WHAT DID OUR ANCESTORS USE TO GET DRESSED IN BEFORE COLONISATION ?

The dutch wax cloth has been so well adopted by the Sub-Saharan populations,

among which the Ivorians, that one can rightly ask the question : “ what did those people use to get dressed in before the major changes which marked the history of the peoples of Black Africa, namely the Slave Trade and Colonisation ?”

A well established idea had always insidiously made believe that the peoples living in the Sub-Saharan region used to go around almost naked ; but a closer look shows that this idea is far from true and is contemptuous for a continent which has always made clothing a great passion for its peoples.

The technique of beaten tree bark is from far the most ancient in the history of African textile, and precedes the golden age of clothing in Africa with the advent of the raffia and later cotton which experienced its development in Côte d'Ivoire with the well known Baoulé cloth.

Source : MIMI ERROL, journalist Ivorian art critic.