Kanga Cloths at Vlisco

Kanga cloths have been central to the lives of east Africans for over a century, serving primarily as affordable wrappers for the majority of women. Existing scholarship on kanga design has focused on the communicative potential of texts on these affordable, printed cloths (Yahya-Othman 1997; Beck 2000, 2001, 2005; Parkin 2000, 2003; Ong'oa-Morara 2014). Discussions of design are largely anecdotal and do not chronicle change over time (Trillo 1984; Amory 1985; Spring 2005; Zawawi 2005; Bijl 2006; Ong'oa-Morara 2014). This essay utilizes over 5,000 examples of full-cloth kanga cloth, chronicling the design and production of Vlisco, the Dutch textile printer in Helmond, the Netherlands (Figs. 1a–b). Specific regional demands, changing text script, and innovations such as commemorative, advertising, and overtly political kanga can be dated. Women's unceasing demand for new designs is often repeated anecdotally; this study offers analysis of representative designs alongside growing numbers of imports to give specificity and weight to these assertions across the colonial period.Port cities of the Swahili coast have long been cosmopolitan in nature, with global links increasing in frequency across the nineteenth century (Arabindan-Kesson 2014; Meier 2009, 2016; Longair 2018). Kanga cloth developed and flourished in this Swahili world, and the cities of Mombasa, Zanzibar, and Dar es Salaam served as coastal entrepot for inland distribution of kanga. These cities can be used to determine differing regional demands within east Africa, as each belongs to different political regions during the colonial era, ca. 1880s–1960s. Mombasa was part of British East Africa (1895–1920); then the Protectorate of East Africa, administered by the British (1920–1963); then independent Kenya (1963–). Dar es Salaam was part of German East Africa (1885–1919); then Tanganyika Territory, administered by the British (1916–1961); then independent Tanganyika (1961–1964); then union with Zanzibar to form Tanzania (1964–). Zanzibar is an island previously ruled by the Omani sultanate (1698–1897, with a resident sultan from 1832 or 1840), until it became a British protectorate in 1890. Zanzibar merged with Tanganyika in 1964 following the Zanzibar Revolution, and today remains a semiautonomous region within Tanzania.Such varied colonial rule enabled textile printers working through changing merchant-converter firms and local Indian kanga designers and sellers to flourish. In the case of Tanzania, for example, between 1890 and 1914, German merchant converters such as Hansing & Co. handled kanga imports to German East Africa, commissioning Dutch textile printers in greater numbers than British. Leading Dutch textile printers at this time included Vlisco (P.F. van Vlissingen), HKM (Haarlemsche Katoen Maatschappij or Haarlem Cotton Company), and LKM (Leidsche Katoenmaatschappij or Leiden Cotton Company). This shifts to parallel the changing political and administrative rule: between 1920–1949, the British imported more kanga than Dutch printers, through the hands of British merchant converters such as Smith Mackenzie Ltd.At midcentury, however, the Japanese dominated the kanga trade. From 1950 through 1981, Japanese printers such as Daido Senko imported vastly greater numbers than European printers. They did so through Japanese merchant converters, such as C. Itoh and H. Nishizawa Shoten, Ltd. Such Japanese success was made possible by working with local kanga designers and sellers of Indian descent, such as Kassamali Gulamhussein Peera. These locals often surveyed coastal women for their preferences; paid women in kanga for their ideas, especially for new sayings; and used a reservation system to presell new designs before delivery.1 Designers employed by textile printers may have physically drawn kanga designs, but they did so on the ideas, suggestions, and guidance of local experts. Kanga sellers of Indian descent maintained close consultations with women consumers, who were the ultimate arbiters of success (Ryan 2018a).2Dutch printer Vlisco continued to work with British merchant converters, such as Smith Mackenzie, who in turn collaborated with local Indian merchants such as Jiwan Hirji (also spelled Jivan Hirji). The British ceased kanga production in the late 1950s, followed by the Dutch in the late 1960s, when domestic kanga production commenced in Tanzania in support of socialist rule, called ujamaa. Tanzania with investment from China founded Urafiki (or Friendship) Textile Mill in 1967, which is a vertically integrated cotton processing, spinning, weaving, and printing manufacturer in Dar es Salaam that still exists today. Protectionist policies led to Japan serving as the sole importer of kanga, though at reduced numbers, throughout the 1970s. When first president Julius Nyerere abandoned socialist policies in 1985 and voluntarily stepped down, a new era of importers filled the demand for kanga from the late 1980s and beyond.This essay uses kanga import numbers specific to Tanzania and focused analysis of the production of one printer, Vlisco. These limitations restrict large, overarching conclusions of all kanga design. For example, Japanese kanga imports dwarfed Dutch imports to Tanganyika/Tanzania in the 1950s and 1960s, with Japan responsible for over 13 million at its peak in 1955, compared with about 1 million Dutch kanga printed in the same year.3 It is possible that each manufacturing nation, textile printer, commissioning merchant-converter firm, or local Indian merchant designer had their own style. At the very least, the production run of multiple printers as well as import numbers to multiple destinations would be necessary to gain a fuller picture. But the survival of entire production histories is rare when printers shut down, making Vlisco's archive an invaluable resource. Today, Vlisco continues to produce wax and fancy prints for the West and Central African markets and the diaspora. They retain their previous production runs as part of the company archive. Vlisco printed kanga for the east African market from 1876–1971 and holds over 5,000 full-cloth samples from 1895 until production of new kanga cloth designs ceased in 1967.4 Utilizing their historic kanga designs presents opportunities for insight; such object-based analysis deepens our understanding of design trends and evolution to today's designs conventions.Kanga cloths display colorful, graphic designs and are a common sight today across wide swaths of east Africa. This essay focuses on Tanzania and Kenya, where the textiles are referred to as kanga in Tanzania and leso in Kenya (Fig. 2). These cloths, typically wrapped when worn, serve as staple items of women's attire and household use. Kanga textiles are mass-produced, industrially printed cloths (Fig. 3). They are sold in pairs of identical cloths, each measuring about which largely to a a central graphic or in by a with a Swahili or Swahili often or at women these to the of with and (Yahya-Othman 1997; Beck 2000, 2001, 2005; Parkin 2000, 2003; Ong'oa-Morara 2014). are with of from designs, and to political or political and each of kanga cloth for their in or and of and printing Spring 2005; Bijl 2006; Ong'oa-Morara textiles are of east African or Swahili by and to their and with in east African women's lives (Trillo 1984; Amory 1985; Spring 2005; Zawawi 2005; Ong'oa-Morara 2014). They are often the first cloth in which a is wrapped and the cloth in which a or is for In regions of Africa, kanga during and are often to at to their kanga cloths are with and that change their with new kanga of kanga can be used to from to with and through printed on kanga cloth as a and imported (Fig. 2001, 2006; Ong'oa-Morara 2014; Meier It is a of industrially cotton cloth that from and new in production that to serve the east African textile market in the late nineteenth century (Ryan European first printed kanga cloth in the and to the demands of women in cities of the Swahili coast (Ryan and women this imported which enabled to previous of affordable cloth, became with cloth and in of designs and women first to a in the and local Indian merchants in east Africa designs on cloth, to cloth with east African women's in by the (Ryan These new cloths, called kanga, designs and by the the time the of in women the cloth to new of and on the Swahili coast 2006; local of the cloth and across the colonial demand for the cloth across the as a of for the majority of women across the century and a to kanga cloths from throughout Kenya, Tanzania, and of the and women in the and cloths 2005; women who kanga or their kanga within the of their household or on such as is women through kanga 2014). But changing local do not for in design or production are to a of this production of kanga for east African markets to at from that the company an to the Zanzibar market so as to on cloth to the Dutch East so from one from a and a design and a and printed for the Zanzibar market the majority of Vlisco's were in a that the Dutch textile printer in Vlisco samples of cloth production from the and in they in designs of of full-cloth samples in when Vlisco were the demands of east African women to cloth designs and Vlisco kanga cloths printed before were all which the Dutch printer an in designs to the market and made of women and as a form of (Ryan In the first of the century, Dutch textile printers were the of kanga cloth to German East Africa (Ryan This was by German merchant converters, who and of imported kanga 1895 and printed cloths were with central in with designs (Fig. These cloths to kanga with one each at the This cloths long by across east Africa and kanga design affordable production with and in to more cloths between and the are as kanga They all designs, and of but with an (or each (Fig. The cloths from have with an and by a the full-cloth samples for and in Vlisco a of designs, the across the These designs integrated within a a to and designs with a the (Fig. In one and with the the This from Vlisco's first Dutch East or in throughout the design of kanga textiles (Ryan success between and from the kanga designs and all in one and (Figs. They were printed by as in the can be were to or integrated Today, not kanga textile a Swahili the of a printed is more or a of the cloth Swahili in the a across the have have Swahili text printed in script, have Swahili text in a of and and or design on kanga textiles are in these examples from a or with and or a central with designs, and a Swahili printed in or The of that on kanga a for that global as in east Africa. This has long the Swahili world, with global links increasing in frequency across the nineteenth century (Arabindan-Kesson 2014; Meier 2009, 2016; Longair 2018). Omani rule in Zanzibar this as did the increasing colonial and between the British and the turn of the in the Swahili coastal of imported from the of in Kanga cloth was one such affordable to women. designs and a of new on kanga cloths to the of the Omani and the in Zanzibar throughout this and the a central of in coastal east African The of and to the growing of European such as as well as and designs on kanga from this It is this of that kanga designs a of cosmopolitan and kanga from the a in the of new and the of within the of kanga design. Dutch kanga however, largely to British The an era of British in kanga with over to colonial Tanganyika from when in and through kanga, of which Vlisco is a printer, their HKM and LKM in and over kanga in and British production in and and Japanese kanga production between with Japan over kanga to east Africa in (Ryan 2018). Dutch production in the when they between kanga to colonial a at Vlisco's kanga production in the for a of kanga production during and following the Vlisco all of kanga cloth from with to with of kanga textiles from the were but the were The and of Swahili text and a that is to throughout the of production of kanga, from to kanga textiles from the a in the of and and than shifts in design. in a of used on each kanga, and the of and Swahili text to to and the for graphic designs This in designs with different regional production following kanga cloths printed between and are not are the specific Swahili the full-cloth examples are by the of their of is the from of kanga cloth printed to in the as (Fig. cloths printed for to West Africa a of before in The first east African kanga printed by Vlisco the of of the British of would be as the cities of the es Mombasa, and part of a British or British protectorate The the where a Swahili be is as the is as a or is as the and of the British The central is an and the of the central Mackenzie & Co. and Jivan Hirji in the and give to of the in and these kanga This cloth in at of and though with the and the of the cloth the of the Omani of Zanzibar, (Fig. The central is and the as in a of Swahili on Omani The are in the for the the of Mackenzie & Co. and Jivan Hirji are each The is in of was not to new textiles from the do not to the of have designs that the and of common to kanga (Fig. The examples an design a design and a design on the of a of kanga and textiles at the in to for these this Vlisco may have been for within or east Africa, or to a new of printed cloth on the of the of kanga design The was still used to these cloths by the Dutch textile printer in the by the was employed to The designs of are from these kanga and across West and Central Africa as or of kanga these of design a design as that Vlisco it from to the of more not the of design it is that this design throughout this is a to the designs of kanga textiles and a or specific design of kanga, still today (Fig. Textile that the design is on cloth imports from an of cloths by in and central Africa to coastal entrepot and then to the Indian at by the and Vlisco its own at by and continued through the (Ryan Dutch printer LKM in east Africa in (Ryan It as that were made from and printed throughout the in Zanzibar and in Dar es these were for The design is printed in in and in on industrially It has a with the and and the of design. the are and at the and may the and Swahili is this of are within the and The are the central and the the This design printed by Vlisco between and the design continues to be by east African women of kanga cloths in the and with and one with and Swahili in or can be such as with and in in but these are kanga designs were printed between one and of on a or of and designs Indian or and The of designs from the a in kanga design. In examples from these a or design exists between the of kanga, the and the central with to kanga textiles as designs during the and following the and of Vlisco kanga production for the east African Vlisco's kanga British printers continued to east Africa with kanga, though at reduced from over before the to between during British production ceased by the late 1950s, to Japanese and Dutch production in the Japanese production Dutch in a of and production for across the 1950 and 1967, over kanga to colonial Tanganyika then independent the late 1960s, a of and in the majority of kanga imports (Ryan kanga imports to Tanganyika were by and textiles were printed in the Netherlands for the market between and Vlisco work and between and the of kanga production for east Africa in 1967, Vlisco over full-cloth samples in their and designs as designs were often printed in more than one The majority of these a Vlisco design a Smith Mackenzie design the of of production to cloth of and of and This for the between of samples and of designs the of the as well as analysis of the textiles design in Vlisco's kanga production can be to demands to markets in Dar es Salaam and Mombasa production can be the between and that production following a between and that the of Vlisco kanga design and and a between and that the and of Vlisco kanga design and the of designs and the 1950s a in kanga demand from the Dar es Salaam and Mombasa The market in Zanzibar by as a market during this designs from coastal This of these coastal cities and from Zanzibar as the of and in east Africa across the century and The a independent of Tanganyika then Tanzania turn its own of ujamaa. Tanzania policies in that spelled the of European imports of kanga textiles and reduced imports from Japan in the 1970s. was on local the of Urafiki (or Friendship) Textile a vertically integrated cotton processing, spinning, weaving, and printing manufacturer in Dar es The of the to the investment between the socialist and and the of its production has been kanga production in or following the of kanga were printed for Dar es Mombasa, and Zanzibar, between and regional can be Kanga designs during this Swahili of and filled with and the (Fig. The of Swahili text is between and kanga, Swahili text has a to on kanga with or at the very a for and before the kanga were printed with of and with a or a kanga of to be though the or in this continued from kanga and and designs, and Indian and from the and of full-cloth kanga textiles in Vlisco's the kanga in of design from until Kanga import numbers Dutch kanga production until and Vlisco over new kanga designs one and 1967, production of new kanga designs from to a for In Dutch of kanga textiles to Tanganyika from about one million to about Dutch one million until in and in with production numbers, Dutch were dwarfed by Japanese which in with over million kanga to colonial Tanganyika (Ryan on the full-cloth samples in Vlisco's that over the of designs and were printed between compared with the this more than the of kanga printed in the to Vlisco's of kanga design numbers and of the Dutch textile printers designs during the designs during the and designs during the for The majority of designs, printed in between and different were all for the Dar es Salaam For example, Vlisco printed the design in at different between and for the Dar es Salaam market (Fig. At these designs were for Zanzibar, but and a market in Dar es es Salaam was by the market for kanga textiles at this from the destinations on each kanga in the Vlisco the of Zanzibar was reduced to a market by the century, by the growing of Dar es be that Vlisco with Dar es resident Indian such as Jiwan that the Hirji through the British merchant-converter firm, Smith Mackenzie and Co. The Jiwan Hirji is at the of the kanga in Dar es Salaam during the colonial (Fig. In the on Jiwan Hirji & Ltd. ca. (Fig. by their on the and the Vlisco on the this in kanga in the of Swahili text as well as differing regional with Mombasa as the to kanga (or and Dar es Salaam as the to kanga The in to and design was in the with and to have text and a large, and serve the Dar es Salaam with the of the cloth and the of the to have text and with a for designs, and serve the Mombasa These to regional textile from late Zanzibar a market or between the Kanga textiles with integrated made a and on the have or Dar es Swahili to kanga in the the first kanga cloths to in the 1950s (Fig. The Vlisco to and has a as its central with the on its which to Mackenzie & which was in the kanga at have long on kanga, as they are with a cosmopolitan the and the of that long cities of east Africa. of printed on kanga can be in Dutch from the turn of the century, and kanga in the with kanga to on the of during an in may have a in to and Vlisco kanga with was printed in and for the Dar es Salaam and coastal is the coast of Tanzania and in the 1950s as Tanganyika Dar es of the production was through kanga in Vlisco's and as a but than Zanzibar, Mombasa, or Dar es The is made of for the of the an kanga, it uses the that to in the or Swahili which as women in their who the with which Smith Mackenzie were They the of imported or kanga kanga were to be the kanga, and than kanga, of the British or C. the Japanese merchant-converter kanga cloths from the Jiwan and at alongside that of Mackenzie & Co. have been these the majority of the kanga design was to of kanga cloths in from the first of the century the This to the merchant-converter firm, Hansing & and may have served an but designs it is to kanga cloths to the with a and and of of East African through with design and of Swahili changing in is throughout the 1950s (Fig. in between and In and items were in for the Dar es Salaam in the and a of were in on kanga printed for the Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar Such were to a cosmopolitan they were to east Africans in the 1950s, or not they For example, one of the designs printed between and a as the large, central with a Vlisco printed the design in and the to of a be the the Mombasa market or designs, and the Dar es Salaam market or with The Mombasa market continued to demand kanga with and Swahili such as this design printed in between and (Fig. the design as central by the on Dar es Salaam kanga, they were by this new in Zanzibar as a it designs with and coastal was in designs between Mombasa and Dar es and the as the market for kanga by the of the kanga cloth for the Zanzibar and Mombasa markets and in Dar es Salaam on the of kanga Vlisco's production following to of which each These were very often or or and at of one or of to or kanga, and are and to or in are kanga and they compared to the more of or would have been more to kanga production to in the and 1967, production of new kanga designs from to a each a from the designs in the previous for Vlisco printed new designs for Dar es Mombasa, or Zanzibar 1967, designs were in and continued in the 1960s, a of and continued to The majority of kanga printed were for the Dar es Salaam that were for the Zanzibar or Mombasa market during the all Swahili a from kanga textiles in the markets for imported kanga cloths to political in the of the Vlisco about for Kanga cloths to Mombasa or Dar es Salaam were to in a and In to cloth designs to more than one designs became that largely to the is the of overtly political designs on kanga textiles (Fig. new designs, where and of the independent and examples from Vlisco's production on in in the of the first president in and of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in from with across the but from a The kanga a of Africa with the across the Africa which to is not The coastal cities of Mombasa, Zanzibar, Dar es and are and the Swahili Tanganyika which as is The of kanga cloths may have the for kanga with such as socialist policies in and in in political kanga are to market across and as imported Vlisco for new across east Africa in the (Fig. Vlisco printed one such design in different throughout and The is in this and at one and on the of Jiwan Hirji & This was for the Dar es Salaam where the would be The design is and this may have to a of it was sold in Dar es Mombasa, and The central has and at from one The has of a and the Swahili is from the which as today have been It is that until this Dar es Salaam and Mombasa had with the this design as an to Vlisco's kanga for and designs continued in kanga from the Mombasa and Zanzibar of Vlisco's kanga and Swahili during the included and or Vlisco's production throughout the and designs were across and of markets in the of the Vlisco ceased production of new kanga designs for the Dar es Mombasa and Zanzibar markets in and printing kanga east Africans in kanga by coastal who and by designs by have that Mombasa are and an design that This with the Dar es cloths that often a central dominated by or Such an of designs are to to of the and of a across the these design have long Such regional in which kanga have been to through global of and merchant converters, to their 2018). did not designs by they at the design and were the arbiters of kanga were and affordable to women as a across the colonial of kanga design and production through Vlisco's 5,000 full-cloth samples that unceasing demand for new designs, regional developed in the century and can be in the are a of printed kanga cloth from their in the late nineteenth century, Vlisco employed a of and across the colonial in manufacturing from to production across the colonial in Swahili from the of and printed in all and this cloth over the colonial before the Swahili in all The of and overtly political kanga can be through at cloths in Vlisco's and unceasing demand for new kanga designs, an analysis of over designs that that kanga cloth to demands during the colonial women the of success for and textile printers This at the production of one Dutch textile printer weight and to the of kanga cloth, a still with east African women today

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