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Book Review Chapter 7 appropriation and use of Amazigh women’s art and motifs is described and assessed in book review Chapter 7. Increasing urbanization, political activities of artists promoting their Amazigh heritage, and the pressure on Amazigh women to assimilate with their Arab neighbors are also discussed. The paradoxical situation of male artists using the symbols of traditional women’s arts while those same arts are fast dis- appearing is noted but not critically evaluated. These final two chapters seem to diverge from Fashioning Africa: Power and the rest of the book, whose focus is primarily Politics of Dress on women and women’s arts. ed. by Jean Allman The strength of this book is the detailed Indiana University Press, 2004; descriptions of the components of the wed- ding among the Ait Khabbash. The transcrip- 256 pages, 36 b&w photos, tion and translation of songs sung during index. $50 cloth; $21.95 paper ritual activities is an important contribution to the study of gender expectations, language, reviewed by Joanne B. Eicher and lived experience among this group of peo- ple. The overall package, unfortunately, leaves Jean Allman’s edited volume on African dress something to be desired. adds substantially to research on dress as Becker’s main point seems to be that Ait nonverbal communication with its focus on Khabbash women, because they are weavers of power and politics. The book is a gem. I fol- textiles and are charged with ritual responsi- lowed its development from attendance at the bility, play an important public role in society, two panels of papers presented at the 2001 and that weaving gives women power and pres- African Studies Association meetings to its tige in Ait Khabbash society. Paradoxically, the publication in 2004, assigning it for my semi- data she presents shows that the seat of wom- nar on Dress and Culture, where it stimulated en’s power is their ability to bear Ait Khabbash lively discussion. The chapter contributors are children, particularly sons (p. 75). This power interdisciplinary, dominated by seven histo- is controlled first by a girl’s parents, who are rians, followed by two anthropologists, an art tasked with preserving her virginity until mar- historian, a dress scholar, and a communica- riage, and then by her mother-in-law (p. 160). part, well chosen and clear and it is obvi- tions specialist. Allman selected several writ- Weaving is a visual expression of the impor- ous Dr. Becker has had extensive experience ers already known to Africanists as having tance of a woman’s fertility both in her own among the Ait Khabbash and in Morocco in published books or articles on African dress, life and in the continued preservation of eth- general. But her data seem to be forced into such as Judith Byfield (2002), Margaret Jean nic identity. Young women are beginning to a mold that does not quite fit. Monni Adams Hay (1992, 1996), Elisha Renne (1995), Victo- question and rebel against the limited roles (1993), in her article on women’s arts in Côte ria Rovine (2001), and Phyllis Martin (1996). allowed them in Ait Khabbash society (p. 46), d’Ivoire, addresses many of the same issues Newcomers are Heather Akou, Marissa Moor- as evidenced by the new lyrics of hiwawi. If brought up by Becker. She describes the ways man, Andrew Ivaska, and Boatema Boateng. young women are questioning the narrowness in which men are said to “be in command and Allman’s phrase “the sartorial study of of this role, then it makes sense they would have the right to make all decisions” in both power” (p. 4) succinctly introduces the com- not want to learn to weave, an activity that is public and private spheres. She then goes on mon issues featured in the chapters. As a intimately related metaphorically to repro- to analyze the ways in which women’s arts of historian who normally deals with written duction. Becker acknowledges there is a para- house painting, making and decorating pot- documents in library or government archives, dox between being the creator of the artistic tery, and body painting of female initiates she points out that all contributors use “cloth- symbols of identity and being restricted by mark the domains where women exercise ing or dress as an enormously valuable, yet these symbols, yet this paradox is never fully power, contrary to the prevailing ideology. largely untapped, archive” (ibid.). Allman’s explored or analyzed. Perhaps if Becker’s data were analyzed more introduction also tackles the topic of moder- Another topic only touched on and a fer- closely and more detail provided regarding nity versus tradition, taking the stance that tile ground for analysis is the growing con- what men do as well as the local ideology of “tradition does not exist either prior to or flict, especially among young women, between men’s and women’s roles in Ait Khabbash soci- in opposition to the modern” (p. 5), and she Amazigh identity and Islam and how this ety, her thesis would be more successfully con- asserts that both tradition and modernity plays out through dress.A discussion of the veyed to the reader. can and do exist simultaneously. She points public and private spheres, a concept invoked out that textile examples used for dress and numerous times but never explained, would Bobbie Sumberg is curator of textiles and cos- thought of as traditional, such as mudcloth greatly enrich the book and give the reader a tume at the Museum of International Folk Art in from Mali and kente from Ghana, are used framework with which to evaluate the author’s Santa Fe. [email protected] effectively as a base for contemporary fash- statements. ions, and the chapters by Rovine on mudcloth I find no fault with the author’s research, References cited (“Fashionable Traditions: The Globalization data, or description. The use of song tran- Adams, Monni. 1993. “Women’s Art as Gender Strat- of an African Textile”) and Boateng on kente scripts adds depth to interviews, discussion, egy Among the Wè of Canton Boo.” African Arts 26 (“African Textiles and the Politics of Diasporic and observation. Illustrations are, for the most (4):32–43, 84. Identity-Making”) provide detailed analyses of 92 | african arts WINTER 2008 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/afar.2008.41.4.92 by guest on 26 September 2021 10837 • 20808222 page:92 CMYK her point of this dual existence. of gender in “Changes in Clothing and Strug- transgressors. Ivaska analyzes the ban as one In addition to the themes of power and poli- gles over Identity in Colonial Kenya,” Marga- that related to larger issues than just “modern” tics, chapters illustrate how dress displays many ret Jean Hay establishes a baseline of the early fashions that seemed inappropriate to wear. other facets of identity, most particularly focus- 1900s for types of dress considered proper for He ties the uproar over fashion transgressions ing on gender. In “Remaking Fashion in the wear in specific situations by Kenyan men and to struggles within urban areas relating to gen- Paris of the Indian Ocean: Dress, Performance, women, adults and children. Many examples der and generational conflicts. In his view, the and the Cultural Construction of a Cosmpoli- provided only minimal coverage or appeared visibility of fashions became “extraordinary tan Zanzibari Identity,” Laura Fair pinpoints exotic, composed of skins, feathers, paint, or indices of social conflict, registering debates gender when she asserts that “new forms of wire, giving Europeans, whether residents or over national culture and ‘modern develop- dress were worn as public articulations of wom- travelers, “picturesque photo opportunities” (p. ment,’ the construction and crises of new fem- en’s new definitions of self” (p. 13). She begins 68). Dress during British rule from 1895–1915 ininities and masculinities, general conflicts her argument with a description of both men’s encompassed many of these examples, and over resources and contest over public space in and women’s dress in the nineteenth century also saw the emergence of new forms. Wear- a postcolonial capital” (p. 118). (for both freeborn and slave, high status and ing both indigenous forms and Western-style Also focusing on the wearing of miniskirts, low), giving as an example how, after abolition, clothing brought about criticism from Europe- this time in Zambia, Karen Tranberg Hansen, former slaves began appropriating formerly ans, for some outsiders protested that although asks the question, “What is it about miniskirts forbidden items. Also at that time, the cotton they believed European-style clothing was not that continues to provoke public ire about printed textile known as kanga took on signifi- appropriate, they nevertheless wanted naked- questions concerning culture, gender, and cance and became popular. Women began to ness to be covered with items such as wrappers sexuality?” (p. 166). She begins with a general create a new image for themselves, a cosmo- for women or a simple gown or tunic for men. discussion of the significance of the dressed politan image, by creating a hybrid mixture Hay develops her chapter around three conflicts body in her chapter, “Dressing Dangerously: from a variety of cultural styles formerly worn during the 1920s and 1930s in western Kenya Miniskirts, Gender Relations, and Sexuality in by people from many different backgrounds in regarding clothing and identity: 1) between Zambia,” and leads into an extended analysis Zanzibari history. Fair sees women’s selection of Christians and labor migrants and Luo tradi- of expected differences in Zambian society garments from a past that embraced both “Arab tionalists, (2) between elders and young men, for male and female dress.
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