Batik is a word used in West Africa consisting on the process of hand decorating and printing a fabric in which parts not to be dyed are covered by wax.
African fashion really spread worldwide with the batik fabrics tailored in the western fashion way. The patterns on the fabrics reflect the beauty, texture and simplicity of the African tradition.
These fabrics are originally from West Africa; Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and the Gambia.
History and manufacture
There are examples of batik textiles in many parts of Africa but the most developed skills are to be found in Nigeria when the Yoruba people make Adire clothes.
Two methods are used in the dying and printing of the fabric: Adire Eleso which involves tied and stitched designs and Adire Eleko where the starch paste is used.
The paste is most often made from cassava (a root plant) flour, rice, alum or copper sulfate boiled together to produce a smooth thick paste.
The paste produced from that mixture is used in two different ways.
The first; using the freehand drawing of traditional designs using a feather, thin stick piece of fine bone, a metal or a wooden comb-like tool. This one is done by women.
Men on the other hand force the pasting through a thin metal stencil with a flexible metal or wooden tool; this enables accurate repeat patterns to be achieved.
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, bead work, activities or traditional image of the artists own culture or tribal history.
An Eleko cloth (paste used) is usually made up of 2.2 meters pieces sewn together.
The traditional dye is indigo from a plant that grows throughout Africa. They produce a dark blue color which varies with the varieties of indigo. Once the paste resist is dry, the fabric is dyed in large clay pots or pits dug in the earth.
After dying, 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.
But in recent years, other clothes using the African designs have been produced in Britain ( Manchester clothes) and Holland, these ones are made by the machine.
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