communication and ambiguity in kanga

happiness of the home is understanding

The kanga is a bright traditional cloth, worn and utilized predominantly by  women in East Africa.  Earliest production of kanga dates to the late 19th century, and the popularization of the cloth is linked to a complex set of understandings and associations. Generally, the motifs and patterns of the kanga are rooted in the floral and geometric icons traditional to Arab and Islamic ornamentation, though equally important to the patterns are the jina, or phrases inscribed on the cloth. These phrases seem to be used by women to convey messages that they cannot speak, about themselves, to one another, and about the world.

On a side street by the Portuguese Fort in Stone Town, I asked a woman who was selling kanga to help me identify one that might be appropriate as a gift for my mother. Between her small vocabulary in English, and my small vocabulary in Swahili she located one cloth that used the word mama, though I could not make out its meaning. She indicated that I should pick one that I liked, as then my mother would also like it. This answer seemed simple, obvious in fact, but should have been what I expected. As an outside, it is almost presumptuous to pry at the deeper cultural significance of this form of expression, which relies on the unspoken word within a social group. Kangas represent aethetic and utility, boldness and ambiguity, signals tacit yet explicit. For an outsider, perhaps it is enough to appreciate the beauty of the kanga on the streets and the people of Zanzibar, and to know that the subtleties of their meaning may remain concealed. 

The above photograph is from an exhibit about the metaphor and beauty in kanga at the Beit-al-Ajaib, a museum in the former a palace of Sultan Barghash bin Said, in Stone Town.