kanga
- Museum number
- 2017,2024.3
- Description
-
A rectangular cotton cloth 'kanga' with a central motif of moon and stars printed in maroon, blue and white, and with an inscription in KiSwahili.
- Production date
- 1946-1954
- Dimensions
-
Length: 160 centimetres
-
Width: 110 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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-
- Curator's comments
- " The Kanga trade was mainly with what was then British East Africa – Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. All the merchants out there were of Indian origin.
Two names recollected were Hassanali Gulamhusein Piera and Kassamali Gulamhusein Piera, who were relatives but also business rivals. So it ws vital that their names and P.O. Box numbers were never confused nor indeed the Kanga designs each was purchasing, in any correspondence. Both operated from Zanzibar and were very big names in the Kanga trade.
Hassanali once visited Manchester for a week and was brought into the Dehns Office and Warehouse several times and also taken to visit Companies who produced the cotton cloth and those who did the printing of it.
It became necessary to have translations into English provided of the Inscriptions on Kangas, as at some point it was discovered that the meanings of some Swahili words or Arabic letterings were unacceptable or rude!"
[pers.corresp. Margery Thornley (nee Joy Gibbon) 28th February 2017.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Fair
- Acquisition date
- 2017
- Acquisition notes
- Textiles acquired whilst working for Dehns' Kangas, 1946 to 1954 in Salford, Manchester.
" The Company was Dehns (Africa) Ltd and was a Subsidiary of Ralli Bros. Ltd. who had recently acquired the AFRICA department of the Dehn family's Textile Company ( a very well-known name in the Kanga trade). Ralli Bros. Were very well-established and well-known Exporters of Textiles, manly cotton piece goods.
The location was in the “Ralli Building”, a large and prestigious one alongside the River Irwell and Railway Goods Yard in Salford, Manchester. This comprised Offices and Warehouse premises, and stoood where the BBC Salford Complex now exists."
[pers.corresp. Margery Thornley (nee Joy Gibbon) 28th February 2017]
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- 2017,2024.3