African dress, like dress everywhere, communicates age, gender, occupation, ethnicity, power, and religious commitment for everyday, celebratory, ceremonial, and ritual occasions.
African dress is as varied and diverse as the historical antecedents and cultural backgrounds of the African people in fifty-five countries and more than eight hundred linguistic groups. A continent two-and-a-half times as large as the continental United States, the physical environment of Africa ranges from the deserts of the Sahara and the Kalahari, to the mountains of the Great Rift Valley, and the rain forests in West and Central Africa, as well as the arid region of the Sahel that borders the Sahara. What African people wear relates to these factors of physical environment, to external and internal trade and migration, to the influences of explorers, missionaries, and travelers and to their own creativity.
Specific information about the dress of each ethnic group comes from social, religious, and political histories, as well as oral, archaeological, trade, and mercantile records. Early evidence of dress is depicted in the rock art of northern, southern, and eastern Africa, indicating items of dress that predate contact with European, Asian, and Middle Eastern peoples.
In the twenty-first century, dress in Africa includes items fashioned from local resources and tools, such as wrappers hand woven from handspun cotton threads on handmade looms in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Mali, and Nigeria. In addition, combinations of local resources and imported materials are used, as seen in the kente wrappers woven from imported rayon or silk threads on locally made looms in Ghana.
African dress also includes imported items from worldwide sources made by complex machines and techniques (British top hats and homburgs, French designer gowns, Italian shoes and handbags, and Swiss laces along with secondhand clothing from the United States) from commercially produced materials. In addition, Africans produce their own designer garments from both imported and locally made textiles and also transform imported secondhand clothing into locally admired fashions.
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Purely indigenous items are becoming less common and therefore less often worn. Borrowed items are often creatively used and juxtaposed with other items that result in a readily identifiable ethnic style.
African residents who come from European and Asian ancestry may choose not to wear African items of dress; instead, they maintain forms of dress fashionable in the countries of their ancestors. In contrast to those who refrain from wearing African items, some non-Africans embrace them.
Dressing well for Africans involves proper conduct and elegant style, which includes appropriate apparel, cosmetics, and coiffure along with magnificent carriage, graceful movement, fastidious toilette, and immaculate garments.African dress worn every day indicates socially significant categories, but may also express personal idiosyncrasy. When Africans wear identical dress, such as uniforms or garments made from the same fabric, their garb emphasizes group affiliation and minimizes individuality. African dress is not the same as African costume. Actors and masqueraders temporarily conceal personal identity through costume, whereas in everyday life people communicate and reveal their personal identity through dress.
Dressing the Torso: Wraparound, Preshaped, and Suspended Garments
The torso is usually the focus when dressing the body, although headwear and footwear are also significant. Items of dress generally may be classified as enclosing, attached, or hand held. Enclosing dress can be subdivided into wraparound, preshaped, and suspended categories; all examples are found in Africa.
Wraparound garments are formed from rectangular pieces of fabric that are folded, crushed, or twisted around the body. Preshaped items include cut and sewn garments along with other items, such as jewelry, that are molded or cast. Most attached and many suspended enclosing items of dress are also jewelry, such as earrings and necklaces. Handheld items usually consist of accessories such as a fan, purse, cane, or walking stick.
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The wrapper, however, is probably the most frequent and popular indigenous garment in sub-Saharan Africa. For both men and women in the twenty-first century, a bare chest is not frequently seen in public, but remains an option for dressing informally at home.
Examples of wraparound garments abound. In Ghana, Asante men wear handwoven kente togas; in Ethiopia, Amharic women don handwoven shawls of sheer, white cotton; in Nigeria, Yoruba women garb themselves in indigo resist-dyed wrappers; in Zaire, the Kuba dress in raffia skirts. Other examples include several from southern Africa: Ndebele and Xhosa women wrap commercially made blankets around themselves, and Zulu men wrap skin aprons. Both sexes among the Baganda in Uganda traditionally wore bark-cloth wrappers, as did the Masai of Kenya and Somalis from the Horn of Africa; some continue the practice today.
For festive, ritual, or ceremonial occasions, Ghanaian men wear a well-known example of an African wraparound garment similar to the Roman toga. They take a large rectangle of cloth, sometimes as large as six yards square, depending on the size of the man, and wrap it full-length around the body with one shoulder uncovered. This style became internationally visible in the 1960s when the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, wore it and was photographed in it for ceremonial occasions, both at home and abroad.
Preshaped dress involves cutting and sewing lengths of cloth to make a garment fit the body. Common styles are shirts, blouses, robes, and pants, or the Hausa man's baba riga (big gown). Cross-cultural contacts influenced the design of many preshaped garments.
Men's trouser shapes vary considerably. Along with Western fashions found across the continent, indigenous fashions also abound. In Nigeria, Hausa men wear enormously large drawstring breeches with a "baba riga" over the top. Yoruba men wear both wide or narrow trousers, often as a three-piece outfit along with a robe (agbada) and shirt (dansiki). When the men's ensemble is tailored from colorful, wax-printed cotton, the Yoruba outfit is interpreted as being informal. If made from damask, lace, eyelet, brocade, or the handwoven textile of nubby, native silk that the Yoruba call sanyan (produced by a different silk worm than the Asian one), the ensemble is considered formal.
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Throughout Africa, males wear preshaped shirts and hip-length or calf-length garments with trousers or wrappers. Finishing and decorating details distinguish many of the garments as being associated with one ethnic group or another. In the Republic of Benin, Fon men's ensembles include a heavily embroidered, sleeveless tunic pleated at the neckline and flared at the hipline that they combine with embroidered trousers and an embroidered cap. In Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, Mandinka and Akan men wear garments known as war shirts and hunters' shirts. Amulets decorate these garments and are made of animal horns, claws, teeth, or packets that contain slips of paper with magical or mystical words written on them.
Enclosing garments include suspended and combination forms. Some hats are suspended by being perched on top of the head and many items of jewelry are suspended around the neck or wrist. Capes (often worn by Hausa and Fulani emirs and other royalty) are combination forms. Preshaped and stitched, they are also loosely suspended from the shoulders.
Items held by or for a person complete an African ensemble. As accessory items, these include umbrellas, canes, walking sticks, purses, handbags, fans, switches, handkerchiefs, linguist staffs, and tusks, as well as weapons such as daggers, swords, and spears. Many materials are used for these items.
Many types of body modifications and jewelry also dress the torso. Tattooing occurs among light-skinned people, like the North African Berbers, because tattoos do not show on dark skin. Instead, permanent markings in the form of scarification and cicatrization or temporary cosmetics (ochre, kaolin, indigo, henna, and chalk) decorate dark-skinned bodies.
Africans display many kinds of jewelry. Items for the torso include necklaces, armlets, bracelets, and anklets of many types, along with items that circle the waist, such as "waist beads." Necklaces vary in size and style, from large to small, fashioned from metals, beads, shells, chains, and medallions.
Key Styles in African Male Dress
Traditional African articles of clothing date back to many hundreds of years ago. Throughout the years African clothing has been modernized and changed to fit the latest fashion trends, while still keeping its unique style. Today, African clothing comes in diverse colors, design, materials and styles.
African clothing styles for men have come a long way throughout the ages. The styles are usually designed to correspond to various functions which and occasions. The style and culture of African clothes can be worn and displayed in any place or time and they make a distinctive statement about the man who chooses to wear them.
Here are some of the key styles in African male dress:
- Kangas and kitenges: Used in East Africa with T-shirts and are also often worn around the waist in hot weather.
- Kanzu: Men sometimes wear a white robe called a kanzu. These are usually referred to as African fashion.
- Kente: The most popular and the most celebrated of all African clothing styles. The Kente is made from African silk and has vibrant geometric patterns, colours and designs. Every piece of Kente has a specific meaning.
- Grand Boubou: A four-piece garment for men that is crafted and tailored specially to represent masculinity. The garment includes pants, a top, a Boubou outer garment, and a Kufi hat.
- Ghanaian smock: A plaid shirt that is similar to the dashiki and it is worn by men in Ghana. It is also called a fugu or a batakari.
- Dashiki: A colorful garment for men that can be used for both informal and formal events. It features a stunning piece of embroidery around the neck area.
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- Agbada: Agbada is the flowing robe traditionally worn by the Yoruba people across West Africa. It comes with an inner cloth of varying lengths and it also comes with a pair of bottom wear in form of native trousers called Shokoto. It also is worn most times with different caps like fila or abeti aja. Traditional Yoruba beads are often worn with it.
The Agbada is a male attire worn for special events and everyday life, depending on the extravagance of the garment. Many Agbada are made with aso oke or aso ofi fabric, but they can be made in other different fabrics including adire.
Agbada usually features native Yoruba embroidery as many times alongside the Grand knot native to the Yoruba culture. It consists of a large, free-flowing outer robe (awosoke), an undervest (awotele), a pair of long trousers (sokoto), and a hat (fìla). The outer robeâfrom which the entire outfit derives the name Agbada, meaning "voluminous attire"âis a big, loose-fitting, ankle-length garment. In which the centerpiece is usually covered front and back with an elaborated embroidery.
Modern African clothing is informal wear or attire that can be used to wear to work or to wear on a daily basis. It is African fashion in the modern era that has been merged with European styles to make it an everyday attire.
Modern African clothing for men includes items like African print skirts, trousers, jumpsuits, playsuits, etc. These African outfits are made using African wax prints or Ankara prints but are presented in a modern, stylish form.
Africans continue to wear special clothing for various African rituals and special events, although today, these outfits have a modern touch to it. African fashion design is very popular, bringing a sense of beauty into todayâs fashion industry.
Traditional African clothes have finer details and patch work which makes them unique in nature. It usually has African printed designs that are reflected on a piece of cloth. Not only does the design look classy, but it also gives a traditional look.
There are various styles available, which include articles of clothing that are Kenyan, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Senegalese, Rwandan, Ugandan, Egyptian, Kitenge, Lace, Leso, Gele, Iro, Isiagu, Kanzu, Kalasiris, etc. Each style is a reflection of its region and diversity. The ethnic styles are versatile and an informative way to visually represent what African clothing and culture is about.
Todayâs top clothing brands for men take traditional African clothing articles and give the clothes a contemporary twist to suit modern clothing, while still keeping the authentic African style.
Fortunately, if you live in Africa, there are stores worldwide that sell traditional and modern African articles of clothing. A quick search on the internet with your location is all you need. If you are unable to get to a store, online shopping is always available.
African clothing and fashion is a diverse topic that provides a look into different African cultures. Clothing varies from brightly colored textiles, to abstractly embroidered robes, to colorful beaded bracelets and necklaces. Since Africa is such a large and diverse continent, traditional clothing differs throughout each country.
A large contrast in African fashion is between rural and urban societies. In Northeastern Africa, particularly in Egypt, styles of traditional women's clothing have been influenced by Middle Eastern cultures; this can be exemplified by the simply embroidered jelabiya which are similarly worn in Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
In East Africa, the kanzu is the traditional dress worn by Swahili-speaking men. In Southern Africa, distinctive shirts are worn, like the long dresses they wear.
European influence is commonly found in African fashion as well. For example, Ugandan men have started to wear "full length trousers and long-sleeved shirts". On the other hand, women have started to adapt influences from "19th-century Victorian dress".
Rural communities have also started to incorporate secondhand western clothing into their everyday style. There exist non-profit organizations in all western societies that sell used clothes to for-profit companies in Africa.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are one of the top destinations for the import of used clothing. Although used clothing was commonly sent for the lower class communities, it is now commonly found within other social classes in Africa.
The style and culture of African clothes, even in the modern era, can be worn and displayed in any place or time and will make a distinctive statement about the man who chooses to wear them.
The following table summarizes some key aspects of traditional African male dress:
| Style | Description | Region/Culture |
|---|---|---|
| Kente | Silk fabric with vibrant geometric patterns | Ghana |
| Grand Boubou | Four-piece garment representing masculinity | West Africa |
| Dashiki | Colorful garment with embroidery around the neck | West Africa |
| Agbada | Flowing robe worn for special events | Yoruba (West Africa) |
| Kanzu | White robe | East Africa |
In conclusion, African male dress is a rich tapestry of history, culture, and style. From traditional wraparound garments to modern interpretations, these clothes reflect the diverse heritage and evolving fashion trends of the African continent.
