Arabic-Script Kanga

Printed wrap cloth known as kanga in Tanzania have been produced and disseminated throughout the continent since their emergence in the mid-19th century. Also known as leso in Kenya, many African cultures have produced textiles in this style: the Comorian cheramine, Madagascan lamba hoany, Mozambican capulana, and Angolan samakaka all share common influences and a strong aesthetic resemblance to kanga.

Prior to the 1900s, kanga were almost exclusively produced with Kiswahili phrases written in Arabic script arranged in a cartouche toward the bottom-centre of the mji ("town" in Kiswahili, or central motif of the kanga). The more commonly seen Latin-script designs first appeared on the market around 1910 and replaced their Arabic-script counterparts as the predominant kanga variety for sale by the late 1950s.

The artifact (2014.11.5) featured in this section is a phenomenal example of both Islamic and Indonesian influences on early kanga designs. Although it is a contemporary piece that was likely manufactured later than the 1960s, its intriguing history is even deeper than its age suggests.

Plain weave cotton textile screen printed with a pink-red background and finely detailed geometric block border. Arabic script in blue and yellow is arranged to form stylized patterns in bordered boxes and as black text on the central white circle. Script, when reversed, reads بسم الله in the squares of text in the central motif and the four words in a wheel around the central circle read محمد. Small, ornate wings are located on the central motif in the four cardinal directions.

Arabic-script kanga; ca. 1966-1999

Cotton, commercially printed; 271 cm x 114 cm

Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection, 2014.11.5

Donated by Marie Dunn

ARABIC-SCRIPT KANGA

Produced by Ghana Textiles Printing Company (GTP), this piece was marketed as a "real Java design from Holland." (1) Its compound border is reminiscent of an Indonesian batik. Early kanga designs were greatly influenced by Indonesian and Indian textiles brought to the Swahili East African Coast by Gujarati traders in the mid-18th century. (2)

The central script is written in Arabic, but printed backwards and unintelligible to Arabic readers. When reversed, the script is legible and reads, "In the name of God, in Arabic بسم الله" in the squares of text present in the mji. The words in a wheel around the central circle read, "Mohamad, in Arabic محمد, written four times." (3)

This kanga was gifted to donor Marie Dunn by a Ghanaian acquaintance in the 1990s and donated to the Collection in 2014.

  1. Dunn, M. E. (2014). Object file. [Information provided by M. Dunn]. Anne Lambert Clothing and Textiles Collection.

  2. Ryan, M. M. (2017). A decade of design: The global invention of the kanga, 1876–1886. Textile History, 48(1), 101-132. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00404969.2017.1294815

  3. M. Dunn, personal communication, Summer 2021.

Plain weave cotton textile screen printed with a pink-red background and finely detailed geometric block border. Arabic script in blue and yellow is arranged to form stylized patterns in bordered boxes and as black text on the central white circle. Script, when reversed, reads بسم الله in the squares of text in the central motif and the four words in a wheel around the central circle read محمد. Small, ornate wings are located on the central motif in the four cardinal directions.
Pictured above: Arabic-script kanga (2014.11.5); flipped horizontally.

The flipped image: Uncovering a Museum Mystery

Culturally-significant artifacts are often acquired by people who do not belong to that culture—like in the case of our Arabic-script kanga, we rely on the greater University community for help in translating and decoding written text.

In this peculiar instance, in attempting to translate the Arabic script, we discovered this kanga had been printed backwards by the manufacturer. GTP, owned by Dutch parent company Vlisco, likely bought the pattern from an Arabic-speaking designer and it became flipped during printing in the Netherlands. Although it may be unclear how or why the text became reversed, these "mysteries" help us gather more details on the history of these complex pieces.