Drummers, poets, and master weavers: rhythm and structure in the design of Ewe “kente” cloths.

Some African textile scholars have remarked on what they perceive to be affinities between aspects of African textile design and the use of “off beat” rhythm in African musical traditions, for example in designating certain types of Malian blanket as “jazz cloths.” While these analogies are suggestive and thought provoking, and do seem to me to point in some degree towards important aspects of textile design in the region, as yet there has been very little attention paid to discussing these issues with either makers or consumers of particular African textile traditions. In this note I want to quote at some length from a recent article by the Ghanaian professor of literature Dr Kofi Anyidoho (“Ghanaian Kente: Cloth and Song” in The Poetics of Cloth: African Textiles/ Recent Art edited by Lynn Gumpert, GreyArt Gallery, New York, 2008) , that mentions neither “off beat” rhythm nor “improvisation,” but nevertheless appears to me to be an important contribution to this discussion by someone who is both an Ewe and a trained weaver.

“The first expert on kete weaving I interviewed was my uncle Dumega Kwadzovi Anyidoho, the man who brought me up and under whose tutelage I learned to weave. Now in his eighties, he is acknowledged as one of the most experienced master weavers in Wheta, with more than sixty-five years of experience. He is also a master drummer and heno (poet-cantor.) Halfway through our conversation I asked him to name other great master weavers he could recall. To my surprise, almost everyone he remembered was also a heno and/or a master drummer….

My uncle pointed out that this was more than a coincidence and offered two possible explanations for this apparent connection between the art of the master weaver and that of the master drummer and the poet-cantor. First, he explained that the weavers, whether alone or in groups, often sang to ease the tedium of long hours at the loom. Of greater significance however, is the fact that weaving, like drumming and singing, is a rhythm-based aesthetic performance. From the habit of singing songs composed by others, the musically and poetically gifted among the weavers would begin to try out their own voices and, over time, developed into composers of note. The rhythm maintained by the regular alternation of the heddles (eno) and the treadles (aforke), reinforced by the throwing and catching of the shuttle (evu), as well as the constant rhythm of the beater (exa), all provide a natural drive for the flow of song….

Beyond the aesthetic competence entailed in the application of the rhythm of weaving to the composition and performance of song, there is the more complicated factor of technical competence. Weaving is more than the application of a sense of rhythm. It requires considerable technical skills in design, possible only through a careful application of mathematical calculations combined with the architectural ability to construct organic shapes and forms from individual threads as building blocks. This process is not unlike that involved in the architectural design of the well-made song or poem.”

Click on any of the images above for a larger view.

To conclude, follow the links by clicking on any of the Ewe cloths below to view a selection of top pieces from our gallery. Looking at and thinking about the design of these cloths in terms of rhythm and structure does appear to enhance perception of the designs….

An exceptional early C20th Ewe “kente” cloth

Although rather worn and missing a couple of strips this superb Ewe man’s cloth is exceptionally elaborate and finely woven and still looks beautiful even in its present condition. Virtually every available space on the blue background is covered by either weft faced bands or very varied supplementary weft float designs. This cloth would have been the masterpiece of a very experienced master weaver working for a wealthy and knowledgeable patron. Dates from circa 1900-20. Click the image to go to our website for a larger photograph and more details.

The 1/4 million euro weaver’s pulley….

A Baule (Ivory Coast) weaver’s heddle pulley, collected in 1927, sold yesterday at Sotheby’s Paris for Euro 240,750.. more info and auctioneer’s description here

The tripod loom in Sierra Leone

Last week I was in Freetown and finally had an opportunity to see in action the distinctive tripod loom used by weavers of the Mende, Vai and neighbouring ethnic groups in the eastern half of Sierra Leone and western parts of Liberia. This is the most widely distributed of a number of  loom types that are found only in this region of West Africa (see Sierra Leone Weaving by Venice and Alastair Lamb, Roxford Books, 1984.) In the past this loom was apparently used exclusively by men, but as my photographs show, today there are also some women weavers adopting the technique.

Mrs Sia Nelson is one of a small group of around ten weavers whose looms are set up by the roadside in the small village of Grafton on the peninsular a few kilometres outside Freetown. The area was a major refugee centre during the recent civil war (1991-2000) and these weavers were displaced from their home villages in the interior and have chosen to remain. As the photos show they are weaving broad bands of quite thick cloth from machine spun thread. The simple designs are used primarily for sewing into men’s tunics, while some more complex cloths with weft float motifs are still sold at the small craft markets in Freetown and used domestically, primarily as a hanging at young women’s puberty ceremonies.

Although we can only speculate on the origin of this loom its structure appears to be a hybrid combining aspects of probably older single heddle ground loom forms (see my post here on a surviving ground loom tradition in Nigeria) with the double heddle operated by foot pedals similar to the narrow strip loom in use throughout West Africa.

Click on all photos to enlarge. All photos are copyright Duncan Clarke, 2011. Please do not re use without permission.

At one end of the loom the prepared warp bundle is tied to a small post.

At the other end some 20 metres away, the completed cloth strip is rolled up in a wheel attached to a second post.

The weaver, with his or her bench seat and tripod supporting the weaving mechanism, moves slowly along the unwoven warp towards the post as weaving proceeds. Once the post with the warp bundle is reached, a new length is unravelled from the bundle and the woven cloth rolled up on the wheel. The weaver returns the tripod and seat back to the post that holds the woven cloth strip, secures both ends to their respective posts and resumes weaving.  This process continues until the entire length of warp has been woven. This aspect of warp positioning and the movement of the weaver as weaving progresses are very similar to that of the ground loom.

However when we turn to the weaving mechanism itself close similarities with the standard West African double heddle loom are apparent. The shed (the gap between the two sets of warp threads that the weaver manipulates to allow the passage of the weft) is formed using a set of two heddles leashed to alternate warp threads and joined by a stick that acts as a rocker suspended from the tripod. The lower end of each of the heddles are tied to a foot peddle, allowing the weaver to alternate the shed using the feet, leaving the hands free to pass the weft back and forward. Each pick of the weft is then tightened using a reed or beater.

We can note four differences from the standard double heddle loom. Firstly the weaver uses only the right foot, moving it from one pedal to the other as required (the weaver on the standard loom uses both feet.) Secondly the weft is rolled in a bundle rather than held in a shuttle as is the case on the standard loom. Thirdly the rocker replaces the pulley used by most but not all weavers on the standard loom. Finally the reed is not suspended from the tripod (as it would be from the frame of a standard loom.) Instead it rests loose on the warp and is manipulated using a side handle.

As a comparison the above image, a vintage postcard taken by the African photographer W. S. Johnson in Sierra Leone around 1900-10, shows the same loom type in use 100 years ago.

“A behind the scenes look at Conversation Pieces: African Textiles from Barbara and Bill McCann’s Collection” by Carleton University Art Gallery curator Sandra Dyck

“Commemoration and Education wall”, photo copyright Barbara McCann, please do not reproduce without permission. Click for a larger view.

“In late 2008, I received an email from Barbara McCann, pitching an exhibition to Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) of African textiles drawn from her extensive personal collection. Fresh from its successful exhibition at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she was excited about showing the collection in Ottawa, where she and her husband Bill have long lived.

Like all exhibition proposals, of which the gallery receives many, we weighed this one carefully. The McCanns were no strangers to CUAG, having loaned textiles and weaving pulleys to African Art from Ottawa Collections, an exhibition we presented in 1994. Our lack of experience installing textiles (none of the current staff worked here in 1994) did give us pause, as did our desire to maintain curatorial focus (we usually show contemporary Canadian art). But we knew the collection was of excellent quality, we acknowledged there’d been too little African content in our program, and we guessed (correctly) that such an exhibition would be of interest to Carleton’s dynamic new Institute of African Studies (IAS).

The first task was to find a guest curator. We are lucky in Ottawa, in that the city affords us a rich range of scholars and experts in many fields. But we’re always keen to tap Carleton talent and so, on the advice of IAS faculty member Ruth Phillips, we approached Catherine Hale, a Carleton graduate and current doctoral candidate in the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. Catherine, whose research focuses on the material culture of the Asante peoples of Ghana, accepted our proposal and soon began meeting with Barbara McCann to learn about the collection and over time, to select for presentation approximately 60 textiles from the more than 600 in the McCann collection.

The job of installation falls to the gallery staff. As the exhibition’s co-ordinator, I was preoccupied by the daunting challenge of mounting the textiles. We’re not the Canadian Museum of Civilization – we have a tiny staff; we don’t own mannequins or any specialized display furniture; and we rarely install works that fall outside the category of “fine art,” especially large, heavy and unstructured pieces of fabric. While in Seattle on a research trip in November, however, I saw a stunning textiles exhibition at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. Their staff had invented an ingenious mounting system using standard-issue plumbing hardware that enabled them to “float” each textile off the wall. We couldn’t adapt the system to meet our needs, but it provided the seed of an eventual solution.

In December, I arranged for the transport to CUAG of Catherine’s selection of works from the McCann collection. Gallery technician Patrick Lacasse and I opened the storage containers after a 24-hour acclimatization period and examined each textile, discussing ways and means of installing it within the framework of Catherine’s curatorial vision. That first glimpse at the textiles was, for me, both exhilarating and intimidating; each work we unpacked was more wondrous than the one before it and we were anxious, as always, to accomplish the installation with utmost care and respect.

Conversation Pieces opened on Valentine’s Day and the exhibit ran until April 24.The show was dominated by three large montages that featured diverse textiles and articles of clothing that hung on dowels and suspended by wire from the ceiling, a mode of display Catherine saw as evoking the aesthetic of bustling African marketplaces. Other works were presented in wall-mounted and free-standing display cases, and on mannequins loaned by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre. The gallery space was completely transformed; visitor response to the collection and the installation has been overwhelmingly positive.

With the help of Catherine, Ruth Phillips and IAS Director Blair Rutherford, I planned a program of special events to accompany the exhibition. Pius Adesanmi, winner of the 2010 Penguin Prize for African Writing, delivered a lecture that seamlessly mixed the personal, political, theoretical, sartorial and musical (Pius was joined by his fellow Nigerians in the audience in impromptu performances of two songs). A lively panel discussion featured Catherine, Barbara McCann and textiles expert Lisa Aronson of Skidmore College in New York. Susan Vogel, founder of the Museum for African Art in New York City, came to Ottawa to screen her film Fold Crumple Crush: The Art of El Anatsui, which was followed by an illuminating discussion moderated by Adrian Harewood of CBC News Ottawa. And Barbara McCann gave tours of the exhibition to many interested community groups.

I won’t soon forget the morning Barbara first saw the installation, then in progress. She cried tears of joy. Her reaction was a harbinger of the success of the installation, exhibition, and public program, which demonstrated to me in a fresh way the risks and rewards of venturing into what was, for the gallery’s staff, terra incognita.

Sandra Dyck is the curator at the Carleton University Art Gallery”

Reproduced from: “Carleton Now”

“Power and Prestige wall.” photo copyright Barbara McCann, please do not reproduce without permission. Click for a larger view.

A Dan Chief’s Robe at Sotheby’s 13 May 2011

Lot 283A at Sotheby’s upcoming auction of African, Oceanic and pre-Columbian Art in New York on 13 May is this interesting robe, collected in Liberia between 1926 and 1930. The simple tailoring of the robe with the cut and folded pocket below the neck and the absence of distinct sleeves is characteristic of the area from Cote D’Ivoire through Liberia into Sierra Leone while the weaving is typical of Mande/Dioula cloth in some northern areas of these countries. Although there is some description of Dan weaving there is very little documentation of the patterns and styles they produced, so I am not clear whether the cloth used for this robe is the work of a Dan weaver or imported by a Dioula trader.

The estimate of USD 6000-9000 seems rather high for a robe that, however unusual in collections, is neither particularly early, nor in my view, of outstanding visual appeal.

Wearing African Textiles-part 6: an Ewe woman’s cloth

Vintage postcard, “Fantee women”, mailed 1904. The Fante, who live along the coast of Ghana to the west of Accra, do not weave themselves, but wore a wide variety of textiles locally imported from the Ewe and Asante, as well as European and Indian made fabrics. Here the lady seated at front right wears a cloth woven by a male Ewe weaver in what today is the eastern Volta region of Ghana. This type of Ewe cloth with groups of three weft face blocks rather than two, seems to be more typical of the C19th. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Ewe woman’s size cloth, circa 1900.

Our current selection of vintage Ewe cloths is online here.