African clothing and fashion is a diverse topic that provides a look into different African cultures. Since Africa is such a large and diverse continent, traditional clothing differs throughout each country. Clothing varies from brightly colored textiles, to abstractly embroidered robes, to colorful beaded bracelets and necklaces.
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 Sahelian Africa, the dashiki, Senegalese kaftan, and the grand boubou made from Bazin material are worn more prominently, though not exclusively (the Bògòlanfini, for instance, is worn in Mali). In East Africa, the kanzu is the traditional dress worn by Swahili-speaking men. In the Horn of Africa, the attire varies by country. In Ethiopia, men wear the Ethiopian suit and women wear the habesha kemis. In Somalia, men wear the khamis with a small cap called a koofiyad.
Zambia derives its name from the Zambezi River. The population in 2000 was estimated at 9.87 million. Zambia is mainly a land of immigrants.
The question of what is African or Zambian identity, culture and fashion usually come up in our public and private discussions. Mass media have been increasingly bringing to our attention the abuses and atrocities around the world inflicted on people of colour currently and historically. Therefore the world has witnessed a rise in acts of public solidarity and advocacy by concerned people around the world to end racism.
Powerful foreign forces have major influences on weaker indigenous cultures. Here I consider culture as those elements in any group that help them communicate their concepts or views. Language here is one of the major element. I am aware that the term indigenous Zambian is debatable. In this article I focus on Zambian fashion and what has influenced it over the ages.
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Zambia has no national dress. This is probably due to the concept of a nation being relatively new to Zambian indigenes. Zambian designers should see the lack of a national dress as a challenge and come up with a unifying dress.
The current depiction of Zambian national attires is in our coat of arms. On the left is a man wearing the colonial uniform of an African boy and on the left that of a female wearing the attire common among Portuguese influenced Eastern Zambia. The safari uniform and pair of shorts were those of colonial administrators. They were also the designs of uniforms of the Rhodesian police force and those of the British Administration Management Areas’ (BOMA) messengers.
Central and Southern Africa has had influences of immigrant foreign ethnic groups. The immigration of Bantu peoples from West Africa and the Nile in search of grazing land for cattle or farming has had a major effect on the precolonial social and economic development of this part of Africa. The Arabs and their agents, the Swahili, from East Africa also had a lot of influence on this part of Africa. They brought it into the global trade centring on Persia and the Indian Ocean before the arrival of Europeans in Central and Southern Africa.
We are part of the global village and now with increased travel and access to mass communication by most Zambians, we want to keep up with fashion trends around the world. Physical interactions of people of different tribes and races, the internet, television, films and commercial adverts have been mainly responsible for influencing our perceptions on fashion.
The fashion of indigenous ethnic groups has been evolving. The main factor is openness of a community to interactions with other communities. How connected is that ethnic group to its neighbours and wider regional and global communities? If a system is open, it will interact with other systems. Our Zambian communities are very open to interactions with others. International trade has had much influence on Africa. And Zambia is part of Africa.
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The original clothes of indigenes depended on the ethnic groups that they belonged to, their environment and livelihood. The original inhabitants of Zambia were the San people commonly called Bushmen (Basmen) or people of the forest (Batwa or The Twa). These were hunter gatherers that lived in small groups. They were pushed further south by Bantu and Nguni ethnic groups that came into Central and Southern Africa from East, West, North and South Africa at various times. These new groups were mostly farmers and livestock keepers.
There are tales of nudity and skimpy dressing and bare feet of the San and some Bantu people. The dressing was mostly to cover vital parts. Breasts were not considered vital parts to be hidden until indigenes started to interact with Arabs, Europeans or Christian missionaries.
Among the Bantu ethnic groups that had clothes, bark cloth and leather were used. The Nguni ethnic groups had costumes mainly out of wild and tamed animal skins. They, however, were skimpily dressed. The males wore strips of skin to cover their private parts. Many walked around bare breasted. Sometimes they would wear leather round hats or bands decorated with exotic feathers. Their male accessories were shields were made of skin and usually long. They also carried knobkerries and spears.
Like the whisk, animal skins worn by indigenes had symbolic notations. The skins of flesh eating ferocious animals were mainly for male costumes. Lions’ and leopards’ skins were usually worn by clan leaders. The lion skin being reserved for the top leader. Skins for Animal skins, hooves and horns are used in traditional medicines. They can be worn, for example, to repel away bad spirits or for good luck.
When humans lived in close-knit communities in the African savannah, long before modern civilization, they didn’t wear T-shirts or trousers, or shorts. Their attire was very simple, not unlike that of the San people in the Kalahari Desert.
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Nowadays, people wear specific clothing that identifies them as belonging to a particular place or culture. This, in essence, becomes their cultural attire. Many countries have their own cultural attire commonly referred to as national costumes.
Zambia, unfortunately, doesn’t have a single national costume, owing to its many tribes. Instead, it has a variety of traditional costumes. For example, the Lozi people of Western Zambia have their traditional dress, which is different from that of the Bemba people of Northern Zambia. I should however point out that these dresses are both made from the same material called chitenge.
The Chitenge: A Prominent Fabric in Zambian Fashion
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The chitenge, also known as African wax print, originates from outside Africa - Indonesia. It was brought to Africa by West African soldiers serving in Indonesia in the 1800s. Fascinated by batik wax print designs, the soldiers returned home with fabrics for sale. Africa proved to be a ripe market for batik fabric, and in no time, they spread across the continent. Eventually, Africans incorporated their designs into the fabric to make them look more African. In Zambia, for example, clothes made from chitenge tend to have colors that resemble those of the national flag (green, red, black, and orange).
The chitenge (or kitenge) is an African garment similar to the sarong, often worn by women, wrapped around the chest or waist, over the head as a headscarf, or as a baby sling. Chitenges have an edging only on a long side and are worn in most central and southern African countries by men and women alike. Chitenges serve as an inexpensive, informal piece of clothing that is often decorated with a huge variety of colours, patterns and these days even political slogans. Many of the designs have a meaning or written message.
- In most of rural Southern Africa, the chitenge is customary as everyday dress, at funerals and official rituals and ceremonies. They provide functionality and modesty for the women.
- They are used as a sling to hold a baby across the back or front of a mother, particularly when breast feeding. They also serve as baby blankets.
- Chitenges are given as gifts to women of all ages.
- They are sometimes tied together and used for décor on dinner tables or ground coverings at picnics.
- In contemporary times, women often use the chitenge wrapped around a bathing suit.
The chitenge attire is a very rudimentary form of dress code. It’s essentially a piece of cloth, about two meters in length, that women wrap around their lower body. In most cases, the width of the chitenge is long enough to cover the woman from her waist to her ankles. Sometimes, women wear it on the head to cover their hair. This is most common during funerals because it’s a gesture of respect. Other women use it as a base or cushion when carrying a load on their heads.
If you walk in any Zambian town, you’ll notice that three in five women are wearing chitenge. Traditionally, women or girls wear chitenge to show respect. It’s looked down upon for women to show too much of their thighs. This might explain why the chitenge attire hasn’t run out of fashion (nor will it any time soon), as no woman wants to be perceived as disrespectful.
It’s not uncommon for women to wear a mini-skirt or shorts and then cover all that with chitenge. Clothing companies have also taken advantage of the ongoing popularity of the chitenge by creating dresses, trousers, and shirts out of the material. These commercial clothes aren’t meant for women alone, but also for men. It’s now fashionable for men to rock chitenge T-shirts. Other pieces that have been designed from chitenge include shoes, handbags, scarves, and jewelry.
When asked why she uses the chitenge in most of her designs, Byenda Nkwanda, who happens to be the founder and head designer of Golden Traib, a Zambian fashion brand said that the chitenge is not a fad but something that will only grow in popularity over time. She also added that beyond its beautiful colors and patterns, the chitenge is a constant reminder of her African identity. For Nkwanda, there’s a deeper meaning to wearing the chitenge. As she says, “[In people wearing the chitenge outfit], I see power, I see history, I see people who are unafraid to stand up and stand out.”
Although the chitenge in its most basic form is usually worn by women in the streets, the dresses and tops made out of the material are worn by executive women in offices and at conferences. Public figures such as TV personality Lulu Haangala and all Zambian first ladies from Betty Kaunda to Esther Lungu and now Mutinta Hichilema have all worn the chitenge on many occasions. The former Vice President, Inonge Wina has also made the chitenge a dominant outfit in her wardrobe. No doubt the chitenge has transcended its reputation of being the type of clothing only worn by poor women in the streets or the village.
One Instagram user, Chinyanta Kabaso, decided to spotlight the rich heritage of each African culture by highlighting the beauty of their traditional dress. The Zambian dancer, creative, and former Miss Africa Great Britain started out by styling a collection of outfits inspired by traditional African clothing worn by women in several regions of the continent.
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.
For example, many countries in West Africa have a "distinct regional dress styles that are the products of long-standing textile crafts in weaving, dyeing, and printing", but these traditions are still able to coexist with western styles. 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 Southern Africa, distinctive shirts are worn, like the long dresses they wear. The Republic of South Africa, with an estimate of more than 57 million people from countless backgrounds, ethnicities and religions, holds in it an immense cultural diversity that is expressed through the vast array of topics ranging from cuisine, music, languages to celebrations. Fashion, connecting closely with one's daily life, also plays a crucial role in the identification of South Africa's culture and people, merely as it does every elsewhere in the world.
One of the earliest vestiges of South African attire was traced back to around 2000 years ago when Middle Paleolithic population descendants, the Khoisan, settled in Cape Peninsula in the south-western extremity of the African continent. These people were divided into two groups: the hunter-gatherers San and the pastoral herders Khoikoi. Without foreign contact, garments and cloth were unavailable for them to import. Instead, these early settlers altered available resources such as game and domestic animals' softened skin, and sometimes, plants and ostrich eggshell for attire making. In addition to these sources, the introduction of metal also gave them more choices for fashion.
The arrival of the Khoisan people were followed shortly after by groups of Bantu peoples, who, through the Bantu expansion, ended up with conflict and occupied the land of the Khoisan people, forcing them into dispersion and absorption into the Bantu-speaking community. The settlement of Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa resulted in the formation of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, from 900 to 1300 A.D., that flourished with trades from other foreign regions for gold and ivory in the exchange of clothes, glass bead and Chinese porcelain.
Colonization starting from the mid seventeenth century undoubtedly changed South Africa in all aspects, and fashion together all those changes was influenced heavily by the arrival of new materials from Europe as well as the Eurocentric view about the body and clothing, perceiving that South Africans dressed like necked imposed changes on traditional fashion of these indigenous groups of people. Traditional clothing made with local materials were incorporated with new style and items from Europe.
In the early nineteenth century, glass beads and plastic beads from Europe added new materials to the traditional collection of materials that South African indigenous people used to make beadworks. Around the late nineteenth century, Isishweshwe fabric was introduced to South Africa through importation from England and Germany. The cloth was made with indigo dye and later, with a synthetic form of indigo dye with a range of colors ranging from blue and red to maroon and brown, associated with decorations from replicated and orderly organized geometric patterns.
Isishweshwe slowly blended itself to the fashion world of South African people, appearing on clothing of working-class people, rural women and male soldiers. Though popular, because it was imported from other countries, it was not recognized as unique to African fashion until 1982 when a South African company, Da Gama Textiles, began producing the cloths helping make it be considered a representative fabric of South Africa.
With the influence of colonizers, Western fashion came to rule over South Africa with educated class people preferring Edwardian top coats and hats. During this era of classifying people by their ethnicities and races, unique dress of each South African indigenous community served to make that community distinct.
However, besides that, wearing traditional dress also acted as a way for South African coloured people to express their resistance and displeasure with the government ruled by a minority of white people. Traditional clothes were worn by leaders such as Nelson Mandela, who put on a Xhosa traditional garment, in 1962 in his trial for attempting to overthrow the government. The expression of his identity as a true South African person spoke for the aggression in resistance and asking for one's won control of one's country.
While traditional dresses were worn as part of expressing one's identity, South African fashion in the apartheid period witnessed the continuing growth of influence from European fashion. Pre-apartheid fashion in South Africa depended heavily on European fashion import whereas post-apartheid fashion celebrated one's ethnicity through many South African designers bringing a touch of Africa to European style clothing. One noticeable example is Marianne Fassler who incorporated leopard-print with clothing in European style.
After the apartheid period ended in 1994, South African traditional dresses continue to be the way to express pride in one's nation and identity as well as an enormous source of inspiration for famous fashion brands such as Sun Goddess, Stoned Cherrie and Strangelove. Pieces such as head wraps and A-line skirt inspired by Xhosa people from the nineteenth century were brought back on the runway. South African fashion is a coming together of different style, culture and response to social circumstances.
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". These styles include: "long sleeves and puffed shoulders, a full skirt, and commonly a colorful bow tied around the waist". This style of dress is called a busuti.
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. Secondhand clothing is found in everyday apparel for many people, regardless of their class difference. This is because there was always a variety of clothing and it was a good price.
An impact that one would commonly not think of is the resale of imported western clothing. South Africa, among other nations, has created legislation of imported or donated goods in order to curb the resale of the donated items. Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Kenya and Malawi had to completely ban the importation/donation of second hand clothes in order to try to control the resale.
Another negative impact commonly argued is that the importation of western clothing leaves a negative impact on local clothing producers. However, the opposite side of the argument believes that the high importation creates new jobs for the people living in the port cities. These jobs include the sorting, washing, re-tailoring and transporting of the clothes to the markets.
Another impact that could be argued either negatively or positively, is that secondhand clothing has become more common to wear than classic African textiles. In Zambia, where it is known as salaula, secondhand clothing has basically become a new type of traditional clothing. Zambian cities are full of used clothing markets, which are extremely successful. Since Zambians have been wearing more western clothes, traditional textiles and crafts have seemed to become scarce.
While Senegal and Nigeria prefer to "follow long-standing regional style conventions, dressing with pride for purposes of displaying locally produced cloth in "African" styles". It can be argued that Zambia is losing a piece of its culture by wearing only western styles or even that people in Senegal and Nigeria are not open minded enough to try to incorporate western styles into their fashion.
Table: Key Aspects of Zambian Traditional Attire
| Aspect | Description |
|---|---|
| Origins | Influenced by various African cultures, European colonization, and Indonesian fabrics. |
| Chitenge | A versatile fabric used for clothing, head wraps, baby slings, and more. |
| Symbolism | Traditional clothing often expresses identity, resistance, and cultural pride. |
| Modern Fashion | Zambian designers blend traditional elements with contemporary styles. |
| Secondhand Clothing | The salaula market introduces Western styles but also impacts local textile production. |
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