|
There are examples of batik textiles in many parts of Africa but the
most developed skills are to be found in Nigeria where the Yoruba people
make adire cloths. Two methods of resist are used: adire eleso which involves
tied and stitched designs and adire eleko where starch paste is used.
The paste is most often made from cassava (a root plant) flour, rice,
alum or copper sulphate boiled together to produce a smooth thick paste.
The Yoruba of West Africa used cassava paste as a resist while the people
of Senegal use rice paste. The paste is applied in two different ways.
By using freehand drawing of traditional designs using a feather, thin
stick, piece of fine bone or a metal or wooden comb-like tool. This is
done by women.
Forced through a thin metal stencil with a flexible metal or wooden tool.
This enables accurate repeat patterns to be achieved. This is done by
men.
 
The patterning of cloth is usually a family tradition handed down from
mother to daughter as a cottage industry. The cloth is usually divided
into squares or rectangles and designs represent everyday tools, carvings,
beadwork, activities or traditional images of the artists own culture
or tribal history. An eleko cloth is usually made up of two, two and a
half yard pieces sewn together.
Many women work alone but group dyeing sessions are more cost effective.
The more commercial cloths are the stencil products and are often produced
by men. The traditional dye is indigo from a plant which grows throughout
Africa. In many places these are now cultivated and different varieties
produce a variation of the dark blue colour. Once the paste resist is
dry, the fabric is dyed in large clay pots or pits dug in the earth. After
drying the paste is scraped off to reveal a white or pale blue design.
The usual cloth is cotton but highly prized clothing using wild silk is
sometimes produced. In recent years other cloths using African designs
have been produced in Britain (Manchester cloths) and Holland. These mass
produced fabrics are machine made. Some are now produced in various African
countries.
Mud Cloth
This fabric is made by the Bamana people of Mali. The ground fabric is
woven of hand spun cotton yarn in narrow strips on the mans double-heddle
loom. The cloth is then dyed yellow and the design applied with river
mud. This 'saddens' the yellow, turning it dark brown. The yellow dye
in the unpainted areas is then discharged with a caustic preparation bleaching
out these areas and returning them to their original colour. This produces
cloth with the characteristic dark brown and white pattern.
|
