African Textiles

 ‘’In age, variety and beauty, art from Africa is second to none. Africa had traditions of abstract art, performance art, installation art and conceptual art centuries before the West ever dreamed up the names.’’
                                  Holland Cotter,  New York Times.

Traditional African Textiles

Many of us picture dramatic masks, unique textiles and sculptures when we think about African Art. We recognise them for their distinctive appearance and aesthetic quality. however these objects were not made to be used solely for artistic reasons, but for social and religious purposes too.

Weaving formed part of the African culture when the slave trade took place in America. Most slaves knew how weave textiles and the slave owners would benefit off their skill and gain another income from it.

Mostly, the thread was spun by women whilst the men took care of the weaving process. They were thought how to do these things at a young age. Some of them as young as four years old.

They had believed that weaving in the night time would ‘weave silence and darkness into the cloth’ and so the process only took place in daylight. The colour of the woven cloth also had a significant meaning. For example, white cloth which was used by women healers was believed to have some link to water spirits.

Just like today, fashion textiles gives the wearer identity, the Africans also used unique textile patterns which helped them spot members from mutual or different tribes, in other words, outsiders.

Kings showed superiority through the types of cloth they wore or by the number of robes they had.

 

African textiles – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2013 [ONLINE] Available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_textiles
une collecte: North African Textiles. 2013[ONLINE] Availableat:
http://unecollecte.blogspot.com/2011/10/north-african-textiles.html