Guinea: A Textile Civilization in Four Systems
Guinea: A Textile Civilization in Four Systems By Mariama Camara & Oury Sene King of Kindia, c.1910, with two wives in Basse-Guinée textiles (tie-dye, weaving, embroidery). Courtesy of Duncan Clarke, antique postcard and African textile dealer. Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is rarely understood through its material systems. It is more often described through […]
Material Literacy: The Knowledge in Cloth
Mariama Camara on authorship, ownership, and the distance between admiration and accountability.
Why the Wrapper Remains West Africa’s Undecolonized Garment
The wrapper predates colonial borders and outlives fashion cycles. It is one of the continent’s most enduring systems, and one of the few
Three African Knowledge Systems on the Loewe Craft Prize 2026 Shortlist
The 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize shortlist runs thirty finalists from nineteen countries. Three of them work with African craft traditions as method
The Cloth That Holds the Dead
An Egungun is not a costume. It’s a technology for making ancestors show up. Outside the communities that practice it, Egungun gets misread
African Ritual Aesthetics in the Age of Luxury Fashion
Across Lagos, Dakar, and London, African designers are increasingly turning to the sacred. From Adama Paris’ waridjé mask bags to Bubu Ogisi’s
Ghana Funeral Culture: How West Africans Honor the Dead With Custom Coffins, Fashion, and Ceremony
A life happened here, and it was worthy of celebration.
Woven Histories: Hair in East and Southern Africa — Ritual, Resistance, and Rebirth
Woven Histories: Hair in East and Southern Africa — Ritual, Resistance, and Rebirth The eembuvi-plaits of Mbalantu women before the Ohango initiation ceremony, Namibia, 1930s. Photograph by C.H.L. Hahn. Collection Antje Otto. Editor’s Note: This feature is part of Guzangs’ ongoing exploration of African hair traditions, tracing their evolution from spiritual practice to global artistry. […]
The Milaya Project: Embroidering Resilience in Uganda’s Largest Refugee Settlement
When Swedish/German photojournalist Nora Lorek first set foot in Bidibidi, northern Uganda—one of the world’s largest refugee settlement, home to over 250,000 South Sudanese—she did not expect to discover a textile tradition that would transform her work. It was 2017, and she had come to document Uganda’s refugee response, curious to understand how a functioning […]
Hair Culture in West Africa: A Historical and Modern Perspective
Editor’s Note: This feature is part of Guzangs’ ongoing exploration of African hair traditions, tracing their evolution from spiritual practice to global artistry. This installment focuses on West Africa, following Part I, which explored North African hair traditions. Hair in West African cities like Lagos, Accra, Dakar, and Lomé has long been a profound symbol […]