African Textiles in Close Up #2: a Sierra Leone robe.

In my last post I looked at two rare embroidered robes from Liberia or Sierra Leone in the British Museum collection. Today I turn to a third robe, also from Sierra Leone, that is in an even more unusual style. The vast majority of robes from the region were tailored from either plain or simple warp stripe patterned cotton cloths in shades of white, brown and indigo. They can be distinguished from other West African robes by their distinctive front pockets and their overall design – according to Venice Lamb there were two styles: a simple sleeveless tunic called in Sierra Leone  kusaibi, and a more complex sleeved robe called a duriki ba. A very few  surviving examples (two of which we looked at) were embroidered and fall into a group that Bernhard Gardi in his important book Le Boubou – c’est chic calls Manding robes.

However there remains an even smaller number of robes from the same region tailored from the elaborately patterned kpoikpoi cloths for which Sierra Leone weavers were so notable. This robe, part of the British Museum’s Beving collection, was collected at least by 1913 and most probably dates from the second half of the nineteenth century. It was apparently (Lamb 1984:136) collected in Bonthe region, Sierra Leone. It is among less than ten robes I am aware of that have been made from kpoikpoi cloths.

The structure is simple – an existing small cloth is simply folded in half width ways, a neck hole made, and a patch pocket added at the front. This results in a robe made up of seven strips of cloth, each around 18cm in width, and a total size of  124 cm width by 96cm length. The pocket is made from a square piece of cloth, one and a half strip widths in size, with the small corner fold typical of robes from the region. The lower half of each side is sewn up with the rest left open to create armholes. However in marked contrast to this simple tailoring the cloth used to create this robe is exceptionally elaborate. On the pocket detail above we can see blocks of thicker indigo dyed thread inserted as supplementary weft floats half way across the strip in sufficient quantities to distort the flow of the ground weft into a curved pattern. This is just one of the many variations used in a way that seems to me to suggest a deliberate echo of the embroidery patterns normally found on the pocket and chest areas of prestige robes. In particular when we look at the back of the robe we see that the small block of checkerboard pattern largely concealed by the pocket is repeated.

Elsewhere we see the use of tapestry weave techniques to create distinctive triangular patterns that are a feature of the more complex styles of Sierra Leone weaving.

The detail above from the lower left of the back also shows some of the remarkable variation in weft stripe placement and simple variants of the weft float patterning the weaver has utilised. To me though the most interesting feature, and the strongest evidence that this cloth was woven to order with its use as a robe planned is the contrast in colour between the front and the back. On the front of the robe white is the dominant colour, but on the back there is a preponderance of light blue indigo dyed thread. The pattern diverges at the fold in the centre of the cloth, yet the strips used are continuous, strongly suggesting that it was woven with this use in mind. We can see this in the photograph below where the two sides are shown together (please excuse the inept photoshop.)

Can anything useful be said about the ethnic origin of this robe ? Venice Lamb published it (1984:137) with a caption ascribing it to the Vai ethnic group, but in the text is much less certain noting only “It is possible that this garment is an example of Vai inventiveness in weaving.”  However I am not convinced that there is sufficient evidence to distinguish Vai weaving from that of the larger group of Mende weavers.  Easmon (1924:22) noted that kpoikpoi cloths were “essentially a Mende cloth, and is also made by the Gallinas [Vai]”. Very few of the small number of early Sierra Leone cloths in museum collections have any detailed collection data and where they do it is not generally sufficient to confirm that the piece was woven in the same place as it was collected. Prestige cloths and prestige robes were important trade goods and may well have been traded a considerable distance from their place of origin. Bonthe, where this cloth was collected, was mainly inhabited by Sherbro people . We might also note that the whole process of assigning a particular cloth style to a particular ethnic group is extremely problematic.

All photographs above by Duncan Clarke. Click on the photos to enlarge.

“Dyeing cotton in indigo, 1946. Igbomina Yoruba, Nigeria.”

The British Museum’s online catalogue has recently been revamped with a much more intuitive and user friendly search procedure that allows rapid access to much of their vast collections, including their photography holdings. A recent browse turned up this fine image of a Yoruba woman indigo dyer at work in the small town of Omu Aran east of Ilorin. This was once a major centre of Igbomina Yoruba women’s weaving and the photograph shows skeins of dyed thread hanging up to dry in the background. It was taken in 1946. Museum reference number is Af,B61.8. The photographer is not listed. Image copyright The Trustees of the British Museum.

Click on the image to enlarge. Visit the British Museum collections database here.

Akwete Cloths in the British Museum

The Beving Collection in the British Museum is without doubt the most important collection of nineteenth century and early C20th African textiles. Among its highlights is a remarkable group of cloths from the town of Akwete in south eastern Nigeria. Akwete is on the southern fringes of the Igbo speaking area of Nigeria and its women wove cloths that were traded throughout the Niger delta, both as formal dress and for use on various ceremonial occasions. The Akwete loom is the widest variant of the upright single heddle loom with a continuous circular warp that was used in many parts of Nigeria. The cloths woven were up to 120 cm in width allowing them to be worn as a single panel rather than the two joined panels that were more typical of Nigerian women’s weaving.

Postcard, CMS Bookshop, Lagos, 1960s. Author’s collection.

Photo source: Vintage Nigeria. The loom has been moved outside to be photographed.

Photo source: Vintage Nigeria.  Circa 1960s.  Two cloths were worn overlapping each other.

The Beving Collection

“There were two generations of Charles Beving.
Charles Beving senior was a West Africa trader born in Baden (he was Christened Karl), born in 1858. He worked from Manchester in the cotton business, first as a trader, trading in Africa for all but a few months every two years. He became partner in a cotton printing company Blakeley & Beving, and later owned his own company Beving & Co, apparently at a late stage in his career. He is listed in the 1891 Manchester census as 'Africa Merchant' and in 1901 as 'merchant and calico printer'. He died in 1913. He formed for his company a large collection of items, largely textiles, from West Africa and Indonesia, as specimens on which his firm might model its productions for the African market.
This collection was donated to the Museum in 1934 by his eldest son, Charles Adolphus Beving, on behalf of Messrs Beving & Co of Manchester, with the request that it be known as the 'Charles Beving collection' in his father's memory (see letter on file). Braunholtz states that the collection was formed by Beving senior, and there is no reason to think that the son ever made additions to the collection. All items in it therefore have a secure dating before 1913, which makes this one of the earliest documented collections of African textiles.”

From the British Museum site.  All cloths below are part of the Beving Collection and can be assumed to date from before 1913. All are woven from imported cotton thread.  Images © Trustees of the British Museum. For further information on any cloth the file name gives the museum reference number and may be looked up in the “Research the Collections” section of the museum site.

 

For more information on Akwete weaving see:

Lisa Aronson -  "Akwete Weaving: Tradition and Change" in Engelbrecht, B. & Gardi, B. eds. Man Does Not Go Naked (Basel, 1989)

Lisa Aronson - "We weave it:" Akwete Weavers, their patrons, and Innovation in a Global Economy. in Tornatore, S. ed. Cloth is the Center of the World: Nigerian Textiles, Global Perspectives. (2001)

Venice Lamb & Judy Holmes – Nigerian Weaving (Shell, 1980)

Exhibition: Social fabric African textiles today–at The British Museum

Social fabric
African textiles today

Textiles of southern and
eastern Africa

14 February – 21 April 2013
Free

“The rich fabric of African printed and factory-woven textiles reflects changing times, fashions and tastes. From eastern to southern Africa, the social and historical significance of these beautiful and diverse materials are also reflected in the identities of those who wear them.

This exhibition takes a fresh look at the history, manufacture and continuing social significance of these textiles – the designs of which depict the convergence of African tastes and patronage with strong historical and contemporary trading ties from across the globe. The cultural and social significance of these textiles have also influenced some of the region’s foremost contemporary artists and photographers – including Georgia Papageorge, Karel Nel, Peterson Kamwathi and Araminta de Clermont.

These textiles – including kanga from Kenya and Tanzania, capulana from Mozambique, and shweshwe from southern Africa – mirror changing times, fashions and tastes. They provide a detailed chronology of the social, political, religious, emotional and sexual concerns of the (mainly) women who wear them. Their patterns and inscriptions also vary according to the age of the wearer and the context in which the cloth is worn. This unspoken language may be used to suggest thoughts and feelings which cannot be spoken. They are worn in secular and sacred contexts and play a central role in all of the major rite-of-passage ceremonies in women’s and, in some cases, men’s lives.

The exhibition contributes to the small but steadily growing body of research into these relatively neglected African textile traditions.”

Photo: From the series ‘A New Beginning’
© Araminta de Clermont, Cape Town, South Africa, 2009–2010

Eyo Masqueraders, openwork shawls and early aso oke.

Eyo or Adamorisha, is the signature masquerade performance of Lagos island, still enacted as an annual festival event. Today the performers wear imported white lace robes and veils but images from the early colonial era , above, show a combination of agbada gowns in various colours with locally woven openwork aso oke cloths similar to the two now very rare C19th examples shown above. We can imagine the performers borrowing women’s shawls from wives or mothers for this purpose, and that there participation in the spiritually charged performance added an additional layer of meaning to the textiles.

For more details on the shawls please visit out Nigerian men’s weaving gallery here. For robes see our agbada gallery.

The second masquerade picture above is in the British Museum, ref Af,A51.75. Other images authors collection.

Sierra Leone Heritage resources site online

“The SierraLeoneHeritage.org digital resource is the main output of a research project entitled ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage: Digital Repatriation, Knowledge Networks and Civil Society Strengthening in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’. The project is being funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of its Beyond Text programme and is being directed by Dr Paul Basu of University College London. The project’s Informatics team is being led by Dr Martin White of the University of Sussex.

The ‘Reanimating Cultural Heritage’ project is concerned with innovating digital curatorship in relation to Sierra Leonean collections dispersed in the global museumscape. Building on research in anthropology, museum studies, informatics and beyond, the project considers how objects that have become isolated from the oral and performative contexts that originally animated them can be reanimated in digital space alongside associated images, video clips, sounds, texts and other media, and thereby be given new life. At the project’s heart is a series of collaborations between museums including the Sierra Leone National Museum, the British Museum,Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow Museums, the World Museum Liverpool, and the British Library Sound Archive. The project has also engaged in capacity building activities in the cultural sector in Sierra Leone and has commissioned the production of videos on cultural heritage themes from Sierra Leonean partner organisations including Ballanta Academy of Music, iEARN-Sierra Leone, and Talking Drum Studios.

Another key objective of the project has been to integrate web-based social networking technologies into the digital heritage resource in order to (re)connect objects in museum collections with disparate communities and to foster reciprocal knowledge exchange across boundaries. Visitors to SierraLeoneHeritage.org can thus become part of its community, contribute comments, engage in discussions, and upload their own images and videos.

Historically, cultural heritage has been a low priority in Sierra Leone. The hope is that by reanimating these dispersed collections and the differently-situated knowledges that surround them, Sierra Leone’s rich cultural heritage can be better appreciated and contribute to the reanimation of Sierra Leonean society more generally.

For more information please contact info@sierraleoneheritage.org “

Of particular interest to this site is the wonderful collection of videos, including a good explanation of tripod loom weaving. Also searching for “textiles” or “costume” brings up images of the majority of Sierra Leone country cloths in UK museum collections (although not unfortunately the important group at the Horniman Museum, London.) The pictures are too small but at least it gives a glimpse of the collections online, some for the first time.

West African Robes in the British Museum collection

This rare Liberian robe acquired by the British Museum from Henry Christy in the 1860s (click on the photo for more details) is one highlight among many of what must surely be the world’s most comprehensive and important collection of West African robes. Already numbering several hundred items it was recently augmented by the purchase of the Heathcote collection from David Heathcote, the scholar of Hausa embroidery (search the database using his name in the “Provenance” field to bring up 390 items in this collection, including robes, hats, trousers, embroidery samples etc. ) Derived from north African prototypes these robes are historically linked to the spread of Islam throughout much of West Africa in the course of the 2nd millennium C.E. Together with the related crafts of embroidery and narrow strip loom weaving their distribution closely followed patterns of long distance trade that were dominated by Muslim members of such peoples as the Mande and Hausa. (The relationship between narrow strip weaving and Islam in West Africa is a complex one that I may address in a later post.) Called boubou in Francophone literature and tobe in early Anglophone travellers’ reports, these elaborate man’s gowns were much admired by European visitors to the region and many early examples have found their way to the British Museum.

The best known regional style of robe tailoring and embroidery was the embroidered “riga” associated with the C19th Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria although it had, and in modern versions still has, a much wider distribution as an important style of male prestige dress across a large area of West Africa. The example shown above was woven from magenta dyed waste silk (alharini in Hausa, alaari in Yoruba) from the trans-Saharan trade and was part of the late C19th Beving collection. It retains an early label reading: 'Gown made from strips woven on a narrow loom with European waste silk yarns. Embroidered round neck with green European thread. Lined throughout with strips of native woven cloth of indigo and white yarns and around the hem with native woven cloths of grey waste silk yarns.' Throughout the Hausa, Nupe and Yoruba regions of Nigeria magenta silk formed a key component of a triumvirate of prestige fabrics along with beige local wild silk (Hausa tsamiya, Yoruba sanyan) and a fine indigo dyed check or plaid (Hausa saki, Yoruba etu.) Among the many early examples in the British Museum collection the three saki robes below show increasing degrees of elaboration in the classic Nigerian embroidery design known as “eight knives” (Hausa aska takwas.) [click on photos to go to the object records.]

The British Museum collection is also rich in more rare robe styles, several examples of which we show below.

Boubou tilbi, Djenne region, Mali

Boubou lomasa, Soninke people, Mali

Boubou Manding, Liberia/Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone, Mende or Sherbro people

For more information on West African robes consult the following sources:

Gardi,B. Le Boubou - c'est chic. (2002) – a superb and beautiful book.

Gardi,B. "La broderie" in Bedaux, R. & van der Waals, J. eds Djenné: une ville millénaire au Mali (1994)

Heathcote, D. "Aspects of Embroidery in Nigeria" in Picton,J. ed. The Art of African Textiles (1995) -see bibliography for Heathcot's numerous other articles on Hausa embroidery.

Perani,J. "The Cloth Connection: Patrons and Producers of Hausa and Nupe Prestige Strip-Weave"in History, Design, and Craft in West African Strip-Woven Cloth (1992)

Perani,J. & Wolff,N. "Embroidered Gowns and Equestrian Ensembles of the Kano Aristocracy." in African Arts 25(3) (1992)

Prussin, L. Hatumere: Islamic Design in West Africa (1986) Chapter 8

Worden, S. "Prestige Robes of the Hausa-Fulani in Liverpool Museum" in Text 30 (2002)

To see our some of our current stock, which primarily consists of early Nigerian robes, click here.

A postscript to my Sierra Leone trip

The National Museum in Freetown is, as might be anticipated in the aftermath of the recent war, in a somewhat forlorn and neglected condition.It does however have a young and enthusiastic guide and is still worth a visit. Among the more interesting of the few older artefacts on display I was surprised to see two men's caps of a rare type I had previously only seen in the on-line collections database of the British Museum. One of the things I want to do with this blog is to highlight the many treasures of African textile design that the opening up of museum stores through on-line access is making available. I will be doing a post soon on accessing the British Museum textiles as their search database is far from intuitive. In the meantime this seems an appropriate pretext to show four of these obscure hats from the British Museum collection.

All of these pieces are part of the Charles Beving collection that was assembled by the Manchester cotton merchant in the late C19th and can be dated at the latest to before his death in 1913. Unfortunately there is no specific information on the origins of the hats. I has assumed them to be from Senegal or Gambia but the presence of others ( also apparently without documentation) in Freetown does suggest perhaps a wider distribution along what used to be known as the Guinea Coast.

The description that accompanies the hats on the British Museum site refers to supplementary weft float decoration, which is the predominant decorative technique used in West African weaving. However I suspect that at least some, if not all, the decorative patterns are embroidered rather than woven. This type of patterning recalls Hispano-Moorish designs that were woven for centuries by enslaved Africans on the Portuguese-ruled islands of Cape Verde for trade on the Guinea Coast, from where they were introduced also to Mandjak weavers in Guinea Bissau. In turn these highly prized cloths seem to have played a role in inspiring a tradition of resist dyed indigo cloths, found in St. Louis in Senegal in particular, in which an imported damask was embroidered with a complex design, the cloth was dyed with indigo, then the embroidery was painstakingly removed to leave a white undyed pattern. I will discuss these resist dyed cloths in a future post. Here I show a detail from an extremely rare cloth, also from the Beving collection and therefore contemporary with the hats, on which a strip woven cloth is decorated with embroidery in the same style of "woven" patterns.

According to the collector's notes this cloth is a Maninka piece from Gambia, called a "baybayo" that was worn as a breast cover cloth by unmarried women. "Baybayo" is translated as "whose mother lives."