Clothing in Africa encompasses a wide range of dress practices, textile traditions and forms of personal adornment across the continent. These practices vary across regions and communities and have been shaped by local traditions as well as long histories of trade, migration and exchange.

African clothing traditions include both traditional and contemporary styles. Materials and traditional techniques vary across the continent. Common techniques include dyeing, weaving and beadwork. Contemporary clothing may combine locally influenced styles with global, modern influences.

North Africa In North Africa, hooded outer garments such as the djellaba and burnous are documented in Morocco and Algeria. The djellaba is a hooded robe made from locally produced or imported cloth, with the weight of the fabric varying according to seasonal conditions. The burnous, also known as a selham, is a long hooded cloak worn across North Africa and may be wrapped around the body or worn open over the shoulders.

Moroccan kaftans also reflect wider histories of textile exchange. The garment type was known in Persia and the Ottoman Empire before reaching Morocco, probably during the 16th century. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Moroccan kaftans for wealthier wearers were made from materials such as silk brocade and velvet, including luxury fabrics imported from Europe. In Tunisia, museum collections document embroidered wedding tunics known as jebbas, made from materials including silk, cotton and metal-wrapped thread.

Dress traditions in Egypt have likewise varied between regions. Smithsonian collections and exhibitions have documented embroidered dresses, cloaks, veils, belts and footwear from areas including the eastern desert, Sinai, Nubia and the oases of southern Egypt.

West Africa Across West Africa, dress traditions include narrow-strip weaving, embroidery and wide-sleeved robes. Related prestige garments are found across much of the region and are known by different names, including agbada among the Yoruba, riga among the Hausa and boubou in other parts of West Africa. Yoruba aso oke is likewise made from narrow woven strips sewn together and is used for garments including wrappers and gowns.

In Ghana, kente has been used as a prestige textile among Asante communities since at least the 17th century. It is woven in narrow strips that are sewn together to form larger cloths, and historically had strong associations with status and royal patronage. In Sierra Leone, gara tie-dye and batik traditions have used indigo-based dyeing and continued into contemporary dress.

East Africa

In East Africa, the kanga is a rectangular printed cotton cloth associated particularly with the East African coast. Historical records document a trade in kangas across Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika, as well as Zanzibar and Pemba Island. Kangas commonly combine decorative borders and central designs with inscriptions in Swahili, and are used as clothing as well as for other domestic and social purposes.

Other East African dress traditions reflect the movement of textiles and styles through regional trade networks. In Buganda, the kanzu was introduced through coastal trade during the 19th century as cotton cloth became increasingly available, while the gomesi, or busuuti, developed in the early 20th century. The gomesi incorporated elements associated with Victorian dress and became an established form of women's formal dress in Uganda.

Horn of Africa In Ethiopia, handwoven cotton dresses and tunics with embroidered or woven decoration form part of established dress traditions. A woman's dress held by the British Museum, made from Ethiopian handwoven cotton, developed from silk-embroidered tunics worn by noblewomen during the 19th century. Museum collections also document a 19th-century style of costume in which imported Chinese silk was embroidered onto cotton calico, illustrating the incorporation of imported materials into Ethiopian dress.

In Somalia, Benaadir cloth has historically been woven in Mogadishu and the surrounding coastal region. The cotton cloth was made into garments including the men's wrapped futa, a shorter shawl-like covering known as the go, and the women's guntino. Textile production in the Benaadir region was established by the early 14th century, when locally produced cloth was exported through Indian Ocean trading networks.

South Africa Clothing and fashion in South Africa reflect the country's cultural diversity and have been used to construct and express personal and social identities. Studies of South African dress have examined how clothing can communicate cultural affiliation, gender, politics and other aspects of identity.

In South Africa, shweshwe, an indigo-dyed printed cotton fabric, is used in contemporary clothing. The British Museum holds examples, including a 2012 dress by Xhosa designer Noxolo Dyobiso.

Early dress and textile traditions Before European colonization, communities in southern Africa made clothing and personal adornment from locally available materials. Among Khoikoi and San communities, garments included animal-hide aprons, skirts and cloaks, while ostrich eggshell beads were used as ornaments and were also attached to clothing.

Long-distance trade later introduced imported materials into southern Africa. At Mapungubwe, which flourished during the 13th century, archaeological evidence includes large quantities of imported glass beads, while cloth also entered the region through Indian Ocean trade networks.

Colonialism and apartheid European settlement and colonial rule from the mid-17th century increased the circulation of imported textiles and European styles of dress in South Africa. Local dress practices continued while incorporating new materials and garments introduced through colonial trade. Imported beads also became incorporated into established beadwork traditions. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Isishweshwe, an indigo-printed cotton cloth with European manufacturing origins, became widely used in southern Africa and was subsequently adapted into local dress traditions.

By the late 19th century, European-style garments including coats, hats, waistcoats and shirts were increasingly sold and worn in South African towns and working communities, alongside other established forms of dress. Late nineteenth-century sources document distinctive forms of dress among Xhosa, Basotho, Tswana and Boer communities during the colonial period.

During apartheid, clothing could function as a marker of ethnic, social and modern identities. Research on Black South African migrant miners has shown that traditional, ethnic and modern forms of dress coexisted and were used in different social settings. In October 1962, Nelson Mandela appeared at his trial wearing traditional Xhosa dress, a choice he later described as a deliberate assertion of African identity in an apartheid-era court.

Contemporary fashion After the end of apartheid in 1994, South African designers increasingly drew on local histories, cultural references and contemporary global fashion. Brands including Sun Goddess, Stoned Cherrie and Strangelove became associated with designs that combined South African cultural references with contemporary fashion forms. Designer Marianne Fassler has also incorporated South African visual and cultural references in her work. Victoria L. Rovine discusses Fassler alongside later South African designers as part of the development of a distinct contemporary fashion industry in the country.

Johannesburg's inner-city Fashion District developed as a concentration of clothing and fashion enterprises and formed part of post-apartheid local economic development initiatives. Research by Christian Rogerson described the district as a project intended to support clothing micro-enterprises and revive inner-city garment production through design and niche manufacturing. South African Fashion Week, founded in Johannesburg in 1997, created a recurring platform for South African designers to present seasonal collections and engage with buyers, media and other parts of the fashion industry.

Second-hand clothing trade

Second-hand clothing imported from Europe and North America forms part of clothing markets in several African countries. In Zambia, where second-hand clothing is commonly known as salaula, imported garments are distributed through commercial networks and are often altered or restyled to fit local preferences and norms of dress. Karen Tranberg Hansen has also described how used clothing has become incorporated into African fashion economies through resale, styling and creative reuse.

The trade has generated debate over its economic and environmental effects. Second-hand clothing can provide affordable garments and support employment in importing, sorting, tailoring, transport and retail, while governments and researchers have also raised concerns about its effects on domestic textile and garment production. In Kenya, second-hand clothing, known as mitumba, provides employment, income and affordable clothing, but has also been criticized for its effects on the domestic textile and fashion industries and for contributing to textile waste.

See also African textiles Fashion in Nigeria 1990s in African fashion 2000s in African fashion 2010s in African fashion

References

External links