Khanga

The kanga (or khanga; from the old Bantu (Kiswahili) verb ku-kanga, to wrap or close), is a colourful garment similar to kitenge, worn by women and occasionally by men throughout the African Great Lakes region. It is a piece of printed cotton fabric, about 1.5 m by 1 m, often with a border along all four sides (called pindo in Swahili), and a central part (mji) which differs in design from the borders. The kanga is culturally significant on Eastern coast of Africa, often given as a gift for birthdays or other special occasions. Kangas are similar to Kitenge, Kishutu and Kikoy which are traditionally worn by men. The Kishutu is one of the earliest known designs, probably named after a town in Tanzania, they are particular given to young brides as part of their dowry or by healers to cast off evil spirits. Due to its ritual function they do not always include a proverb.

Kangas have been a traditional type of dress amongst women in East Africa since the 19th century . It was developed from a type of unbleached cotton cloth imported from USA. The cloth known as merikani in Zanzibar, perhaps a derivative of the term merikani, the Kiswahili word for America (indicative of the place it originated). Male slaves wrapped it around their waist and female slaves wrapped it under their armpits. To make the cloth more feminine, slave women occasionally dyed them black or dark blue, using locally obtained indigo. This dyed merikani was referred to as kaniki. People despised kaniki due to its association with slavery. Ex-slave women seeking to become part of the Swahili society began to decorate there merikani clothes. They did this using one of three techniques; a form of resist dying, a form of block printing or hand painting.

Stylish ladies in Zanzibar and Mombasa, started to use the kerchief squares called lencos brought by Portuguese traders from India and Arabia, stitching together six kerchiefs in a 3X2 pattern to create one large rectangular wrap. After slavery was abolished in 1897, Kangas began to be used for self-empowerment and to indicate that the wearer had personal wealth. Soon they became popular in the whole coastal region, later expanding inland to the Great Lakes region. They are still known as lesos or lessos in some localities, after the Portuguese word.

Until the mid-twentieth century, they were mostly designed and printed in India, the Far East and Europe. Since the 1950s kangas started to be printed also in Tanzania (MeTL Group Textile Company) and Kenya (Rivatex and Thika Cloth Mills Ltd are some of the largest manufacturers in Kenya) and other countries on the African continent.

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