Talk:Kanga (garment)

Untitled

I've started a new article here, moving the old one on kanga, kikoy and kitenge to East African garments. As I've said elsewhere, I don't particularly like that name but it was ill-named anyhow, as the article was about more than only the kanga.

Structure

This is a many-sided topic, and to write a truly good article we'll need to think about the structure from the beginning. I think we need at least information on the following topics:

• History
• Anatomy (not the best name perhaps, I mean terms like pindo, mji, jina)
• Manufacture (Where does the fabric come from? How is the print added? What kind of people make the designs?)
• Designs
• Economical background (a lot of printed textiles are imported; are there also local manufacturers?)
• The kanga as a vehicle of communication

Is that everything? And what is the best way to structure this? Thanks for weighing in! — mark ✎ 16:23, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

Illustration

I just added an illustration, see Image:kanga.png. I think I'll give it a more interesting design at a later point, but this is the idea. — mark ✎ 21:03, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

I added a photo of kangas on a clothesline that I found on Flickr. Frankly, I didn't see a lot of these until I crossed into Bukoba, but is the garment in Image:Zanzibar woman.jpg considered a kanga? - BT 14:17, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

It's difficult to see, but it might be two of them (they are often combined). However, it could just as well be some other dress. — mark ✎ 15:19, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

this article is missing some basic informatin

So how do you wear this thing??? 216.165.95.70 (talk) 20:13, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

spelling

It starts out as 'kanga' then becomes 'khanga' - which is right? Johnalexwood (talk) 00:45, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Background info dump

I used to have a subpage for this. Not anymore. So I'm dumping the information below for anyone who wants to expand the article based on the sources cited. — mark ✎ 09:57, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

• It's cheap
• Always sold in pairs (Yahya-Othman 1997:137)
• 'Women buy kangas'with the same enthusiasm that they buy other garments, often and with great care, but because kangas cost much less than, for instance, a dress, some women can afford to buy many more, and often do so 'for a rainy day'. Kangas are often exchanged as presents between women, and men may give women kangas, but very rarely the reverse.' (Yahya-Othman 1997:137)

History

• Hassan O. Ali says that Kanga's originated on the Swahili coast in the mid 19th century. However, he also notes that there are various versions of the history of the Kanga, citing the Australian journalist Troughear who doesn't think that the Kanga originated in Zanzibar. In fact, one of the most thoroughgoing studies of the Kanga, Hongoke (1993) holds that the kanga was brought to the East African coast by Indian and Arab traders around 1860. Yahya-Othman largely passes by the question of the origin, although she notes that 'the kanga was in the past confined to the coastal communities, but is now worn throughout Tanzania (1997:137).

The kanga as a vehicle of communication

• The seminal study is Hongoke (1993), which investigates over a thousand kanga messages collected over a period of time, along with over five hundred interviews with both men and women, in five regions of Tanzania. According to Yahya-Othman, Hongoke (1993) focuses predominantly on the negative role of KNs, as a source of conflict and the degradation of women (1997:141).
• Yahya-Othman 1997:138: 'The utteranceship of KNs [kanga names, md] is also demonstrated in the occasional response issuing from onlookers, as evidenced in several cases I observed where other women said (after reading the KN aloud):

Na kweli! [True indeed!]

Hapo umesema! [Now your're talking!]

Usinambie! [Don't tell me!]

Wala si uongo! [You lie not!]

• Yahya-Othman invokes Brown & Levinson's (1978) theories of indirectness and politeness, noting that the communicative act in this case is essentially and indirect one. As she says, 'the politness of KNs does not lie in the content of the message, which can be extremely blunt, aggressive and even obscene, but rather in the redressive action that the addresser takes in providing herself, and consequently her addressee as well, with an out. She has always the option of denying that she intended the KN for any particular person, and thereby save embarrassment not only to herself, but to her supposed addressee as well.' (1997:140).

Sources

• Hongoke, Christine J. (1993) The effects of Khanga inscription as a communication vehicle in Tanzania, Research report, 19. Dar es Salaam: Women's Research and Documentation Project.

  The 'khanga' (or 'kanga') is a rectangular piece of cotton cloth about one and a half metres long and one metre wide, normally printed with bold designs in bright colours. It was brought to the East African coast by Indian and Arab traders around AD 1860. Since then it has become the most popular form of dress for women in Tanzania and other parts of East Africa. The purpose of this study is to look at the 'khanga' as a vehicle of communication, that is messages are printed on the 'khanga', which have been produced in Tanzania itself since 1950. This study considers over a thousand 'khanga' messages collected over a period of time, and is also the fruit of over five hundred interviews with both men and women, in five regions of Tanzania. The analysis of discourse focuses on popular themes or issues in the society, and looks at the use or misuse to which the 'khanga' may be put. This study also led to the recordings of some of the legends and stories referred to on 'khanga', which have never before been written down, only passed on orally. 'Khanga' have proved to be powerful tools for transmitting messages, for correcting social ills, and for educating people about popular issues. They can even be a tool for maintaining peace and social stability, but they can have the opposite effect as well.

• Yahya-Othman, Saida (1997) 'If the cap fits: 'kanga' names and women's voice in Swahili society', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 51, 135-149.

  The messages that appear on 'kangas' (pieces of printed cotton fabric, worn by women in East and parts of Central Africa) are viewed as a uniquely female form of communication, and women in Zanzibar, the area covered by this study, have been making increasingly use of them as an additional strategy which allows them to make strong statements about their concerns, while at the same time avoiding any direct conflict which may arise from their individual actions. Kanga messages (often in the form of riddles or proverbs) play a significant role in the marital sphere; they allow (married) women to make their feelings known to both specific individuals (their husbands) and the wider public. This paper examines the significance of kanga inscriptions or names as manifestations of both resistance and indirectness within the lives of Swahili women. Questionnaires were administered to 36 women in Zanzibar town, asking them about the importance of kanga names as a method of communication, and why they preferred these indirect routes.

• Linnebuhr, E. (1992) 'Kanga: popular cloths with messages', Matatu, 9, 81-90

  Kanga' are colourful, message-bearing cloths worn by women in many parts of East Africa. The messages, which are in Swahili, the lingua franca, touch on important spheres of life: social and ethical norms, sex, religion and politics. Despite changing fashions, 'kanga' have retained their form since the 19th century. They are rectangular-shaped and measure about 150 cm in length and 110 cm in width. This article discusses the different ways of making use of the 'kanga', the sayings which are preferred, depending on social status and the occasion, and the themes of the message-bearing cloths. In order to explain the flourishing of 'kanga' clothing, the article considers the spread of cotton fabrics in East Africa in the 19th century. It also describes the design and production of 'kanga' and their emergence in Zanzibar. Since the mid-1980s the tradition of the 'kanga' culture has been threatened by competition from secondhand clothes from Europe. They are disappearing from the public sphere and, with them, an important means of communication.

• Beck, Rose-Marie (2001) 'Ambiguous signs: the role of the 'kanga' as a medium of communication', Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 68, 157-169.

  The 'kanga' is a printed cotton cloth frequently used as a dress by women all over East Africa. The cloth measures about 110 cm in height and 150 cm in length. It is defined by a border ('pindo') and a central field ('mji') and usually contains on the lower third a printed, proverbial inscription ('jinja'). This article deals with the communicative uses of the 'kanga'. Starting from the hypothesis that the 'kanga' indeed has communicative potential, communication is understood as social interaction, whereby the focus is not solely on meaning in a pragmatic or semantic sense, but rather on social meaning, i.e. the negotiation of relationships between the interactants in an area of tension between individual, social and cultural interests. This is shown in the first part of the analysis. The second part of the analysis describes and explains the role of the medium 'kanga' within this process of ambiguity. The article is based on material collected during two fieldwork periods in 1994/1995 and 1996 in Mombasa (Kenya) and, from 1995 onwards, in various archives in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

• Perani, Judith M. & Norma Hackleman Wolff (1999) Cloth, Dress and Art Patronage in Africa. Oxford/New York: Berg Publishers.

  Don't have much on the kanga, but cite Hilger 1995.

• Hilger, J. (1995) 'The Kanga: An examples of East African textile design', in J. Picton (ed.), The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition and Lurex. London: Barbican Art Gallery, Lund Humphries Publishers, 44-5.

  Women ... treasure their kanga. They are often given as gifts (in some regions the husband has to buy his wife four kanga every four months) and are usually kept in chests, some of them only to be worn on special occasions. Women might go out together wearing the same kanga in order to signal their frinedship and aknga have also been used as a currency. At times of financial crisis they may be pawned by the women, but only by women, since although kanga are paid for mby men they constitute part of a woman's wealth.' (p. 44)

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