Fashioning Sexuality: Desire, Manyema Ethnicity, and the Creation of the 'Kanga', ca. 1880-1900
2006; Boston University; Volume: 39; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2326-3016
Autores Tópico(s)Colonialism, slavery, and trade
ResumoManyuema are far more beautiful than either bond or free of Zanzibar. I overhear remark often, 'If we had Manyuema wives what beautiful children we should beget.'1 Introduction Conceptions of desirability of elite Manyema women probably differed greatly among men and women of different statuses and ethnicities in late nineteenth century. In this article I argue that to Swahili women on coast, clothing associated with fashion repertoire of elite Manyema women also symbolized desirability of their independence and power, and that elite Manyema women's public presentations of themselves signified a power and independence that both men and women found attractive, albeit for very different reasons. Among Swahili women in Swahili entrepots of hinterland, and on Swahili Coast and in Zanzibar, Manyema women and their fashions became intricately tied to, and invested in, what began as an elaborately patterned rectangular piece of cloth and eventually developed into iconic cloth we now know as kanga. This article builds on work of Fair, Byfield, and Allman and examines advent of kanga in an entirely new light.2 Drawing from Swahili texts and accounts of explorers, travelers, and missionaries, I argue that kanga came to symbolize power of an African community with origins in Central Africa and embody notions of Manyema ethnicity. The creation of kanga is intricately tied to negotiation of a new ethnicity: an ethnicity that emerged after Zanzibari traders expanded their frontier into Central African area northwest of Ujiji, destroying existing communities in process. As Zanzibar! established their authority with guns and other weapons, they murdered many adult men and enslaved women and children. Despite devastation of their communities, elements of indigenous groups moved east across Lake Tanganyika where they forged a new identity as Manyema. Most historical writing on central route of East African ivory and slave trade mentions use of cloth in bargaining for passage through different communities along caravan path and in markets of Ujiji, Uvira, and other towns with large market exchanges. However, little attention has been paid to intersection of ivory and slave trade caravans and ramifications of introduction of these new types of cloths into Zanzibari entrepots and neighboring African communities. The central route of East African slave trade connected peoples of Central Africa to Swahili Coast and Zanzibar, and forever altered fashion and notions of female sexuality and behavior in Zanzibar and East Africa. While Fair has demonstrated ways that women by turn of twentieth century had made Zanzibar the Paris of East we do not know exactly what sparked local entrepreneurs' interest in making kangas or why Swahili women almost immediately coveted and desired to procure kangas.3 What was impetus that led to this great interest? In this article I present yet another layer to story of emergence of kanga at time of abolition of slave trade in Zanzibar. Indian merchants successfully marketed kanga to a newly emerging clientele of former slaves who, as free women and men, were able to purchase items that could help them claim a new, free identity. But why was it kanga that became object of desire, and not some other item of clothing or jewelry? What did kanga promise or provide that other things did not? I argue here that kanga emerged in context of ivory and slave trade: it emerged from Manyema women's participation in caravans and their performance of what it meant to be an elite Manyema woman as they traveled from area northeast of Lake Tanganyika, across central route of East African slave route, into Zanzibar and back again. Connections: Central Africa, Ujiji, Zanzibar In 1857, Zanzibari women favored red and blue kisitu: a length of stained cotton cloth wrapped tightly around breast that extended to feet. …
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