The Kanga an African Cloth by eprbookgroup

The Kanga an African cloth

PHYLLIS RESSLER

LARA RESSLER HORST

Photographs: Vlisco Archives,Howard Zehr, Kim Retka, Pat Augsburger, Jan Driessens Design: Phyllis Ressler ISBN: 9781698539010 Printed in the USA

Kanga Khanga Leso Lenço Lamba Kisutu Cuka Garase Suka Chitenge Slendang Ekarasha

Acknowledgments We wish to thank the many people who have contributed to our understanding of the kanga—especially those who have shared their family stories with us, recounting traditions and memories of kanga use. We would like to thank the librarians and booksellers who helped us locate old documents and the merchants who showed us sketches and design books. Special thanks are extended to the Dutch textile company Vlisco, for opening their archives for research. Working with the research team from the National Museums of Kenya’s Department of Cultural Heritage has been a great privilege. Many thanks to Professor Peter Wasamba, of the University of Nairobi, for helping to define the research design, and to Professor Tom Olali, also of University of Nairobi, for translating the kanga sayings used in this book. Many thanks to Roshni Shah and Madhukant P. Shah of Haria’s Stamp Shop Ltd. in Nairobi, who shared their years of experience and love of the kanga. Also, thanks to Philipa Njau and Elimani Njau of Paa Ya Paa Arts Centre, Nairobi, for graciously allowing us to use their photos. We extend a special note of appreciation to Webster University, particularly the faculty and administrative staff in Geneva, Switzerland; to the Royal Dutch Embassy and the Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi, who supported exhibitions of the kanga in Kenya; to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva; to Nathan Horst, who supported the documentation of many kanga stories; to the KonTerra Group Consultants, for their support; and to Rudd Sanders and Jan Driessens of the Vlisco Archives in Helmond the Netherlands, who provided archival information and photographic documentation in the kindest and most helpful way. We also thank Pat Augsburger, Kim Retka, and Howard Zehr for their photographic documentation of many of the kangas in this book. Finally, many thanks to our colleagues and friends, and special appreciation to Anna Ressler and Edouard Belloncle, and to our husbands Everett Ressler and Nathan Horst, for all of their support.

“A large collection of kangas is a savings account for a woman. She may buy a new pair every month. If a young woman inherits kangas from her grandmother, she regards these as a treasure.” —a young Kenyan woman

Reflections on studying the kanga..... Anthropology encourages us to take part in a conversation about simple things and what they show us about ourselves in the wider world. The colorful kanga cloth found across East Africa is mesmerizing - a cloth that nearly every woman and some men use and prize. Where did it come from? Who uses it, and why? How is it produced and where do the designs come from? What is the meaning of the proverbs and sayings that are on each kanga? What does it take to see, the everyday, the common, the normal; to ask why people do what they do; to continue the human search for meaning. Anthropology is the study of what people do and why they do it. It is a distinct approach to the study of human behavior. In this book, as anthropologists, we chose to search for understanding through the study of a cloth. We explored the ascribed value given to this cloth and the cultural co-production of design and meaning. The kanga a simple printed cotton cloth, has existed on the coast of East Africa for more than 120 years. While it is a cloth used and treasured by millions it has been largely unrecognized in the academic study of textiles. This limited viewpoint changes significantly when the cloth is viewed with more introspection. It quickly begins to take on a life of its own.... studying the kanga revealed insights into culture; how we create identity, and how we assign meaning to the material things we use. The kanga is a particularly interesting study because of its wide use and high cultural value. Virtually every woman in East Africa has, uses, and treasures her kangas. While each kanga is uniquely valued, hundreds upon hundreds of different kanga designs have been produced. It remains a simple, relatively inexpensive cloth with many uses. The kanga

holds value for each person, community, and ethnic group, that uniquely uses and values it. At times it carries religious signifance. At its orgins it supported Islamic religious values and later separated enslaved women from free women. In more recent days it symbolized membership in a group or followers of a political canidate. The kanga reflects cultural values and behavors. The early peoples, cultures, and civilizations of Africa did not exist in a vacuum. The historical movement and exchange of ideas that occurred through the trade routes which crisscrossed the continent and the region, helped to shape the design and use of the kanga. The specific designs printed in the borders of kanga cloths reveal wide cultural exposure with elements from Persia, West Africa, Indonesia, India, Europe, and many other places. Exploring the iconography of the kanga also reveals historical and economic connections throughout the Indian Ocean region and beyond and as with many cultural/ commercial items, the kanga emerged and then re-emerged in many places. The study of co-production reveals influences that come through cultural exchange. In the instance of the kanga, trade on the East African coast, largely in and around Zanzibar in the mid-1800’s, facilitated the exchange of ideas, and designs. Unlike many traditional cloths, from other places, which have become representations of a specific culture, the kanga remains a dynamic part of many cultures as it was spread widely into Asia, Europe, and across Africa. Collections of information about history, politics, economics, and culture of the Indian Ocean region is understood in a new way when viewed through the world of the kanga.

Introduction The kanga, also called the leso,1 is a machine-printed textile historically associated with Kenya and Tanzania. Today, kangas are worn in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa2 and some regions of the Middle East.3 The cloth can be identified by its distinctive border and central design or motif, and is approximately forty-five by sixty-five inches in size. Typically, a line of text (often a proverb or saying) is printed along the border. The earliest kangas were printed in two colors, initially black and white. Over one hundred years ago, women in the coastal regions of East Africa named this distinctive new textile “kanga”4 after the common black-and-white guinea fowl, or kanga bird in Kiswahili,5 the language of the region. One feature of most kangas is a small dot, which is similar to the pattern found on the guinea fowl.

INTRODUCTION

The kanga is a distinctive cloth with origins in East Africa more than 120 years ago.

Since kangas were first produced in the mid-1880s, millions of people across East and

Central Africa have treasured these textiles for their designs, meanings, and affordability. Use and meaning of the kanga is defined by both culture and context. Although primarily a woman’s textile, it may be worn by children and men. In each context, the kanga is valued for the message it sends and its link to innumerable life stories and events.6 The kanga has not been systematically documented, in part because research and documentation of African cloth has tended to focus on hand-woven textiles—particularly those of West African origin. It is hoped that this book will begin to address this gap, catalogue historical and modern kangas, and connect the history of the kanga with the history of trade in the Indian Ocean and throughout Africa. 1

History: Trade and the Emergence of the Kanga The kanga is an integral part of the story of vibrant cultural exchange that occurred along ancient Indian Ocean trade routes. The unique pattern of monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean8 shaped trade over two millennia. While there is some evidence of trade on the East African coast early in the Common Era, the period from CE 800 to 1498 was marked by the southward migration of Muslim settlers from the Middle East and the development of the Swahili culture. During this period, the eastern coast of Africa was integrated into global trade routes—dominated at the time by the Indian Ocean powers and extending throughout East Asia. Peoples living on what eventually became known as the Swahili Coast9 participated in trade relationships with those living in the interior regions of East and Central Africa and became wealthy through the export of goods such as tortoise shells, leopard skins, ivory, and slaves. The wealth of the region during this period was also due to the gold trade10 controlled from the island city-state of Kilwa.11 Luxury goods, including textiles, were imported from throughout the Indian Ocean region and used mainly on the coast.12 In the fifteenth century, European powers seeking to control the spice trade began searching for alternative routes to the fabled Spice Islands of the east. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reached the coast of East Africa in 1498 and began two centuries of Portuguese domination in the region. During this period, the Portuguese took control of trade—exporting textiles (most frequently the leso)13 produced in Portugal for sale on the Swahili Coast. In the early eighteenth century, Oman expelled the Portuguese and consolidated control of the region renewing the link between the Swahili Coast and the larger Indian Ocean trade network.

HISTORY

Studying the kanga reconfirms the role of East Africa in a dynamic Indian Ocean exchange from the 1400s until today, highlighting creative cultural production that took place through trade routes and relationships.

Omani sultan Sayyid Said shifted his palace from Muscat to the island of Zanzibar in the 1830s, renewing the link between the Swahili Coast and the larger Indian Ocean sphere. The wealth of the Omani empire in Africa was based largely on slave-dependent clove production and played a role in the expansion of the age-old slave trade. In this period, the demand for slaves from the east and central African interior increased—some enslaved persons were used in clove plantations on the coast; others were exported to the Arab world and the French sugar-plantation islands of Mauritius and Bourbon.14 Kilwa and Zanzibar became centers of the slave trade and acted as transit points for enslaved persons brought from the interior.

Trading in Merikani cotton cloth on the East African coast. Merikani was a cotton cloth produced in America. Circa 1900, East Africa. Photo: Seth Smith

HISTORY

As demand for slaves and ivory increased, Zanzibari traders expanded ancient trade routes into the interior and established trade centers along those routes. Trading towns such as Tabora in central Tanzania and Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika developed into inland ports and increased the cultural exchange between people from the coast and people from the interior, while at the same time destroying traditional communities and social structures in East and Central Africa.15 Textiles, frequently kangas, were used as a medium of trade in this era. They were bartered for slaves, transport, passage, or essential supplies. After 1865, the cost of cotton dropped16 and cotton textiles became increasingly available throughout the region. Cotton began to replace bark cloth, grass skirts, skins, and traditional body coverings in many places throughout East and Central Africa. However, documentation on textile use in the interior regions of East and Central Africa is limited and we are forced to rely on a few descriptions provided by European explorers and travelers to Africa in the late 1800s. Trade logs and design books from Dutch textile producer Vlisco clearly show reference to kangas in the late 1800s. It is not until the 1900s that more frequent references to the kanga begin to appear in literature.

Smithsonian, 2016

A painting of the wives and companions of slave traders who crossed the continent from east to west with Henry Morton Stanley. Painted in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1877, on their return journey to Zanzibar. In the painting, the women appear to be wearing kangas. Simpson, D. (1975) Dark Companions: The African Contribution to the European Exploration of East Africa. London Paul Elek. Royal Geographic Society.

The painting above shows the women who accompanied Stanley's second expedition across Africa. They returned on a ship that stopped in Simon's Town, South Africa, and were treated to tours of Cape Town and Stellenbosch by the dean of Cape Town and other leading residents. They were showered with gifts, which may have included printed cloth. During the late 1880s, on Stanley’s third trip, Manyema women from Central Africa were part of the trade group that again circumvented the Cape of Good Hope, this time traveling from Zanzibar to the mouth of the Congo River and across the interior to reach Stanleyville (1887). 6

HISTORY

A modern example of the colored cotton squares fashionable women on the Swahili Coast were wearing in the mid -1860s .They sewed together printed cloth squares into lengths of cloth they wrapped around themselves. This cloth was the forerunner of the kanga and was called leso, a name still in use on the Swahili coast.

In the 1860s, brightly colored handkerchief squares (lesos)20 were readily available, and origin stories about the kanga suggest that Zanzibari women sewed these handkerchief squares together to form larger blocks of colored fabric.21 These were worn with one length wound tightly around the body, and another covering the shoulders or head.22 The photograph on the opposite page shows cloth made of leso squares sewn together or printed into lengths of cloth worn by the women in Stanley’s group. Travelers to the East African coast in the nineteenth century frequently remark on the importance of dress in Swahili culture.17 In the fashion-conscious culture of the Swahili Coast, colored cloth was both highly valued and expensive, so most people wore merikani, an unbleached American18 cloth, or kaniki, a grey cloth imported from India. Women seeking to improve the kaniki stained it with locally produced indigo.19

Design books from the Vlisco Archives, the Netherlands, showing orders between producers in European countries and Zanzibar. Vlisco Archives, 1884,1886.

Merchants on the East African coast quickly picked up on the popularity of this new cloth which women were creating and wearing, and began producing block-printed versions.23 These cloths were first printed with vegetable dyes to create the simple black-and-white patterns found on some of the earliest kangas. In response to the growing demand for kangas, merchants began sending orders to the European textile companies, where larger quantities could be produced more cheaply. As demand increased, European textile producers from the Netherlands, England, Germany, and Switzerland supplied kangas to the coast.24

HISTORY

Early kangas were largely produced by European and Indian textile companies—for example, Vlisco in the Netherlands,31 ABC Textiles in the UK, and at times Germany and Switzerland, as well as companies in Goa and Ahmedabad, India. Kenya and Tanzania began to produce kangas in the 1800s. The Kenyan government nationalized textile companies in the1990s, but weak management reportedly prevented the success of the Kenyan kanga industry—though some Kenyan factories continue to sporadically produce kangas. Tanzania has a strong textile industry that produces kangas using Tanzanian cotton. Early kangas were block printed. In the late 1800s, Vlisco employed as many as eight hundred block printers and designers to meet the demand on the East African coast. Colors and designs were often selected by traders in East African towns and villages.The text messages, originally printed in Arabic and later in Swahili, were hand copied by the designers at the Dutch company Vlisco from kanga designs that had sold well. As they did not read or understand the languages used in the text, the words were at times misspelled or printed upside down. The women who were purchasing the cloth were very concerned about the text, the colors, and the designs. They made their voices heard through their purchasing power, and specific designs thus became popular.

Hand-cut wooden blocks used by Vlisco printers in the late 1800s to hand print kangas for the East African market.

Women turned Zanzibar into the “Paris of East Africa.” The kanga appears to have become a highly desired item of fashion at the time of the abolition of the slave trade in Zanzibar, when Indian merchants successfully marketed the kanga to a newly emerging clientele of former slaves. As free women and men, they were able to purchase items that could help them claim a new identity. 10

HISTORY

Enslaved peoples were freed in Zanzibar in 1897. At times, newly freed women identified themselves and their free status by wearing the fashionable, colorfully printed kanga.27 For formerly enslaved women in the urban areas of Zanzibar, use of the kanga separated them from poorer rural women, who continued to wear the dark-blue or brown kaniki. The use of the kanga spread through the interior and south along the East African coast.28 Wearing the kanga, or “coast dress,” became an indication of elite status and participation in emerging social structures.29 While literature on the meaning and use of the kanga in nineteenth-century Swahili culture highlights the role it played in portraying social status and upward mobility, less work has focused on these same issues in the east and central African interior. Despite this, it is clear that the kanga played a significant role in fashion, dress, and communication throughout the early part of the century in these regions. For

Radegonde Nyramavuga, Queen Mother of Burundi. Photo: Fabulous Congo, Felice Bellotti, Andrew Dakers,1954

example, written accounts from European travelers and photographic records from the early 1900s show people of high status in Central Africa wearing the kanga.30 Some researchers have suggested that the kanga designs came from the Manyema women who accompanied the slave traders across Central Africa and back to Zanzibar. They may have gotten some of their ideas from cloths that had come into the interior from West Africa. Books written by male travelers to the East African coast in the early 1900s mention

HISTORY

the colorful cloths of the women. One woman traveler, Jane F. Moir, who spent time in the trading town of Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika in 1890, writes in detail about the kanga-like cloths worn by the women she visited. These stories are difficult to confirm, but various travel writings clearly identify colorful cloths worn on the east and west coasts of Africa at this time. Can the origins of the kanga be traced to Zanzibari women and merchants who sent the cloth into the African interior with Stanley and the women who traveled with him, or was the kanga cloth picked up in the interior and brought back to Zanzibar by the fashionable Manyema women traveling with Stanley? Whatever the case, it seems clear that the kanga was largely created by women’s buying power, merchants’ production power, and the trade throughout Africa.

Cultural Exchange: Kanga Design Analysis of kanga design reveals both the extent to which the kanga has assimilated global design elements and the extent to which it has remained a quintessentially African cloth.33 For much of its history, kanga production has been located outside of Africa and the communities where it was worn. However, through control of the market—often by simply choosing whether or not to buy a particular pattern—African women have shaped the design34 of this cloth.35. From the beginning, when kangas were handkerchiefs sewn together, the basic design has included a border and a central image. The basic composition of the kanga has remained the same for more than 120 years (border, central image, text). Several design elements have come to define the kanga: dots, circles, crosses, the boteh, fruit, and flowers. 14

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Kanga design is clearly influenced by many cultures. Influence has been drawn from elements within Africa, such as the traditional geometrical designs of African ceremonial items and body art.36 Kanga design also draws influence from parts of Asia, and Europe. For example, the Persian boteh37 found on most kangas is also seen in seventeenth-century floral designs from the Mughal Empire and in textile designs throughout South Asia and Europe.

An example of the boteh or cashew shape widely used on kangas.

The boteh, which is seen in the photo above, is known as the paisley in Europe, the mango shape in India, and the cashew nut shape in East Africa. Many people feel a kanga is not a true kanga without the boteh design. However, the kanga is also defined by reinvention; new patterns, colors, and images are continually introduced. Kanga designs were originally sketched by merchants on the Swahili Coast and sent to European textile producers. The task of designing the kanga has remained a primarily commerce-driven process. The designs were rarely influenced directly by consumers and did not relate to the central image or the text. Designs and texts were selected by merchants on the East African coast and sent to printers in India or Europe to be placed on the kanga. However, Dutch designers at Vlisco a kanga producer from the1800s until the1950s regularly selected text they could not read and placed it on the kanga for printing. 15

One of the earliest kanga designs, and one that has remained popular until today, is the kisutu.39 This kanga has a sari-like design, with a wide border on the ends and a pattern of small crosses and flowers in the central panel. This kisutu is unique in that it does not include text or a central image. Usually printed in red and black, the kisutu is often used for weddings in coastal Kenya, as the colors are associated with the rituals. Many stories are told about the distinctive patterns and colors of the kisutu. One event recounted by women in Zanzibar and Mombasa suggests that a man was stabbed by his wife for the crime of failing to purchase the newest kanga for her. The kanga pattern she was wearing became known as kisutu, derived from kisu (knife in Kiswahili). A second story suggests the design karatini, or cross, on this kanga was copied from Red Cross vans in use during yellow fever epidemics that ravaged Zanzibar in the early 1900s 40

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Early kisutu, block printed, dated 1890 from the Vlisco Archives.

Early kangas were hand printed in black and white, and at times red. Carved wooden blocks were used. It is easy to see the slight imperfections where the block was hand stamped.The bottom sample is dated 1901 and is from Vlisco Archives design books.

Vlisco Archives, 1901

A common pattern found on many kangas is a series of tiny circles that mirror Rajasthani tie-dye designs,called bandhani..38 This traditional design, created with a tie-dye technique, is still used today on Indian saris and modern kangas.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

A unique style of horizontal stripes was often found on Omani cloth that was exported to Zanzibar in the late 1800s. This striped pattern is sometimes used as a central image in the design of the kanga, as seen below. Vilsco Archives,1925.

Kangas have incorporated many African colors and designs, which are frequently geometrical patterns, as seen in the mud cloth sample. Mud cloth is a traditional cloth from Mali.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Kangas often use patterns from nature, such as fruits, trees, flowers, and leaves. Many women prefer the colors blue and green, particularly in Tanzania. Indonesian batik also influenced early kanga design. Designers at Vlisco, one of the largest Dutch fabric-printing companies, printed batiks for the Indonesian market and kangas for the East African market during the same time period.

As recently as 2000, Kangas were drawn by hand on large sheets of paper in Mombasa and sent with specifications to India for printing. The design is now done by computer.Favorite kangas are copied or sent as samples with new color choices and new text. Old sample books show records of fabric shipped to Zanzibar from Europe, as early as 1866. The examples on the right are from mid-1800s. The designs were done by hand, as shown above. These printed samples were kept as ideas for new kangas and are part of a collection in the Vilsco Archives in Helmond, the Netherlands.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Over the years, kangas have been used to carry political and social-advocacy images and messages. This well known kanga carries the text “People for Peace,” and has been used by many organizations since it was created in the 1980s.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

The kanga above was produced on the first and second inauguration of Barack Obama. The text says, “Love and peace come from God. Congratulations Barack Obama.”

Today, the kanga’s central image often reflects popular culture, historical events, or political messaging. For example, commemorative kangas were produced on the death of Michael Jackson, the inauguration of Barack Obama, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and other national leaders. Kanga images have also been used to communicate public health messages, such as use of mosquito nets or HIV/AIDS awareness. At times, kangas have been used for advertising by political campaigns and by companies.

Text Messages Oral histories collected in Zanzibar recount how local merchants added text to the kanga in the 1880s, at times taking suggestions from women in the community.41 Text on early kangas was printed in Kiswahili with Arabic script.42 The British introduced Latin script for administrative use in the 1930s. After the 1950s, messages were printed almost entirely in Kiswahili using Latin script, and today it is rare to find a modern kanga featuring Arabic script. Kangas are also printed in Malagasy and Comorian, and at times in English. Many of the early sayings may have had roots in t aarab, a form of poetry and music that incorporates the diverse cultural influences found on the Swahili Coast. Taarab became popular in Zanzibar in the 1870s, and continues to be popular today.43

TEXT MESSAGES

Often witty, using wordplay or cynicism, early kanga messages were frequently subtly erotic or suggestive. For example, one early kanga featured the message, “A ripe mango has to be eaten slowly.” In the early colonial period, British authorities became aware of these erotic allusions and tried unsuccessfully to ban them. In the 1950s, women’s movements in Tanzania protested more successfully against the sexually suggestive text and all kanga text was removed for a brief period. In many cases, the proverbial aspect of kanga text hides a deeper message that can only be understood by the right person in the right context. On the Swahili Coast, a culture developed around use of kanga messages for communication. Particularly among women, the kanga message became a widely recognized and refined communication tool. In this context, a kanga would be carefully selected in order to best represent the message a

wearer wanted to send. For example, a woman with a backstabbing neighbor might wear a kanga with the message, “A woman’s wickedness is in her tongue!” A rival in love might receive a kanga with the message, “Why are you clinging to him? He does not want you! Leave him!” A woman with a cheating husband might wear a kanga bearing the message, “A visitor to two homes will surely die of hunger.” Kanga messages are not used for communication in the same way across all cultures in East and Central Africa, and women in many parts of the region may choose the kanga based on design or color rather than text—taking care to avoid possible misunderstandings. Women may choose to wear a kanga inside out or upside down in order to avoid offense that may be caused by the text. Text has been used to address social issues. In the 1970s, polygamy was addressed in kanga text, and in the 1980s, the text messages frequently touched upon economic issues.44 Modern kanga texts are often in the form of religious maxims; (“Love and peace come from God”); proverbs, (“A country rooster does not crow in town”), or adages (“Do not stress yourself, problems will never end”). Text may also take the form of public service messages, such as, “Reduce the cost of mosquito nets for expectant mothers and children,” or used to mark historical events with a message such as “Congratulations Barack Obama.” 27

The Kanga in Daily Life and in Ceremonies One of the most extraordinary attributes of the kanga is the intensely personal meaning it holds for the people that use it. The kanga remains a treasure of high social value in most places, despite being commercially produced with inexpensive materials. It is expected that a polite and respectable young woman will have a kanga in her bag at all times, and a mother or grandmother will often give a young women several pairs of kangas to take with her to university or to a new location. In some East and Central African cultures, men wear kangas at home or when relaxing. In others, like the Maasai culture, a man may wear a kanga outside the home. Kangas may be worn both inside and outside the home, or they may serve as slings for babies, or as shawls, turbans, blankets, table coverings, or room dividers. They may be given as gifts or used in ceremonies. Kangas are deeply personal items for women and may be tightly wrapped around a woman’s stomach after she gives birth, to help with uterine swelling, or used to cover clothing during menstruation. In urban areas of Kenya and Tanzania, modern women are less likely to wear kangas in public, though they often wear kangas when relaxing or working at home. In rural areas, many women still wear kangas in their day-to-day lives. In Central Africa, a kanga may be worn if a woman is unable to afford the more expensive and popular wax prints called kitenge. Kitenges can be distinguished from kangas because they have a repeating pattern and no border. The kitenge is popular across most of Central and West Africa and was initially marketed to West Africa in the 1800s— originally as a copy of Javanese (Indonesian) prints.