As fashion week rolls around once again certain types of African textile are very visible and ‘all things’ Africa seem once more to be in vogue. For a look at these developments that goes beyond the usual superficial celebration see:
African Nostalgia: Between Authenticity and Fad
And for an unusually extravagant illustration see the current issue of the online magazine Ghubar
 | Detail of Mumuye “ground loom” weaving. © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
The Mumuye people live south of the Benue river in a remote hilly region of Taraba and Adamawa states in eastern Nigeria, close to the border with Cameroun. They are well known to African art lovers as the source of some remarkable schematic wood sculptures. They are also, following research by Venice Lamb in the 1970s, noted in the literature on African textiles as practitioners of an archaic form of weaving known as the “ground loom.” (Lamb & Holmes, Nigerian Weaving, 1980:141)
Variants of this ancient loom were used by nomadic Berber women in North Africa to weave woollen strips to form tents, and by some women in Madagascar but in West Africa its use was by the C20th confined to the mountains of north west Cameroun and to the Mumuye and perhaps also a few of the Tiv peoples in Nigeria.
Last month I took advantage of a lengthier than usual visit to Nigeria to investigate whether Mumuye men were still weaving using this technique and if possible to witness the loom in action. After a two day drive east across the so-called Middle Belt of the country we reached Yola, the capital of Adamawa state. The following day we set off early and when we arrived at the small town of Zing were lucky enough to have got there on the day of the weekly market.
 | Calabash vendors in Zing market. photo © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
Under a shade tree in a quiet corner of the market were a group of weavers sitting behind the rolled up bundles of cloth, exactly as Lamb had described almost 40 years earlier.
 | Mumuye weavers with rolled bundles of ‘langtang’ cloth for sale, Zing market. © Duncan Clarke 2010 |
The weavers each had two or three rolled up bundles of cloth on the ground at their feet. Prospective buyers inspected the cloths carefully, unrolling the long strips of fabric across the open space in front of the vendors. Each cloth is made up of a single strip almost 6 metres in length of handspun local cotton, so loosely woven that it was almost like a net but given weight by the thickness of the fibres used. Most were about 40cm wide with a simple combination of broad warp and weft stripes in a few shades of black and brown. A few were narrower, with a 30cm width, and these had an even simpler pattern of a few narrow warp stripes close to each selvedge (edge.) This basic homespun cloth, called langtang, is the only output of Mumuye weavers. Although it is sometimes cut up and sewn together to form a wrapper cloth worn for local dance costumes, the primary use of langtang, and the reason for the continued survival of this form of textile is as a vital component of funerary rites. Each adult in a Mumuye community is obliged to contribute a strip of langtang whenever a funeral takes place. Some are used to form a shroud, while others may be retained by the family for future use.
 | Mumuye weavers with rolled bundles of ‘langtang’ cloth for sale, Zing market. © Duncan Clarke 2010 |
The following day a 45 minute motorbike ride from a checkpoint on the road about 10km outside Zing brought us to meet one of the weavers at his family compound in a hilly area called Dansa Bargar.
 | Weaver’s compound near Zing, Taraba State. © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
Under a tree at the edge of the compound the permanent frame of the loom consisted only of four wooden stakes set in two pairs about 6 metres apart. The working parts including the partly woven strip of cloth were brought out from a house and setup within a few minutes.
 | Mumuye loom with partly woven cloth, shuttle of weft thread hanging vertically. © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
The warp threads are simple tied to two sticks that can be braced behind the pairs of uprights forming the loom frame at each end, with sufficient tension to hold it in place about 20cm off the ground.
 | The weaver Mr Abubakar Sahadu unravelling the warp bundle to set up his loom. © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
 | The loom set up ready for weaving. © Duncan Clarke, 2010 |
Small wooden tripods at either side of the warp support the single floating heddle – a pair of sticks from which loops of thick yarn leash alternate warp threads. The weaver sits astride the already woven section of cloth. Lifting the heddle forms the shed (gap between the two sets of warps) through which he passes the weft thread. Together with a larger crossbar and a flat swordstick he then creates a countershed (raising the unleashed alternate warps) to pass back the weft. The seated weaver moves along the warp as weaving progresses.
 | Creating the “countershed” © Duncan Clarke, 2010. |
The cotton used to weave this cloth is grown among the corn and other crops surrounding the compound, carded by the women of the family, and spun by both men and women. Local plant and earth based dyes, including indigo, are used to create the limited range of colours needed.
 | Spinning the cotton. © Duncan Clarke,2010 |
[Thanks are due to the weaver, Mr Abubakar Sahadu, to our two impromptu local guides, David and “the Honourable Daudu” and to Charles Osobu for his driving and company throughout the trip.]
From an interview with the South African born composer Kevin Volans who will be featured at this years Edinburgh Festival. Entire interview here
"Progress is not a word that applies: there are no themes, no motifs, no development, no repetition and no recapitulation. It’s a non-developmental piece in that it operates in the same kind of space from beginning to end."
That could suggest minimalism, but Volans is not a minimalist composer; though there are some pieces in his oeuvre, in some of his 10 string quartets or the utterly mesmerising, which might seduce the innocent ear into thinking it was hearing a form of minimalism.
So with the litany of symphonic elements absent from the score, is the music of his new piece going to be static? "No. The images change; the focus changes. It might focus more on a complex texture, then on tone colour, then more on some kind of rhythmic structure."
The seminal inspiration behind the construction of the piece doesn’t lie in music at all. "It’s akin more to African textiles than musical models. They were the reason I had to give up serialism as a way of ordering music. They are very virtuosic textiles, woven by the men then embroidered by the women.
"They use a very dramatic method of contrasting different forms of patterning, from left to right, right to left, down to up and up to down; and they also use broken patterning. So the patterns are irregular, and there is great virtuosity in their use of irregularity within the patterning."
There is a well established literature on “offbeat” patterning in African textiles and possible links to music but Volan’s comments may provide a further dimension. He seems to be talking here about Kuba cloths from Congo but his insights are equally applicable to many other types of African textile design. Below I have posted a few of our own “post minimal” pieces. These are all sold but if this type of cloth is of interest please contact me. Click on the photos for larger images.
 | Ewe woman’s cloth, Ghana, circa 1920-50 |
 | Abron/Koulango womans cloth, Bondoukou region, Cote D’Ivoire, circa 1920-50 |
 | Asante or Ewe woman’s cloth, Ghana, circa 1920-50 |
 | Detail of Yoruba woman’s cloth, Nigeria, circa 1920s |
 | Abron/Koulango womans cloth, Bondoukou region, Cote D’Ivoire, circa 1920-50 |
 | Detail of Asante men’s kente cloth, Ghana, circa 1920s |
Postcard captioned “The members of the Gold Coast cabinet, 17 July 1956.” (Department of Information Services, Accra) (Author’s collection.) Click on photos for larger view.
Silk Asante kente, 1950s. For more Asante kente we have for sale click here.
 | Unique early C20th man’s wrap from Bondoukou region, Cote D’Ivoire. Image © Duncan Clarke |
After almost 15 years online our old web address at adire.clara.net will no longer function. Over the past ten days I have transferred the entire site to www.adireafricantextiles.com . Please revise any bookmarks or links you have been kind enough to make to the site. Any of you who have not yet seen our online galleries of vintage African textiles and associated information resources are invited to take a look and we welcome any comments.
A Quilt and Textile Exhibition curated by Magie Relph for The Quilt Museum and Gallery in York, 10 July to 16 October 2010 – features quilts made from and inspired by African fabrics.
“African Odyssey III by Janice Gunner, UK. This quilt was inspired by a present from Magie Relph - a piece of Indigo and kola nut fabric with a large tied circular motif in the centre. I just had to use it in a quilt, but I needed more fabrics to go with it. Another collection was born! Machine pieced, hand and machine quilted. Cotton and polyester wadding. Cotton, rayon invisible and metallic threads. 121 x 100 cm “
More information here
Click pictures for description and larger view.
C19th indigo cotton and magenta silk
Very rare C19th woman’s wrapper cloth
Unique design, mid-C20th wrapper
Natural beige wild silk
Circa 1900 mixed strip hand spun cotton & indigo
