A History of African Fashion: 10 Skills in 90 Seconds
· Episode 5 of 10
Episode 5 / 10 · Review
Review: African Fashion from Ancient Roots to Colonial Era
Name the three mechanisms through which colonial rule disrupted African dress practices, and name one pre-colonial textile tradition that survived into the present day.
The three mechanisms were missionary pressure (promoting 'modest' Western dress), economic policy (flooding markets with imported cloth to undercut local textile production), and forced labor (disrupting the time and social structures needed to maintain traditional craft). One surviving pre-colonial tradition is Kente weaving, which retained its coded symbolic meaning and continues to be worn for significant social occasions today.
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