Your “African fabric” isn’t African and that’s not always a travesty. This is the one in which I share some of the complex history and practices in African textiles which make our conversations around assimilation and acculturation not so straightforward.
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0:00 The fabric map of Africa
02:23 Assumptions we need to challenge
03:12 Africa’s textile history has always been multicultural
04:45 Acculturation and indigenisation
06:16 Indigenous fabrics don’t always exist
09:49 African fashion as call & response
11:38 The economics & politics of textiles today
15:00 Changing the discourse
Sources:
Online:
Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of South African People (1985) by Jean Comaroff https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Body-of-Power-Spirit_of-Resistance-by-Jean-Comaroff.pdf
Church Uniforms as an Indigenous Form of Anglicanism: A South African Case Study (2016) by Beverley Haddad https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-anglican-studies/article/church-uniforms-as-an-indigenous-form-of-anglicanism-a-south-african-case-study/3770619787DE0D239D7C67D8C4F4EB21
Fashion, Material Culture & History (2016) by Beverly Lemire https://www.jstor.org/stable/44809755?seq=2
Fiber Spinning During the Mapungubwe Period of Southern Africa: Regional Specialism in the Hinterland (2019) by Alexander Antonites https://repository.up.ac.za/items/b7eef487-30a8-4572-88e5-095d9c573aaa
The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa (1989) edited by Leroy Veil https://sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files/leroy_vail_the_creation_of_tribalism_in_southernbook4you-1.pdf
The Invention of Tradition Revisited: The Case of Colonial Africa (1993) by Terence Ranger https://scispace.com/pdf/the-invention-of-tradition-revisited-the-case-of-colonial-1udfual3s2.pdf
Books:
African Hats and Jewelry (1998) by Duncan Clarke
African Heritage (1983) by Barbara Tyrell and Peter Jurdens
African Textiles: Color and Creativity Across a Continent (2003) by John Gillows
Beadwork, Art and the Body: Dilo Tse Dintshi/Abundance (2015) ed. Anitra Nettleton
Creating African Fashion Histories (2022) ed. by JoAnn McGregor, Heather Akou, and Nicola Styliano
Dungamanzi: Stirring Waters (2007) ed. by Nessa Leibhammer
isiShweshwe: A History of the Indigenisation of Blueprint in Southern Africa (2017) by Juliette Leeb-du Toit
