Living in Peckham, I see so much wonderfully colourful and
beautifully patterned cloth, worn by the large population of people living in
the area with African heritage. They are most commonly worn on Sundays to
Church by both women and men.
Historically textiles have played a important role in many African
cultures, and it is this that has influenced the development of such unique and
vibrant textiles. What first attracted
me to these textiles was the rich colour, but looking more closely I began to
notice the pattern design too. The designs often feature ‘conversational’
prints featuring illustrations of objects, often modern ones such as cars or
computers. I decided to research into
the culture and try and discover the meaning behind the patterns.
I found that although there is a great deal of information
available about historically traditional African Textiles, there was hardly
anything about the textiles I was interested in. As I found out, this is because these
textiles are relatively recent in textile history, only coming into use in the
last 100 years. They were originally
designed and produced by English, Dutch, Japanese and Indian companies for the
African market, but have always been developed in close connection and
consideration of the various cultures of the African countries in which they
are sold, and with unique African popular tastes in mind.
These textiles have probably been inspired by Ghanaian
Adinkra cloth, (which is a textile decorated with hand stamped patterns
consisting of imagery of deep symbolic meaning and worn as a special type of
mourning cloth), but were developed by European textile companies trying to
reproduce Indonesian Batiks.
The textiles take two forms ‘wax Prints’ and ‘fancy Prints’.
Wax prints are created by resist dyeing, using pastes (that often do not
contain wax at all). The pattern is applied to both sides of the fabric and
then dyed, usually using indigo. The paste is treated chemically to create a
‘cracking’ effect most commonly seen in Batik.
Fancy prints are the cheaper of the two fabrics, and are machine printed
on one side only, using rotary screens.
Both textiles make use of the same motifs in their pattern design, and
both are now also printed in African Textile Factories, though those imported
from Holland are much more highly valued.
The designs on the textiles are inspired by proverbs, which
are always either printed along the bottom of the design of or combined into
the imagery. The designs do not necessarily illustrate or directly relate to
the proverb - they are used as ‘visual entertainment’ - it is the proverb that
carries the message. Names are given to designs that are commonly used with
particular proverbs, for example:
The proverb ‘mother’s milk is sweet’ is referred to as
‘Breast’ or ‘Cashew’ as this is often the shape of the designs depicted with
the proverb;
‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,‘ – ‘eggs’
‘Let’s try to harvest so the hunger does not kill us’ – ‘Eyes’ or ‘Leaves’.
Sayings can also relate to health warnings, the need for
education or relationships. Variations on these textiles are worn throughout
West, Central and East Africa, worn as the Kanga traditional dress in Kenya,
and the Kaba in Ghana.
