Uhuru St. in Dar es Salaam is one of the best places to go for kanga and kitenge fabrics. Kangas are the bright wrap-around cloths that Swahili women wear. They always come in two pieces, usually with various sayings written on their borders. I'd like to write more about kanga, but today I just want to post some photos of kitenge cloth, which comes in large folded bolts. Kitenge is heavier cotton cloth than kanga. Produced all over Africa and used for all kinds of fabric needs, from curtains to stuffed animals, Kitenge cloth always comes with a provenance imprint on the edge. The best is from Nigeria, and a bit more expensive.
The picture above is a web snapshot of Derek's colleague, Andy's kitenge collection. Male IST teachers wear kitenge shirts every Friday, so I've been scrambling to get some made for Derek. The snap below is from the Uhuru streets kiosks.
1 comments:
omg. those are so beautiful! we are so there!
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