Issues in African Art And Architecture

A new generation of African designers are showing the amazing versatility of traditional handwoven textiles. For centuries if not millennia before the mass import of European and Indian made printed textiles, African weavers and dyers created the majority of textiles worn by king and commoner alike. The influx of industrial textiles had a disastrous effect on many cloth-producing regions of the continent. The raffia weaving centers of West-central Africa were one of the largest producers of textiles in the world at the beginning of the 17th century and now very few ethnic groups continue to weave. The southeast African cotton-weaving traditions that had thrived from the beginning of the 11th century until the early 1900s have completely disappeared. Despite this, West African weavers especially those working in Ghana and Nigeria continue to weave for local markets, and contemporary designers are taking these historical textiles and incorporating them into modern designs for a global

Unlike many other artforms, textiles have the ability to operate in thee dimensions. When wrapped around the body they become three-dimensional taking the form of their wearer's body, or draping from it. In the form of tapestries, they can function like paintings or decorate backdrops. Across the African Continent, they can also enter the fourth dimension as part of the energetic moving spectacle of the masquerade. Both imported and locally made textiles play significant roles in the masquerade traditions of Africa. Locally made cloth is often integral to the construction of these costumes. These textile pieces often take on new ritual significance as they are imbued with medicinal and spiritually potent substances. In southern Nigeria, particularly in places where upright loom weaving is prominent, ritual textiles made in this way are often repurposed in masquerade celebrations. The ritual textiles made by the Ijebu weavers for the Ogboni society often become repurposed as part of