East Africa, primarily Kenya, historically known for its vibrant, full-of-life textiles and patterns, has made a mark In the African diaspora. For example, Kenya has birthed a few traditional fabrics like the Kitenge and Kikoi textiles. According to the article, “the kitenge is a cotton flowery designed fabric, produced in 40-meter rolls and sold in meters, or yards. The kitenge can be worn as a wrap or tailored into loosely flowing garments for women and currently for men’s casual shirts (Wanduara, 2018). The kitenge could be made into anything that the designer would like to create, like a shirt, pants, or even a dress. If the designer wants to incorporate it into something beautiful, they could do that if they would like. Now, since their local production is not as high, they outsource to other African countries. According to the article, “Local production is low, so imports from the West African countries fulfill the rest of the demand; Nigeria and Ghana (Wanduara, 2018). So, the textile “Kitenge ” does not have a strong textile industry manufacturing in Kenya; Kitenge is outsourced because to create this specific textile, they would need big manufacturing plants to create this specific textile.
Whereas “Kikoi,” the other textile fabric made in Kenya and outsourced from India, differs from “Kitenge” because the practices to make this textile differ from Kitenge. The article states, “This is a cotton striped fabric with fringes at the narrow ends, measuring about 1.5 meters by 1 meter. It is worn as casual wear in the form of a wrap for the lower torso for both men. The women may wear it on the upper body as well. Most kikoi fabric is locally manufactured, and some are imported from India. (Wanduara, 2018). One of the facts that one found intriguing is that Kenya found other textiles to be able to outsource but simultaneously keep some of the traditions in their country. The creation of indigenous textiles in Kenya is very important because they created something that Is so unique to their country that even though their neighboring regional countries within Africa have textiles these fabrics are adhered to the Kenya culture from which these two textiles came to life.
Page Author: Valerie Waldron
