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References:
For a good summary of
research to that date and an overview of the issues raised see: Picton,J.
"Tradition,Technology, and Lurex; Some Comments on Textile History
and Design in West Africa" in History, design and Craft in West
African Strip-Woven Cloth (Smithsonian 1988).
Picton J. & Mack J.
African Textiles (1989, 2nd Edition)
Polakoff,C. African
Textiles and Dyeing Techniques (1982 - US edition was called
"Into Indigo.")
& see references on
other pages for each cloth type.
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The main
method of decorating cloth throughout Africa is the dyeing of
thread or completed cloths. Although there were a small range of
locally produced plant dyes that allowed weavers in most areas
to produce a few shades of brown, green, yellow, and in some
cases red, by far the most important dye in Africa has been
indigo. The vast majority of cloth produced on the continent
over the centuries was simple designs produced by combining the
natural white (and sometimes beige) of the cotton fibres with
stripes of various shades of indigo blue. Depending on the
relative density of the warp and weft threads, the resulting
cloths could have stripes down the strip (warp- faced) or across
the strip (weft-faced.)
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warp-faced |
weft-faced |
Dyeing
was itself an important business at which high degrees of
specialist skill was developed in centres such as the Hausa city
of Kano. Very thin, fine quality, narrow-strip cloth dyed a dark
indigo in villages near Kano, then carefully beaten with extra
indigo paste by specialist cloth beaters until it took on a
glazed sheen, are still an extremely expensive and highly valued
cloth worn as face veils by Tuareg and other nomads throughout
North Africa. See our indigo dyeing page here.
In
addition to pattern effects such as stripes and checks produced
by varying the colours of thread used, African weavers utilise a
limited set of decorative techniques in the process of weaving
cloth. These include float weaving, where extra threads float
across, or more rarely down, a piece of cloth, openwork, pile
weave, and more rarely tapestry weave, and weft inserts.
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supplementary
weft float - extra design thread across strip |
supplementary
warp float - extra design thread down strip |
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openwork
- in typical Yoruba style with threads floated down cloth
strip |
pile
weave on an Ijebu Yoruba shawl |
There are
also a number of techniques used to decorate a cloth after it
has been woven. Most of these had their origins in the
indigenous weaving industry but have later been applied to the
decoration of imported cloth. Dyers have utilised a variety of
methods of resist dyeing, i.e. the dyeing of thread or fabric
which has been treated so that part of it resists the dye,
leaving a pattern on the cloth. These include ikat weaving among
the Baule of Côte D'Ivoire and the Yoruba of Nigeria and a
number of traditions that utilise starch resist or tie and dye,
of which the adire of the Yoruba is best known (details here.)
A separate and unique method of dyeing is used to produce the
mud-dyed bogolanfini Mali (details here.)
The Asante of Ghana utilise a type of printing using stamps
made from sections of calabash shell to produce a patterned
cloth called adinkra
(details here.)
Embroidery
is found in numerous styles, including on the raffia cloths of
Zaire (here) and the
robes of northern Nigeria (here.)
Finally there are a few distinct traditions of applique, where
sections from different cloths are sewn together to make
designs. Among the best known of these are the flags of the Fon
kings of precolonial Danhome, and the Asafo war flags of the
Fante companies of coastal Ghana (here.)
(c)
Duncan Clarke 2003
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