When did Africans start wearing clothes?

May 2, 2008 10:00 AM

What clothes did Africans wear before contact with the Arabs?

African history is never really clear on this - what was worn as clothing back in the day (1500 years ago)? There are the old African kingdoms like Benin and so on who were skilled in copper sculpture and other arts - what was the clothing at the time?

African clothing is very expressive now, with large headties and colorful patterns - when did this get incorporated into the culture? Is this new or has it been there for a long time?

What about the Berbers and Moors? They have always had contact with the Arabs - have they been wearing clothes for thousands of years?

Also, considering the cotton is not native to Africa, would clothes not have to have been an imported commodity? And considering how hot it is in most of Africa, is clothing not really just a cultural thing without a direct advantage?

posted by markovich to clothing, beauty, & fashion (3 comments total)

Berbers (Imazighen) have only had contact with "Arabs" since around the 7th century. However - they had already had contact with other civilizations, such as Roman, so they would have been influenced by that, too.
posted by Liosliath at 10:50 AM on May 2

Also...while I was living there in the Southeast of Morocco, I found that I felt much cooler (er, temperature-wise) if I wore a summer-weight djellaba, as opposed to tank tops and shorts. It also kept me from getting sunburnt - and as many of our extended family had skin that was just as fair as mine, or fairer, it was probably a concern for them, too.
posted by Liosliath at 10:53 AM on May 2

This doesn't directly address your question, but I remember reading a book that described the first encounters between Portuguese sailors and sub-Saharan West Africans -- the Europeans were dazzled by the clothing and textiles, which were woven very intricately. I wish I could remember the book -- perhaps someone else can? This random internet history of African textiles claims that spindles, woven cloth, and embroidery were present in sub-Saharan Africa before contact with Arabs. This bit about looms is particularly relevant:

Although some scholars have proposed a variety of external sources for the main features of sub-Saharan African weaving technology only the Arabian origin of the East African pit loom is securely established. It seems equally if not more probable that the narrow-strip loom and some form of single-heddle loom were local inventions. In the case of the single-heddle loom John Picton has hypothesized that the variety of forms found along the Nigeria/Cameroon border and the apparent correspondence between the distribution patterns of the two major variants, namely the ground loom and the upright raffia loom, with the two streams of the Bantu language family point to a possible origin in that area. The antiquity of this loom type appears to be confirmed by the Igbo Ukwu cloth samples fragments dated to the ninth century AD.

John Picton's book African Textiles looks like it might be relevant.
posted by ourobouros at 11:16 AM on May 2