The capacity of Africans more than a millennium ago to craft enduring beauty and meaning in handmade objects that they produced and purchased for shaping their identities, protecting their privacy, adorning their living spaces, signaling their profoundest faiths, and displaying their wealth is coming from the people themselves, their creativity and their heritage. Whether for special occasions, festivals, and holidays, for receiving business visitors, or for everyday life and rituals, they had plenty of choices when dressing and furnishing their homes with layers of fabric. Each fabric constitutes a work of art in its own right.
From North to South and East to West, the diversity of textile landscapes reflects the cultural plurality of the continent and a very rich craftsmanship, whose dynamism reflects the dialogues between African and Other cultures. This development resulted in a diverse group of cultures and myriad artistic traditions coming to influence one another. People and their goods moved from one region to another with considerable ease, allowing ideas and tastes to be transferred far and wide. Among the goods that were traded, textiles reigned supreme. They were valuable, lightweight, and convertible to currency anywhere in the world. A time of both change and continuity for this vast continent. On the side of change, we need to consider a distinct world view; for example under Colonialism. Connecting African cultures with European, Asian and American cultures brought new materials and ideas to the African continent. Through these exchanges, weaving, dyeing and embroidery techniques are transmitted and this diversity reflects the ingenuity of the craftsmen, the dynamism of the know-how.
Fabrics and clothes are precious supports of languages reflecting the history of the African continent and accentuating the belonging to a territory, an age group or a social status. African textiles have responded to a utilitarian need to cover the body, carrying signs and meaning. Textiles belonged to the fabric of life from head to toe and from cradle to grave. This approach places man in nature and links him to his ancestors. Beyond their decorative, symbolic, and utilitarian functions, fabrics also served as intermediaries for the transmission of ornamental motifs among different media. By developing their own style, personified by textures, patterns and varied colors, the African heritage tells about the production of fabrics marked by precise know-how, original materials and elaborate patterns.
Ancient textiles drew inspiration for their patterns, colors, and imagery from other media and from the natural world. While some fabrics are made from precious materials such as silk which reflects the international popularity of luxury silks and scope of the early textile trade or glass pearls, others have the audacity to be true luxury pieces, yet designed from humble materials. Early textiles demonstrate extraordinary mastery of different techniques. Tree bark, raffia palm trees, wool, silk, cotton colored with natural dyes are regarded works of art for the virtuosity of their manufacturing techniques. Specific local techniques, whether simple or more intricate, vary widely, and they have been passed across cultures through trade and exchange.
Today, some textiles are preserved in numerous museums or private collections across the world. There are still fragments of history that remain understudied—not only in the broader field of Dress studies but also in the specialized world of textile scholarship. We hope conversations will shift attention to the geographic and historical specificities of the African textiles and encourage us to think more critically and holistically about the role of textiles as part of African heritage.
Contemporary production is an important aspect for understanding the changes in the use of these fabrics. Despite the growing importance of industrial fabrics in the markets, African artists and fashion designers are keen to promote ancient techniques by using traditional fabrics in their creation with new aesthetics and technology and introducing new weave structures. Celebrating the creativity and diversity of African textiles, sharing ideas, passions, materials, spaces, and other resources, all to free the furnishings of long ago from the veil of secrecy and make them come alive from a historical, economic and technical point of view, is an approach to blaze a trail and question the challenges of the African textiles sector and make aware of an immense heritage and the urgency of preserving it.
The trademark of African textiles spans centuries in time and reflects the ancestral tradition of the African people and its diaspora. The language of textiles threads through conversations on how it helps shape the world we live in and how our world shapes the clothes we wear. The African continent has stories to unfold and blazing a trail toward an open book is a continuum care of tradition and possibilities.
Join us for free online discussion via Zoom and Facebook Live! on Wednesday, 9 December 2020 at 6pm CAT. Selected resources will be made available!
© Images: Aboubakar Fofana, Bernhard Gardi, Doran H. Ross, Nkwo Design Studio, Maganga Mwagogo, Eliot Elisofon/National Museum of African Art, Daniel Attoumou Amicchia, Abdoulaye Konaté, Cornélius Yao Augustt Azaglo, Joseph Moïse Agbojelou, MaXhosa By Laduma, Vukile Batyi, Michael Oliver Love, Abegg Stiftung, Musée de la Toile de Jouy, Hellen Nabukenya, Bisa Butler, Cleveland Museum of Art, Jim Naughten.