Ewe weaver Fiawodzo Anatsui, father of the artist El Anatsui.

“El Anatsui’s father Fiawodzo Anatsui, wearing a narrow band- woven cloth on the of the Price of Wales’s visit to the Gold Coast colony in 1925” – photo from El Anatsui: Art and Life by Susan Mullin Vogel (Prestel 2012.)

Anatsui’s father was a master weaver and I think may be assumed to have woven this remarkable cloth himself. The texts we can see read “Lean liberty is better than fat slavery” and “God save the King.” Woven texts in English, usually some kind of homily or brief saying drawn from Christian literature rather than the Ghanaian tradition of proverbs were often a feature of  some Ewe cloths in this period and can be seen as an expression of pride in newly attained literacy. However the style of this cloth with it’s detailed figurative motifs and in particular the clusters of small geometric patterns on a plain ground is distinctive.

The only similar cloth I am aware of is shown below in a photograph from Malika Kraamer’s Phd thesis Colouful Changes: Two Hundred Years of Social and Design History in the Hand-woven Textiles of the Ewe-speaking Regions of Ghana and Togo (1800-2000) (SOAS, 2005).

Kraamer notes (page 446) that this cloth is called “father of the chief” and was woven in the 1940s by a weaver called Togbe (chief) Gana. I wonder is perhaps he was an apprentice of Anatsui senior.

Exploring the West African textile collections of the Musee du Quai Branly: Part Two – some early bogolanfini

The majority of these cloths were collected at the start of the twentieth century by Francois de Zeltner, who published an article on bogolan in 1910. We can note both that some are remarkable similar to designs produced a century later, and that some are notably different.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

The Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, holds one of the world’s most significant collections of West African textiles, with particular strength in some of the former French colonies. The entire collection is accessible on line  via their website. Check the textiles button then enter the country name in the box below.

Exploring the West African textile collections of the Musee du Quai Branly: Part One – some unusual indigo cloths.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof fold resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof fold resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Wolof stitch resist indigo early C20th.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof tied resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Wolof stitch resist indigo early C20th.

Ivory Coast, tied resist indigo – attributed to the Baule. Collected 1900.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

The Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, holds one of the world’s most significant collections of West African textiles, with particular strength in some of the former French colonies. The entire collection is accessible on line  via their website. Check the textiles button then enter the country name in the box below.

African Textiles–details from the shop

Weft-faced Ewe cloths, Ghana/Togo

Yoruba adire cloths, Nigeria

Indigo striped strip weaves, Ivory Coast.

Mostly blankets from Mali.

Mossi indigo cloths, Burkina Faso.

Yoruba indigo cloths, Nigeria.

Ewe men’s cloths, Ghana/Togo.

Dioula and Bondoukou men’s cloths, Ivory Coast.

For other views of these cloths please visit our website.

New book- “Indigo: the Colour that Changed the World” by Catherine Legrand

This is a beautifully presented and illustrated book that, perhaps inevitably,  relies heavily on the pioneering and more scholarly work of  Jenny Balfour-Paul (Indigo – British Museum Press, 1998), covering much of the same ground but adding some interesting if largely anecdotal material and a good number of often wonderful photographs.

The African section presents brief summaries of familiar material but also a fresh look at the most accessible surviving centre of indigo dyeing on the continent,  among the Dogon people of Mali. The author travelled this region in the company of Belgian author and film maker Patricia Gerimont (whose excellent book and DVD on Malian dyers should not be missed.)

All photos from Indigo: the Colour that Changed the World by Catherine Legrand (Thames & Hudson, 2013.)

“Um Politico” Loanda, Angola, before 1909

New exhibition–“HOLLANDAISE: a journey into an iconic fabric” in Dakar, Accra, Douala

HOLLANDAISE: a journey into an iconic fabric
10 April–1 June 2013

Raw Material Company 
Centre pour l'art, le savoir et la société
Center for art, knowledge and society
4074 bis Sicap Amitié 2
BP 22710 Dakar, Senegal
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10am–7pm

“Raw Material Company announces the exhibition HOLLANDAISE: a journey into an iconic fabric. The exhibition features newly commissioned works by Godfried Donkor, Abdoulaye Konate, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Willem de Rooij and Billie Zangewa. The project is the result of a curatorial collaboration between Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA) and Raw Material Company in the context ofProject 1975. 
Fabrics have played an important role in the decolonization of knowledge. Fabrics tell stories, family stories, stories of commerce, of labor, of creativity, of skills.The background for this exhibition is the long-standing commercial relationship between The Netherlands and Africa. The title refers to the colourful printed fabrics that are exported from The Netherlands to Africa, and are generally known in West Africa as Hollandaise, or Dutch Wax. 
It was Dutch textile companies, such as Vlisco, who developed mass production and commercial applications for Indonesian, Javanese batik in the middle of the 19th century, and found their largest markets at the Atlantic shores of Africa. Today the bright and distinctive wax prints are regarded as typically African, while there is nothing African to them. It is the result of complex globalization processes that created a constructed image of Africanness.
Wax prints belong to the history of alternative cartography. It is the history of the appropriation of knowledge and skills that were invented and produced in Java, became incorporated in Dutch colonial trade routes, traveled and eventually acquired a new identity in Africa. By making the wax prints their own, Africans challenged the ideas that link culture with authenticity, identity with territory, as well as the opposition of modernity versus tradition.
The colourful and indeed irresistibly beautiful fabric is an all-time business for women traders across West Africa. Generations of women in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana have built commercial empires, and such wealth with the trade of Dutch Wax prints that they are referred to as "Nana-Benz," by virtue of their ability to afford the German car. It is fascinating how quickly this purely European product was appropriated, embraced and adopted as a means of self-expression to embody what is today generally perceived as the quintessential sign of African authenticity. 
HOLLANDAISE: a journey into an iconic fabric is curated by Koyo Kouoh. Five artists from diverse practices and backgrounds were commissioned new works that interpret the trading relations and the cultural aesthetics embedded in the history of this fabric.  
The exhibition presents a two-channel video, The Currency of Ntoma, by Godfried Donkor. The video tells the story of the tradition of collecting wax prints by Ghanean women. Untitled, Abdoulaye Konate's new two-meter-by-seven-meter tapestry, depicts a moment of celebration amidst current war and politcal tensions. La Javanaise is a challenging two-channel cinematic dissection of the Dutch colonial enterprise by Wendelien van Oldenborgh. Blue to Black by Willem de Rooij is a silent critique of racial categorization translated into a specifically designed and manufactured fabric. With the silk tapestriesAngelina Rising, Billie Zangewa subverts the notion of freedom and liberation with one of the most popular Vlisco designs. 
The educational programme during the opening days includes master classes with students and faculty of Dakar's Ecole Nationale des Arts with artists Willem de Rooij and Billie Zangewa as well as a two-day video workshop for young emerging women artists lead by Wendelien van Oldenborgh. The programme continues in May 2013 with lectures by Abdoulaye Konate (May 10) and Françoise Vergès (May 22). 
The exhibition comes with a highly illustrated bilingual (F/E) catalogue with writings by political scientist and cultural historian Françoise Vergès; artist and researcher Senam Okudzeto; and curators Jelle Bouwhuis, Koyo Kouoh and Kerstin Winking. In collaboration with the network of independent art centers in Africa, the exhibition travels to Nubuke Foundation in Accra in July 2013, as well as to Doual'art in Douala in September 2013. 
Raw Material Company acknowledges the generous support of the Mondriaan Fonds and the embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Dakar.
For more information please contact: mariecisse@rawmaterialcompany.org.”