Project: Ceci N'est Pas l'Afrique

Inspired by Yinka Shonibare’s quote: An image of ‘African fabric’ isn’t necessarily authentically [and wholly] African”, Ceci n’est pas l’Afrique explores, through text, the politics of fabric as an image of national identity and a product of crossbred cultures, through the example of Dutch Wax.

Woven textiles and other fabrics are one the features of the material culture of Africa, notably West and North Africa. Although most of these textiles are locally manufactured by indigenous spinners, weavers and dyers who seek to conserve their social and cultural meanings, some of these fabrics remain imported from Europe and India and are a testament of the colonial era.