Kanga Khanga Kikoi

The Emmy Awards took place earlier this week and a Victoria Rowell (an actress on soap operas) wore a cotton dress depicting President Barack Obama. I've noticed some discussion on blogs and sewing websites as to whether this was an appropriate dress to wear on the Red Carpet. I think that it's a bit too casual--it's made from woven cotton. But I've never been on the Red Carpet, so I'm not an expert on what to wear.

However, I recognized the fabric immediately as an East African kanga (also spelled khanga, also called a kikoi). A kanga is a type of sarong, which can be worn wrapped in a myriad of ways. Here is a delightful video of three charming Tanzanian young ladies showing how to wear kangas.

Link to How to Wear a Kanga

Link to Arkansas State Presentation by Rose Ong'oa on Kangas (heavy on photos)

Right after the presidential election, several blogs that cover African American culture had images of Obama-themed Kangas. I searched around on eBay and on East African webstores. I almost bought one or two Obama bangas but I looked at my fabric stash and I decided to hold off. When would I ever wear them, especially since I already had one in my closet as a gift from a friend. I did some more searching for more webstores selling them and I located this a store that sells a number of commemorative kangas. Currently their stock includes Michael Jackson kanga.

Simply Tanzanian webstore Barack Obama Kangas (I'm having problems linking directly to the page--please use then menu on the Simply Tanzanian page to link to 'kangas.')

I think that these garments are kind of like commemorative t-shirts, at least ones with the pictures of politicians or celebrities. Many of the other kangas have really pretty patterns--I know, because I have one (I might have two--I can't find the other one, if I got two of them).

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine went to Kenya for geological/petroleum research and she brought back several kangas as gifts. I still have one--its lovely: a large geometric pattern in black and blue on white fabric. The cotton is loosely woven, not quite a gauze. I took a quick picture (so quick that I didn't iron it :) I was using it to wrap up other fabric in storage) I don't know what it the words mean on the bottom, but I think that the language might be Swahili. According to Google Translate, it means "rua not water thirsty yishi". Hmmm. Thank you, Bonnie! It's a lovely piece of fabric!