In West Africa, professional men weave threads into narrow strips of cloth. These strips are then sewn together to create rectangles or squares of cloth that can be used as wrappers (clothing), blankets, hammocks, seating covers and room dividers. These cloths also reflect wealth and social prestige and may play an important role in ceremonies such as funerals and marriages.
This cloth features a dramatic and unusually regular composition. The designs of the rectangular blocks that are composed of alternating units of blue and white echo the overall checkerboard compostion of the cloth. The size suggests its primary use was as a woman's wrapper.
Description:
Wrapper composed of fourteen strips with rectangular checkerboard pattern and cotton plain weave with cotton supplementary weft.
Provenance:
Purchased Bonwire, Ghana, 1974
Exhibition History:
Patterns of Life: West African Strip-Weaving Traditions, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., September 28, 1987-February 29, 1988
Published References:
Gilfoy, Peggy. 1987. Patterns of Life: West African Strip Weaving Traditions. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, p. 74, no. 23.
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