Batik in
Africa
Batik in Africa
Africa has a rich tradition of resist-dyeing, and while not all of these techniques use wax, they share the same fundamental principle of applying a resist to cloth before dyeing. The most developed skills are to be found in Nigeria where the Yoruba people make adire cloths. Two methods of resist are used: adire eleso which involves tied and stitched designs and adire eleko where starch paste is used.
The paste is most often made from cassava (a root plant) flour, rice, alum or copper sulphate boiled together to produce a smooth thick paste. The Yoruba of West Africa used cassava paste as a resist while the people of Senegal use rice paste. The paste is applied in two different ways. Unlike wax-resist batik, adire eleko uses a starch paste as its resist — but the principle of protecting areas of cloth from dye remains the same.
By using freehand drawing of traditional designs using a feather, thin stick, piece of fine bone or a metal or wooden comb-like tool. This is done by women. Forced through a thin metal stencil with a flexible metal or wooden tool. This enables accurate repeat patterns to be achieved. This is done by men.
Traditional Eleko Cloth Dying in West Africa
The patterning of cloth is usually a family tradition handed down from mother to daughter as a cottage industry. The cloth is usually divided into squares or rectangles and designs represent everyday tools, carvings, beadwork, activities or traditional images of the artists own culture or tribal history. An eleko cloth is made up of two, two and a half yard pieces sewn together.
Many women work alone but group dyeing sessions are more cost effective. The more commercial cloths are the stencil products and are often produced by men. The traditional dye is indigo from a plant which grows throughout Africa. In many places these are now cultivated and different varieties produce a variation of the dark blue colour. Once the paste resist is dry, the fabric is dyed in large clay pots or pits dug in the earth. After drying the paste is scraped off to reveal a white or pale blue design. The usual cloth is cotton but highly prized clothing using wild silk is sometimes produced. In recent years other cloths using African designs have been produced in Britain (Manchester cloths) and Holland. These mass-produced fabrics are machine made, and some are produced in Africa.
The Rise of African Wax Prints
Although not a hand-crafted batik in the traditional sense, printed wax fabrics — widely known as “African prints” or ankara — have become deeply woven into the textile identity of sub-Saharan Africa. Originally inspired by Indonesian batik, these bold, colourful cotton fabrics were industrially produced in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century and introduced to West and Central Africa through trade. The prints mimic the crackle and repeat patterns of hand-made batik by using a roller printing process with resin, creating a similar visual effect at scale.
Over generations, African consumers and designers shaped the aesthetic entirely: the vivid geometric and figurative designs we associate with wax prints today reflect local tastes, symbolism, and cultural expression. Countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, and the Democratic Republic of Congo each developed their own signature patterns and naming traditions, with certain prints carrying social or ceremonial meaning. Today, wax prints are produced across Africa as well as in Asia and Europe, and continue to inspire contemporary fashion designers worldwide.
River Mud and Cotton: The Art of Bamana Mud Cloth
Bamana mud cloth (bogolanfini) takes the resist principle in a different direction entirely, using river mud not just as a resist but as the dye itself. The ground fabric is woven of hand spun cotton yarn in narrow strips on the mans double-heddle loom. The cloth is then dyed yellow and the design applied with river mud. This ‘saddens’ the yellow, turning it dark brown.
The yellow dye in the unpainted areas is then discharged with a caustic preparation bleaching out these areas and returning them to their original colour. This produces cloth with the characteristic dark brown and white pattern.
Reproduced from Batik Transitions, published by The Batik Guild, 2006