BY DR TONY MICHEL MONDA
Global fashion runways, musical stages, fashion houses, boutiques and magazines are replete with flounces of the famous African ethnic fabric – Dashiki.
Recently, whilst walking downtown of Harare’s CBD to carry out research for Gemnation’s lifestyle columns, I explored tailors workshops and fabric houses. It revealed to me that several local designers, seamstresses and tailors are experimenting and making unique designer garment and fashion accessories using African dashiki fabric in the last five years.
In the past I have often reiterated that creativity and entrepreneurship are fuelled in times of
economic austerity. It comes as no surprise that whilst the nation complains about unemployment, designers and artists are creating employment. Currently, Dashiki creations are the entire craze in the fields of fashion and design.
Dashiki garments are conducive for movement and suitable for our weather. Popular with African leaders in the 1960s and 1970s, amongst them Presidents Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nkwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and others, were known for sporting their dashiki robes and shirts as a powerful socio-cultural statement. Dashiki embodied the idea of African freedom and self. Here, dashiki can be seen as a symbol and tool of post-colonial reclamation of identity and ideology.
Today dashiki is no longer just used as a mbereko/baby carriage, doek /head scarf, sarong mazambia; this versatile multipurpose fabric is being used to make utility items. Umbrellas, bags, foot wear and hair accessories are some of the numerous items being created today in Zimbabwe, Dashiki is an expressive fabric usually in light weight cotton with ethnic ideograms, chevrons, strips, concentric circles and even paisley designs.
Some have called it Java Print; others prefer to call it Mazambia, whilst others call it Ethnic African Print. Whichever way, Africa is reclaiming its colour and asserting its African pride.
In international and regional art and music circles, from African-American musicians Janet Jackson and Beyonce, to Isaac Hayes, Steve Wonder, Chris Brown to Angelique Kidjo, Yemi Olade, Baba Maal, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Miriam Makeba, late and Hugh Masekela, late Manu Dibango and many others, have sported attire in Dashiki – the palette and fabric associated with Africa.
In Zimbabwe, before and after independence, many Afro-pop musicians, from Thomas Mapfumo to Chiwoniso Maraire, Stella Chiweshe, Andy Brown, Tineyi Chikupu, to literary personalities like Dambudzo Marechera, Stephen Chifunyise, Chenjerai Hove and Dr. Tafataona Mahoso, wore their trademark Dashiki as an assertion of their identity.
Today, many Zimbabwean visual artists based abroad such as Richard Mudariki, Chaz Maviyane-
Davies, Moffat Takadiwa, David Chinyama and many others, have rediscovered the charm and identity of the fabric and use it to assert their origins and Africaness.
In the USA, Dashiki was politically a symbol of Black Power in the 1970s; I was surprised to notice that many of my African-American professors and lecturers as a student in the mid-1990s still wore Dashiki. When I asked why, the answer was simple – it’s the fabric of the motherland – it gave them a sense of belonging.
In fact, I can recall a summertime art tour in the US, with the overbearing humid heat of New York, Washington DC, Louisiana, Texas, New Orleans, Santa Fe and parts of the mid-west, wearing my kente and dakishi outfits. It made sense to wear the light airy fabric of the motherland the feel of light cotton was a refreshing relief.
Fashion writer, artist photographer and contributor to regional and international arts news Vivienne Sue-Ellen McCormack said: “Dashiki is daringly artistic; decidedly African . . . Dashiki is the door to decolonising Africa’s design aesthetic, so no doubt pop goes dakishi. It’s inevitable”
Why is Zimbabwe silent about the revival of this fashion manifestation which is more than just a novel trend? It is a powerful social statement, popular in tropical and sub-tropical parts of Africa, from North Africa to East and West Africa Central Africa down to South Africa, including Zimbabwe.
Dashiki has gone viral!
Whilst some fashion designers in Zimbabwe are following international fashion dictates like cargo pants and slim line jackets; savvy designers are creating exquisite haute courtier fashion for export using this versatile, functional and colourful African Dashiki fabric as a celebration of African creativity.
Dr. Tony Michel Monda is an International Arts and Cultural Consultant based in Harare, New York and Cape Town.
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