If you think of traditional African clothing, images of ladies in bright-colored cotton dresses and men wearing equally vivid shirt-pants sets pop up. These colored fabrics with exciting patterns are wax prints, prepared by dying and direct printing on both sides of the fabric. Despite their popularity throughout Western Africa, the wax prints were originally brought by Dutch merchants. The Dutch created new patterns and used the Indonesian style batik as an inspiration to create designs suitable for the African market. The African wax print fabrics are widely used but were brought to the continent in the 19th century and are therefore relatively new. 

The fabrics are beautiful but that is not the only reason behind their widespread popularity. The wax prints are manufactured from cotton and are unelastic, thick and highly durable. Clothes made from fabrics tend to be rather stiff, making them comfortable to wear in the hot, humid and often windy environment. They maintain their loose form allowing moisture to evaporate from the skin. In comparison, the thin and elastic fabrics used in t-shirts cling to the skin and retain moisture. Because of their durability, the wax prints can be used for versatile purposes aside from clothing; carrying babies, wiping cloths and even in pottery production. 

The imaginative patterns of the fabrics are a form of communication and are used to signal something personal about the wearer. There are multiple distinct patterns communicating desires in love, marital status, money situation and social position of the wearer. For the ladies my age looking to start a family, there is even a special design signaling the ticking of the biological clock. The interpretation of the fabrics varies from place to place and the same fabric meaning the placenta in Benin may be interpreted as the brain of Kofi Annan in Ghana. 

At the beginning of my trip, I bought a dark green dress with printed patterns of bright red lions. The dress was conservative and easy on the eye so I wore it regularly, only to find out later that the pattern is designed for men of high importance. The lion on the pattern symbolizes a king on the throne. It is sometimes given as a part of the dowry to the father of the bride in the form of a loincloth, to recognize his position as the head of the family. My housemate has a similar experience with a fabric featuring a jumping horse. The fabric signals competitiveness and encloses a warning of interfering with the life of the wearer; Mind your own business. I find it amusing how well the signal fits her personality as she gradually became frustrated and tired from high levels of attention and nearly constant social contact.

Cheers, 
Anna

PS. Opposite to India and Pakistan, the dowry in some African countries is a gift to the family of the bride by the family of the groom. The gift signals respect and commitment to the marriage.

Fabrics have different colors and patterns. 

Wax print art in the museum of Zinsou Foundation.  

Placenta or the brain of Kofi Annan?

A 5-piece art given as my parting gift from Beninese residents of Villa Karo, Nel and Stéphane. 

The first wax print dress and it totally was not the last. 

The King of the Throne. 

Jumping horse. 

Art piece in the museum of Zinsou foundation. The whitel yellow fabric has patters of eye. It the fabric is worn by one wife in a family with myltiple wifes, she it sending a signal to the others to watch their back as she is  keeping an eye on them.  

Letters from West Africa

Day 40. Fabrics