan people in Guinea, Ivory Coast and West African countries, kente cloth is a mixture of silk and cotton fabric. In Akan areas where it is made, it is also known as nwentoma.

The fabric can be found in bright colors, multicolored patterns and geometric shapes, with each color having certain significance. For example, black has the power to intensify the spiritual energy, blue means peace, love and harmony; silver represents joy and serenity and gray, healing rituals associated with ash. Through the combination of colors and patterns, the kente fabrics are associated with certain concepts. Obaakofoo mmu man pattern is the symbol of democratic rule, while emaa da symbolizes creativity and knowledge.

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7. Bogolan

Bogolan fabric, or bogolanfini, is known as the mud cloth because it’s traditionally dyed with fermented mud. One of the milestones of Malian culture, mud cloth is exported throughout the world for fashion, art and decorative purposes.

In Malian culture, the bogolan fabric is used by hunters for camouflage and protection, while women wear it after childbirth, because it is believed the fabric has healing and protective powers. The patterns on the fabrics have deep meanings referring to mythological concepts, historical events and crocodiles.

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8. Asafo

As famous as Cape Coast, Ghana, is for its flags, it’s also well known for the fabric Ghanaian flags are made of.

The story behind these fabrics and flags started with the Fante people of Ghana, who in the 17th century organized into military groups called asafo.

Asafo are traditional warrior groups in Akan culture. The word derives from sa, meaning war, and fo, meaning people. The traditional role of the asafo groups was defense of the state. As the result of contact with European colonial powers on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), the Fante people, who inhabit the coastal region, developed a complex tradition of visual art including flag banners with figurative scenes.

By the 1727, the Asafo were pressured by European powers to adopt a series of military practices, including defending an identifying flag.

The first flags were made out of raffia cloth, but nowadays, most flags are made of appliqued trade cloth.

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9. Dida

This raffia cloth was created by the Dida people on the Ivory Coast. The Dida craftsmen adapted the plangi technique, creating hand-woven raffia fabric in different colors and shapes. The raffia cloth goes through a three-step dying process, from yellow, to red and then black.

Dida fabrics are used for ceremonies, for both women and men’s wear. The most common clothing item made of dida textiles is the woman’s skirt. It varies in length, from short to long and it’s worn on different occasions.

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10. Kaasa

Kaasa is a common fabric in Africa used for woollen blankets. It originated in Mali with the Fulani people.

These woollen blankets are probably some of the oldest woven materials used by the people of Mali. The blankets are usually white, with dark geometrical motifs. One quite popular and very characteristic element found in the kaasa blankets is the brick-red band at both ends, called “daakul”.