#AfricaTrending~ Manjak Fabric by Dean Brown

 

Time to share another post by Dean in our #Africa Trending series

For my readers out there~ Dean Brown

'Manjak' is a Traditional West African Fabric from the beautiful region of Guinnea Bissau. The Manjak fabric is named after our Manjak Nation who originated it long ago in the region now called Guinnea Bissau. It is a soft cotton fabric handmade manually with a weaving loom.

According to legend, a spirit inspired a master artisan from the village of Kalekis to Invision and innovate this weaving style, and he passed the technique onward to his community. It is connected to the weaving traditions our African foreparents brought to the United States as enslaved people. These traditions long predate the era of U.S. Slavery, and like Adire', Kente', Mudcloth and Akwete' textiles, they are an example of what African societies were doing with cotton cultivation, weaving and fabric dyeing long before the United States even existed.

This info is having an extra relevance with cities like Macon, Georgia celebrating it's bicentennial in (1823 to 2023) and economic birth on a cotton industry, eventually with 9 textile factories built on the skills of Africans from the Gullah and Tybee region. The city of Macon, the first banks (first national bank was at the location of The current Bohamian Den on cherry street) and railroads and booming economic growth wouldn't have even existed without the free labor... Much more to this story! These pics have to be seen as part of that story because the traditional fabrics are still around today. #TheAfricaYouDontSeeOnTV

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