African Occasional Textiles: Vernacular Landscapes of Development

Author(s): Catherine P. Bishop

Source: African Arts , Winter 2014, Vol. 47, No. 4 (Winter 2014), pp. 72-85
Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43306259

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 African Occasional Textiles
Vernacular Landscapes of Development

Catherine P. Bishop

I highlight iconography constituting landscapes, people, and

are iconic elements of large-scale social technologies symbolizing achievements and aspirations as oci-
events in many parts of Africa (Rabine ated with modernity, progres , and development.
20 2). Since the mid-twentieth century, The diversity of symbols represent more than political propa-
widespread production and circulation of ganda, although much scholarship has emphasized this rather
Occasional widespread are printed events 20 2). iconic Since in cot on textprileinst,edmacont yoneclleomthedentsisgneprdoadnucd wotiornn the cloth parts mid-twentieth or of tis us designed of and large-scale Africa événementielSy circulation and century, (Rabine social worn of notorious dimension of the communicative value of the materi-
for special oc asions such as political ral ies, the ar ival of vis- als (e.g., Akinwunmi 1997; Ayina 1987; Beauchamp 1957; Bick-
iting dignitaries, the celebration of holidays and anniversa- ford 1994; Clarke 2002; Clark 2005; Faber 2010; Nielson 1979;
ries, and the commemoration of individuals and institutions Picton 2001; Spencer 1982). Understood as historical text, the
have made oc asional textiles a transnational social phenom- iconography displayed on African occasional textiles reveals
enon and ubiquitous form of material culture. Similar types of attitudes surrounding development, modernity, the environ-
political textiles have historical y been used in Europe and the ment, and aspirations for the future. Like written texts, the
United States as tea towels, kerchiefs, upholstery fabric, ban- symbolic content of occasional textiles presupposes situated
ners, and wal hangings (for examples se Atkins 20 5; Col ins cultural knowledge critical to interpreting the ideas communi-
1979; Fischer 198 ; Reath 1925; Thieme 1984). However, African cated. Textile iconography serves not only to commemorate the
consumers in many different regions have general y prefer ed past but contributes to shaping the future; as noted by curator
the fabrics as wrappers or tailored clothing, often to be worn Anne Spencer, occasional textiles have "been used effectively to
as matching outfits by large numbers of people during par- popularize new ideas ... to promote party policies ranging from
ticular events. A material discourse and popular form of con- education to rural development" (1982:6-7). However, the role
sumer culture throughout many parts of the continent, African of this iconography in processes of development, while recog-
oc asional textiles emerge from and contribute to proces es of nized, has received comparatively little intellectual scrutiny (e.g.,
nationalization, globalization, capitalism, and development. Ayina 1987; Spencer 1982; Textile Museum of Canada 2009).
Alternatively known as commemorative cloths or "portrait- John Picton explains that the factory origin of cotton prints
cloths," this foundational element of contemporary African accounts for "relatively late entry into the subject matter of Afri-
sartorial art, I argue, provides an ongoing visual commentary canist art-historical research" (1995:24-25). Previous studies of
regarding the direction of society but also shapes emergent dis- the iconographie repertoire of occasional textiles tend to high-
courses and practices as a form of political technology intended light a seemingly infinite array of themes, events, and people
to circulate and reinforce ideas of progres . The iconography of that appears to defy generalization (e.g., Faber 2010:9; Picton
oc asional textiles thus provides a rich source of information 2001:112; Rabine 2002:151-52). More troubling is the notion that
on individual and community perceptions, memories, myths, these African textiles are too "wacky" for European taste (Picton
and aspirations. Instead of reading the textiles as forms of party 2001:159). In this article I assert that while the artwork an4 sym-
propaganda, and moving beyond a national frame of reference, bols displayed on occasional textiles may be facilely categorized

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1 Factory printed cloth
Undetermined peoples
Cotton, dye; 1 20 cm x 96.7 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-7
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

vol. 47, no. 4 winter 2014 africanarts 73

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as wacky, inauthentic, or simplistic propaganda, in effect this art
form remains largely illegible to "outside" viewers.
How can we translate and understand the language of African
occasional textiles given their broad diversity in visual content?
These materials must be understood as more than just vehicles
landscape.
for iconography intended for public display. Rather, occasional
textiles operate as a political technology at the scale of the human
body, covering and modifying the most intimate of surface
areas. As sartorial art, occasional textiles structure relationships
between the individual self and the social world; these cloths can
be used to express multiple, overlapping, and conflicting mean-
ings (Allman 2004; Bickford 1994, 199 7; Cordwell 1979; Gott and
Loughran 2010; Hendrickson 1996; Textile Museum of Canada
2009). This study analyzes a sample of twenty- two textiles from
Cameroon, Côte dTvoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya,
Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Zambia
produced during the second half of the twentieth century. The
sample was selected from the collections of the Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of
African Art, and the Mathers Museum of World Cultures, as well
as several privately owned artifacts. While building this sample,
I deliberately chose textiles that evoked the theme of develop-
ment, understood broadly to encompass programs, policies, and
ideas surrounding social and economic progress in Africa.
Discourses, practices, and symbols of politics and develop-
ment overlap in substantial ways, yet taking development as a
starting point shifts focus from presidential portraiture and
party politics to localized experiences of modernity, globaliza-
tion, and social change in Africa. While many studies of occa-
sional textiles have highlighted their role in commemoration
and celebration of national heroes (e.g., Faber 2010; Spencer
1982), I demonstrate that commemoration is but one function
these objects are meant to perform. These textiles contribute to
processes of development by visually communicating and reify-
ing the aspirations of marginalized populations such as farmers,
urban workers, women, children, and more broadly, the recipi-
ents of international and national forms of development aid. To
generalize across a diversity of discourses, images, and symbols,
I employ an analytical approach that incorporates all of these
elements within a cohesive framework- that of the vernacular

2 Factory printed cloth

Undetermined peoples
Cotton, dye; 1 20 cm x 93 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-1
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art , Smithsonian Institution

3 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Cotton, dye; 1 17.5 cm x 425.5 cm
Gift of Sigourney Thayer
77-7-1
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

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4 Factory printed cloth
Undetermined peoples
Cotton, dye; 1 1 9.5 cm x 96.8 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-15
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

VERNACULAR LANDSCAPES OF

DEVELOPMENT

According to Dennis Cosgrove (1998),

landscapes embody complexities, ambi-
guities, and expressions of power emerg-
ing from geographical, social, and cultural
circumstances. One way to analyze the
multivalency of landscape is to deploy
a particular "way of seeing" that blends
an insider appreciation of place with an
outsiders critical perspective on social
and political issues. Cosgrove states
that "landscape constitutes a discourse
through which identifiable social groups
historically have framed themselves and
their relations with both the land and with
other human groups," and the outcome is
that myth, memory, and meaning invade
the material existence of landscapes
(i998:ix). Social and political revolutions
in Africa involved dramatic reorganiza-
tion of human-environment relationships,
triggering profound changes in how peo-
ple reflected on what they did and what
they were. The world that African com-
munities conceived and the place that they
imagined themselves to occupy within it
changed as their material conditions and politicalNot
alignments
only is there an analogy in development studies, but
were transformed. The concepts of modernityisand develop-
arguably a correspondence to the study of African o
ment were profoundly influential in terms of the textiles
way citizens ofThe broad diversity of types of iconograph
as well.
acterizing the textiles does not fit neatly into the conc
emerging postcolonial societies envisioned the future.
In their research on economic developmentparadigm in Indonesia
of presidential politics and nationalism framin
under the Suharto regime, Dove and Kämmen (2001) draw studies
scholarly on of these objects (e.g., Bickford 1994; Cla
Faber 2010; Picton 2001; Spencer 1982). Considering the
J.B. Jacksons (1984) concept of the "vernacular landscape" to cre-
ate a framework for analyzing "vernacular models of develop-
designs as constitutive of vernacular landscapes leads to n
ment." While these authors investigate the differences
of interpreting
between the seeming cacophony of a body of uni
real and imagined landscapes of development, in this study
localized images,I voices, ideas, and values. Ephemeral in
focus on ideas about development concretized through
and in the ico- circulation, the continuously evolving ic
physical
nography of vernacular landscapes. Dove and Kämmen phy of elaborate
occasional textiles evokes "mobility of people and
on Jacksons statement that he began to perceive only
searchindirectly
for adjustment, for change ... an incessant adapta
remaking of the landscape" (Jackson i984:xii).
at first the processual, shifting nature of landscapes:
Landscapes, dressed bodies, and politics are inextricab
What we see out of the corners of our eyes tend to be things that do
dressed bodyinsurface emerges from and is formative of
not fit existing conceptual paradigms. Jacksons accomplishment
the field of landscape studies, thus, was to bring what political,
he saw intoand
full physical dimensions of landscape. Cloth
view, to re-conceive it as not a peripheral matter but textiles,
a type oflike landscapes, embody power relationships. Tr
land-
scape-a vernacular landscape- in its own right. There is an analogy
mations in power relationships are constitutive of tran
in development studies (Dove and Kämmen 2001:620). tions in treatments of the body surface and other aspect

vol. 47, no. 4 winter 2014 african arts 75

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 5 Factory printed cloth (detail)
Liberia; 1966
Cotton, dye; 179.2 cm x 120.3 cm
Warren and Kathleen d'Azevedo Collection
2004-01-0035
Photo: Matthew Sieber, Mathers Museum of World
Cultures

6 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Congo; 1960
Cotton, dye; 119.1 cm x 173 cm
The Wil and Irene Petty Collection
2008-5-69
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art , Smithsonian Institution

modernization, incorporate them into local landscapes, and

cultural landscape. This is most dramatically illustrated during
translate them into symbols of community prosperity and hope
moments of rapid political and economic restructuring (Mitchell
forand
2000). Periods of stability in traditional forms of production the future.

consumption of material culture may undergo "violent reorder-

SYMBOLS
ing during which the tradition is recentered" (Glassie 1989:218). OF PROGRESS

During the colonial period European designers and manu

The most recent phase of the reordering of the artistic tradition
of occasional textile production in Africa began during the era produced textile prints intended to entice African co
turers
of independence in the mid twentieth century. ers (Nielsen 1979; Steiner 1985). Although the designers con
During the 1960s African designers began to work in newly
with local African agents to anticipate fashion trends in wax
constructed, nationalized textile mills to produce occasional
consumption, occasional textiles from the colonial era dis
prints depicting and reflecting histories and landscapes, political
landscape iconography reflecting European ideas about and
and social movements, technological change, local memories,
tudes toward Africa and Africans. One example is an early
and aesthetic preferences. Textiles as a medium of communica-
depicting a small house, palm tree, and shoreline in the f
tion became an important vehicle of not only political propa-
ground close to an African sailboat filled with passengers
ganda, but of the marketing of development programs (Ayina
ing out at a steamship in the distance (Fig. 1). In this imag
1987; Spencer 1982; Textile Museum of Canada 2009). African
steamship symbolizes the technology of modernity and th
of intercontinental travel; this ideal remains out of reach f
designers utilized images of environments, technologies, and
people in occasional textile designs to
communicate vernacular models of devel-
opment that built on local knowledge
and memories as well as aspirations and
visions of postcolonial modernity. The
representations of cultural landscapes in
occasional textile iconography change
over time, incorporating new themes, pat-
terns, and aesthetic elements that reflect
societal, technological, and environmen-
tal transformations. The change is evi-
dent when comparing occasional textiles
designed during the postcolonial period
to those circulating prior to i960. While
colonial representations of the landscape
in textile designs emphasized distance
between African people and modern
technologies, African representations of
vernacular landscapes of development
appropriate the icons of technology and

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 7 Factory printed cloth (detail)
Zambia; 1963
Cotton, dye
E427929

Photo: Catherine Bishop, National Museum of Natural

History, Smithsonian Institution

8 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Kenya; 1963
Cotton, dye; 1 1 5.6 cm x 339.7 cm
79-25-3
Gift of Glenn and Alexandria Garrison, from the col-
lection of Joseph J. Shapiro
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

African subjects who remain close to shore in their sailing vessel. including coffee, cocoa, coconuts, oil palm, and rubber. Distinct
Likewise a print from the same era portrays an airplane soaring from the traditional European categorizations of trees as either
in the sky high above a family of hippopotamuses, again reiterat- deciduous or coniferous, tropical trees symbolized the produc-
ing the distance between the grounded reality of African existence tive potential of imperialism. Trees are multivalent, however, and
and the tools of modernity arriving from and departing to other from the perspective of many Africans, the palm tree symbolizes
places in the world (Fig. 2). Sabena airline, operating in the Bel- a gift from ancestors or from nature (Gay 1999). Palms are often
gian Congo, circulated a textile advertising flight routes linking deployed as a political symbol of the capacity to provide to the
cities across a map of the colony in which icons of animals such needs of society, demonstrated in a textile from Liberia celebrating
as giraffes, elephants, and crocodiles dot the landscape (Fig. 3). As the birthday of President William Tubman in 1966 in which two
in other parts of the world, air travel represented an elite activity trees flank an image of the Executive Mansion (Fig. 5).
allowing white Europeans and other foreigners to circulate with During the decade of independence in Africa, political rallies
ease across vast distances. Another early print displaying mecha- across the continent shared an important aesthetic element in the
nized modes of transport in Africa is divided into four horizontal form of brilliantly colored commemorative textiles communicat-
rows of repeating images of trains, buses, airplanes, and steam- ing euphoria and idealism. In addition to the presidential "por-
ships moving through tropical, tree-filled
landscapes devoid of people (Fig. 4). These
designs incorporate icons of technology as
aesthetic elements set in contrast to, and
enhancing, landscapes perceived as wild
and undeveloped.
Like landscape artists, the design-
ers of occasional textiles have frequently
exploited the richly evocative iconography
of trees and woodlands to represent ideas
of social order (Daniels 1988). As in other
historical, political, and environmental
contexts, imagery of African woodlands
provides a stabilizing symbol of soci-
ety during a period of accelerating social
change (Daniels 1988). Embodying what
Europeans perceived as the exotic nature of
the African tropics are icons of palm trees,
omnipresent in occasional textiles. From
the standpoint of colonial actors, tropical
climates favored production of tree crops

voL. 47, no. 4 winter 2014 afrlcan arts 77

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 9 Factory printed cloth
Cameroon; 1974
Cotton, dye
Collection of Andrianne Konstas
Photo: Catherine Bishop

10 Factory printed cloth

Sierra Leone; 1966
Cotton, dye; 1 1 1 .8 cm x 93.5 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-45
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

Why would African textile designers, with guidance from the

political leaders who placed orders for occasional cloths, project
an image of industry as something beautiful? Effectively serving
as a pool of labor for immense mining operations and plantations,
the indigenous societies of Africa had for many decades experi-
enced harmful social and environmental transformations linked
to the penetration of global capital in remote and resource-rich
areas. In many African countries, industries were nationalized
according to socialist ideologies of governance. The iconogra-
phy of industry symbolizes repossession of land, resources, and
infrastructure from colonial control. These sources of wealth
would contribute to national prosperity. In addition to the fac-
tory landscape, the textile from Zambia also displays images of
trains, boats, and airplanes moving through familiar landscapes
filled with mountains and waterways. What had once been colo-
nial possessions and tools were now in word, if not in deed, made
trait-cloths" (Faber 2010) characteristic of presidential parades available for the good of the greater population.
and events surrounding visiting dignitaries, occasional textiles Mechanized forms of mobility symbolize power; the rapid
circulated in the early 1960s displaying images of landscapes and movement of bodies, weapons, and commodities had once
maps. The aesthetic composition of these landscapes celebrates the ensured the dominance of colonial regimes. Travel, exploration,
achievements of industrialization. Unlike the earlier prints of the and knowledge of vast geographic regions were made possible
colonial period that depicted a gap between undeveloped Africa through innovations in transportation controlled by powerful
and the symbols of mechanized moder-
nity, the prints emerging during the era of
independence embraced economic devel-
opment and progress as forces uniting new
nations and communities. A print designed
for Congolese independence in i960 (Fig.
6) combines a large map of the country
with small icons accompanying the name
of the various provinces. The southern
province of Katanga features the image of a
factory with multiple smokestacks. A print
commemorating Zambian independence
in 1963 (Fig. 7) displays a repeating fac-
tory landscape decorating the lower border
filled with industrial equipment, smok-
ing chimneys, conveyor belts, and even
tiny mining carts. In the distance lie green
mountains and billowing clouds. This con-
ception of the landscape incorporates the
materials of copper mining as aesthetic
objects, translating economic development
into a national aesthetic rather than a form
of imperial domination.

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 ing at Mikumi train station welcomed the country's first presi-
dent, Jomo Kenyatta (Fig. 8). Later, in 1974, the inauguration of
the "Transcamerounais" train running between Ngaoundéré and
Yaoundé merited an occasional design featuring photographic
images of the locomotive and a map of Cameroon in which the
route of the train tracks are outlined (Fig. 9).
Other modes of transport appear in the iconography of occa-
sional textiles. One design from Sierra Leone reading "Happy
19 66 I Growth of Culture in Africa" features a block pattern of
small, repeating icons of cars, pens, telephones, radios, pipes,
books, watches, and bottles of wine (Fig. 10). As important aes-
thetic elements in the design, these objects represent the desir-
ability of modernization and technological change, processes
that would decrease social inequalities and enhance personal,
community, and national prestige. As in many parts of the world,
car ownership is an important marker of social status. Cars and
buses come to life in occasional prints, such as in the design used
to remind citizens of Sierra Leone to switch from right-hand to
left-hand traffic patterns on March 1, 1971 (Fig. 11). A landscape
of highways and bridges traversing forests and hills is filled with
rushing vehicles. In the distance is a blue ocean, reminiscent of
the mountainous topography of Freetown and constituting a
vernacular landscape of development recognizable to people in
Sierra Leone. An accompanying textile produced to advertise the
lane change depicts a woman in the foreground surrounded by
agricultural produce holding a sign reading "Right Hand Traf-
fic," the landscape beyond dominated by a steamship at a port
(Fig. 11). A lone lorry and several cars move through the dis-
tant streets. This design suggests that obeying the new driving
European elites. Perhaps more than any other form of transport,
the train symbolized power throughout the colonial era and
law will help people, including women, reach and integrate into
the early decades of African independence (Adas 1989; Head-
global economic circuits.
rick 1988). Necessitating vast quantities of labor and materials, The iconography of African occasional textiles incorporates
and celebrates urban landscapes and architecture. While trains
and representing the primary means of moving commodities out
and military personnel and arms in, the appropriation of trains
and ships signify power and progress, modern architecture is a
became a source of power and pride for newly independent monument symbolizing prosperity and modern feats of engi-
African nations. A kanga from Kenya displaying a train arriv-
neering. A textile made for the opening of the Hotel Ivoire in

11 Factory printed cloth

Sierra Leone; ca. 1971
Cotton, dye; 1 16.4 cm x 96.1 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-48
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

12 Factory printed cloth

Côte d'Ivoire; 1969
Cotton, dye; 113.2 cm x 170.2 cm
The Wil and Irene Petty Collection
2008-5-48
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

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 13 Factory printed cloth
Cotton, dye; 114.3 cm x 116.7 cm
The Wil and Irene Petty Collection
2008-5-43
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum
of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

14 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Senegal; 1982
Cotton, dye; 1 1 7 cm x 87 cm
E430421
Photo: Catherine Bishop, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution

15 Factory printed cloth (detail)

South Africa; 1 994
Cotton, dye; 100 cm x 112 cm
E430416

Photo: Catherine Bishop, National

Museum of Natural History , Smithsonian
Institution

8o al ricanants winter 201 4 vol. 47, no. 4

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1969 displays the hotels two skyscrapers and a multistory park- Maps are value-laden images embedded in geographic dis-
ing garage on a background mimicking the classic wax print courses, often deployed as instruments of power acquiring and
design known as "the vine" (Fig. 12). In another textile, a large enforcing state law in the landscape, and colonial propaganda
and unidentified stadium serves as a central motif on a plain maps anticipated empire, ultimately facilitating surveillance
background of tomato red (Fig. 13). Serving as a source of and control of colonial territories (Harley 1988). However, maps
national pride in participation in global activities, these forms appearing in African occasional textiles portray regional land-
of architecture reflected a changing cultural landscape marked scapes transcending the traditional boundaries of nations and
by rapid urbanization. As markers of growing city infrastructure, continents. Regional affiliations such as the Southern African
images of urban landscapes symbolize concrete economic devel- Development Community (SADC) released a textile printed
opment benefiting a large portion of the population. The iconog- with the map of the countries of southern Africa including Mau-
raphy of the city evokes a distinction between urban and rural ritius (and excluding Madagascar) (Fig. 15). In 1992, the member
and reifies the binary categorization coupling urban landscapes states signing the Treaty of the Southern African Development
with modernization and, indirectly, rural landscapes with unde- Community included Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi,
A7p»1rmpr1 harlrwarHnpcc
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The portraits and
Occasional textile designs redefined vernacular landscapes of
development by appropriating colonial power symbols such as names of the president of each country on the map surround the
railroads, agricultural technology, and infrastructure. Moving
beyond the local scale of infrastructure landscapes so crucial to
nation building, textile designs also incorporate symbols of tech-
nology and cooperation operating at regional and transnational
scales. A print designed for the inauguration of the Atlantis sub-
marine cable in Dakar in 1982 displays a map of the Atlantic
Ocean framed by the western coasts of Europe and Africa and
the eastern coast of South America (Fig. 14). The cities linked
by the cable are identified on the map as Recife, Dakar, Abidjan,
Lagos, Asilah, Tetouan, Marseilles, Burgau, Sesimbra, Rodiles,
Penmarch, and Lands End. This map presents the South Atlan-
tic as a region of contemporary, interconnected communications
networks in which cities in Africa are central nodes. A font of
Senegalese national pride, the span of the cable suggests new
landscapes of global connection.

16 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Senegal; 1994
Cotton, dye; 1 77 cm x 1 1 5 cm
E431585
Photo: Brittany M. Hance, National Museum of Natural History , Smithsonian Institution

17 Factory printed cloth (detail), Apollo 1 1

Sierra Leone; 1969-70
Cotton, dye; 1 15.6 cm x 50 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-46
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution

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 18 Factory printed cloth
Sierra Leone; date unknown
Cotton, dye; 1 16.2 cm x 97.2 cm
Gift of Donald A. Theuer and Lilburne Theuer Senn
2002-9-51
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

19 Factory printed cloth

Zambia; 1991
Cotton, dye; 1 09 cm x 201 .2 cm
The Wil and Irene Petty Collection
2008-5-75
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

central motif, including Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. In

another example of transnational cooperation, in the late 1990s
a textile circulated during a diplomatic visit to Senegal displays
portraits of presidents Abdou Diouf and Bill Clinton and an
image of clasping hands below the national maps of Senegal and
the United States (Fig. 16). The hands denote political and eco-
nomic ties linking the geographies of the two countries.
While landscapes at various scales may appear in occasional
designs, at least one textile depicts an extraterrestrial environ-
ment: a print from Sierra Leone released in 1969 to celebrate the
landing of Apollo 11 (Fig. 17). Rockets blast back and forth across
the borders while a central medallion in blue, green, red, and
brown is surrounded by hundreds of craters. The print contains
no obvious symbols of the origins of the space mission in the
United States, suggesting that travel beyond Earth was consid-
ered an achievement of the global community rather a narrowly
defined national endeavor.

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 African occasional textiles display vernacular landscapes of
development reflecting and contributing to political and eco-
nomic processes and social movements at national, regional,
and global scales. The designs also depict people as constitutive
of development landscapes. While the human form serves as a
canvas on which to manipulate and circulate occasional textiles,
the designs often incorporate representations of dressed bodies
performing diverse acts. In many cases, the people portrayed are
women. One example is a design promoting the Sierra Leone
National Women's Cooperative Society, proclaiming "Self Reli-
ance for Womanhood" (Fig. 18). The print displays a repeating
emblem of four women (or perhaps the same woman) working
role of women. The design emphasizes the family duties typically
associated with women in addition to highlighting opportuni-
ties to contribute to household income generation. The use of
a sewing machine symbolizes a modern approach to economic
activities while the acts of tending children and cooking anchor
women firmly in the sphere of the family compound. Both this
design from Sierra Leone and the following example from Zam-
bia signify women's economic and social liberation on the one
hand, and on the other the enrollment of women into global eco-
nomic networks. Gendered landscapes of development charac-
terize African occasional textiles (see Gilman 2009). The print
from Zambia reads "Vote UNIP for Economic Survival and

at a sewing machine, breastfeeding, tending a cooking fire, and Progress" and features a central medallion in which a woman
performing agricultural tasks. In some ways this message sub- is depicted operating an industrial loom (Fig. 19). She is sur
verts cultural norms surrounding the domestic, house-bound rounded by icons of the nations natural wealth: a waterfall (likely
Victoria Falls of the Zambezi River), lions, and what appear to b
rolls of copper wire. All of these elements are likely to be recog
nized as constituting the local landscape. The work of women
is a national source of wealth and, problematically, women are
equated to nature in their capacity to produce (Rose 2008).
20 Factory printed cloth (detail)
Mali; date unknown Along the borders of the design from Zambia are images of
Cotton, dye tractors. Farming was and remains the major economic activ-
Private collection
Photo: Catherine Bishop ity in rural Africa and development policies and actions have

vol. 47, no. 4 winter 2014 airicaii arts 83

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 21 Factory printed cloth
Zambia; date unknown
Cotton, dye; 1 16.4 cm x 1 1 1 cm
The Wil and Irene Petty Collection
2008-5-54
Photo: Franko Khoury, National Museum of African
Art, Smithsonian Institution

22 Factory printed cloth (detail)

Mali; 1986
Cotton, dye; 1 66 cm x 1 1 3 cm
E431584
Photo: Catherine Bishop, National Museum of Natural
History Smithsonian Institution

vernacular
often targeted agriculture as a "motor of development" as in the landscapes of development are symbolized through
textile promoting the "Plan Quinquennal" of Mali (Fig. 20).
the logos
The of social movements linking people and livelihoods to
environments.
mechanization of agriculture, and specifically the use of tractors,
generated new opportunities and challenges for African farm-
CONCLUSION
ers. From the perspective of women, agricultural technology
The broad diversity of iconography characterizing Afric
diffusion through development processes has tended to under-
occasional textiles does not fit neatly into the conceptual
mine traditional obligations and rights relative to production
digm
(e.g., Carney and Watts 1991; Schroeder 1999). In most cases men of presidential politics, nationalism, and commem
have had greater access to capital to invest in machinery, lead-
tion framing most scholarly studies of these important cul
objects.
ing to transformations in social relationships and contributing to Rather than attempting a typology of the variety
accelerating landscape modifications.
Women's contributions to discourses
and practices of development have often
centered on family issues such as health.
A textile design from Zambia displays
the image of a smiling mother holding
an infant (Fig. 20). Encircling the image
is text that reads "Get him immunized
and let him live / A healthy child builds a
healthy nation." The imagery suggests that
it is the responsibility of the mother to
ensure the wellbeing of children. Another
print promoting a vaccination program in
Mali in 1986 - the Programme Elargi de
Vaccination- used a different approach
to emphasize the importance of participa-
tion. The designer utilized a photographic
representation of President Moussa Traoré
administering an injection into a young
girl as a central motif (Fig. 21). As the
father of the nation, the president in this
case takes on the responsibility for the wel-
fare of the body politic. In these examples,

84 airlcan arts winter 2014 vol. 47, no. 4

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themes depicted in these textiles, this study applied a landscape
"way of seeing" (Cosgrove 1998) as a holistic framework for
interpreting and analyzing the perceptions, attitudes, and aspira-
tions expressed and reified through textile iconography. African
occasional textiles must be read as more than simple representa-
tional entities but rather as political devices in which the inter-
action of land, technology, and vision produces the elision of
experience and representation (Cosgrove 1998).
Conceptualizing the textile designs as representations of ver-
nacular landscapes of development reveals trends, patterns, and
continuities in the iconography of occasional designs. While
romantic or picturesque representations of landscapes suggest
stability in form and a lack of human influence on nature, ver-
nacular landscapes constitute processes of change understood
through the actions and perceptions of people making a living
from the environment. Without the insider knowledge of local
culture and environment informing the critical outsider perspec-
tive, vernacular landscapes appear unremarkable. This is why the
landscapes depicted in occasional textiles have often remained
unseen or misunderstood outside of the immediate cultural con-
text. The content of the iconography is unreadable to those who
cannot decode their symbols; however once the vernacular char-
acteristic of these landscapes is recognized, their appearance and
messages become legible.
African occasional textiles provide important insights into the
ways that people envision, understand, and participate in pro-
cesses of social and economic development. While the legacy
of imperialism has influenced many contemporary studies and
critiques of development on the continent, occasional textiles
help communicate a different meaning of development reflect-
ing individual and community aspirations, local environmental
perceptions, and postcolonial understandings of modernity.
Catherine P. Bishop is a doctoral candidate in the Departments of Geogra-
phy and Anthropology at Indiana University Her thesis 0 African Occasional
Textiles" is based on research in the collections of the Mathers Museum of
World Cultures , the National Museum of Natural History and the National
Museum of African Art , Smithsonian Institution , and focuses on the mate-
rial lifecycle of the fabrics. Her wider interests include international devel-
opment , political ecology science and technology studies, applied research ,
material culture, textiles, and dress, cpbishop@indiana.edu

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