Proudly Tanzanian: The Khanga Story

This Christmas, while shopping at JOY, a trendy store in the UK, I came across a dress that made me a little homesick and somewhat emotional. It was not sparkly or made by any particular designer. It made me emotional because it was made using Khanga, a textile that will always remind me of home.

I love the Khanga, and in particular, many of the fashionable items people produce of it. When I was in Dar, I never really came across ‘these’ fashionable Khanga items, however my much talented tailor in Namanga did stitch wonderful items for me.

The Khanga in fact, does not get enough credit for the amount of publicity it generates for Tanzania around the world. Designers like Mustafa Hassanali, Ally Rehmtulla and Doreen Mashika have been raising the profile of the Khanga at various locations worldwide, including of course the UK where I recently met Ally at the launch of his Khanga collection. Mustafa as well has had his ‘Khangalicious’ collection on the ramp in Dar last year. Doreen on the other hand, has just had her website completed and maybe not had so much publicity, she’s our little hidden gem, she’s from Morogoro, and she makes brilliant shoes and bags from Khanga and Kitenges and I’m sure there are many like her who are making waves globally but are not heard of in Dar.

There are other initiatives that hav e been started by people from different parts of the world, include a Swedish initiative called Watatu, it’s run by three wonderful women two of whom are Tanzanian. There’s also the company called Kanga Kabisa, based in Zanzibar’s Stone Town and the dresses I came across were by Lalesso, a Kenyan company.

I thought I’d put together some facts about the Khanga for you, seeing that I adore the fabric (I’m not imposing this on you, but it is truly a wonderful textile, I’m sure you would agree?)

So, the Khanga is a about 1 meter wide and 1,5 meter long piece of textile, which is used mainly in Tanzania and Kenya as a garment for daily wear, for decorating the interiors of a house and for carrying babies. The Khanga is made of cotton and is printed using the silkscreen technique with a frame. There is also often a slogan or proverb printed on the textile, known as Ujumbe in Swahili.

Various events and occasions may have Khangas dedicated to them, take for example, the Khanga that was printed with President Elect - Barack Obama during his campaign, or a Khanga that is printed for Christmas or Eid. The Khanga a versatile textile, easy to fold, tie and wind.

In the middle of the 19th century Zanzibar was ruled by Said bin Sultan from Oman. He introduced the cultivation of cloves, still one of the most important crops of the island. During the 18th and 19th century Zanzibar was the most important slave market in the region, but it also became the departure point for regular trade caravans that ran deeper and deeper into Eastern Africa.

As a result, there was an abundance of imported goods in the bazaars. Textiles were imported from India, the Far East and Europe. The Portuguese also contributed to this with printed textiles brought to be used as shawls. These came in 0.50 meters wide rolls with squarish patterns. Normally you would cut off one square and sell it, but some women bought six squares instead, cut it in two pieces and stitched them together to get new patterns. The new patterns shared a resemblance with the plumage of the speckled guinea fowl. In Swahili, the word Khanga means precisely that: guinea fowl.

I hope this has enlig htened you. It sure has reminded me of Tanzania’s rich and diverse culture and how proud I am to be Tanzanian and to wear the Khanga.

So in the new year, if you’re going to make any resolutions, make sure one of them involves ’buy local, wear the Khanga’. If you think you won’t be able to afford buying a Khanga dress, get yourself down to the local areas where they sell Khangas, buy some loose Khanga material and get it stitched according to the styles you want and then flaunt it on your night out or even just at work or while you go out shopping, there are so many ways you can dress the Khanga.

PS: Khanga can be worn by men too, they make wonderful shirts especially cooling in the heat.

What are you waiting for? Get your Khangas on!

Note: All images are subject to copyright.

A Girl’s Best Friend; She’s Called Tanzanite.

No ordinary gemstone. Its shimmering color is exotic and its rarity is greater than diamonds.

Like the life story of a glamorous supermodel, unravels the story of the beautiful Tanzanite. Discovered by chance, this beautiful stone was then made famous by Tiffanys & Co. which saw the price of Tanzanite soar, its reputation was then flawed by allegations of being linked to terrorism but she fought back, rising much stronger, more loved than ever and as the world’s most popular gemstone. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend no longer, Tanzanite is.

Indeed, It is claimed tanzanite is a 1000 times rarer than Diamonds, Zoisite (a complex mineral that forms Tanzanite) occurs widely, however, the geological conditions that produce Tanzanite in the ground is so rare it has been described as ‘more astounding than the stone itself.’

Who would have thought that a local Maasai tribesman called Ali Juuyawatu, would one day find a piece of a translucent crystal near Mount Kilimanjaro and being fascinated by its blue-violetish hue, decide to share the find with Manuel De Souza, a Goan tailor by profession and prospector by passion, who was looking for rubies in the region at the time.

Initially unsure as to what he had been given, De Souza decided that the mineral must be Olivine (Peridot). However, further analysis led him to realise that his initial conclusions were inaccurate and as such he took to calling it 'Dumortierite' which is a blue non gem mineral.

It was only when De Souza took the stone to a Nairobi based geologist and gemstone trader John Saul who was mining aquamarine in the surrounding region around Mount Kenya, when Saul eliminated both Dumortierite and Cordierite as possibilities for the samples. Saul decided to send them to his father, Hyman Saul, who was the then Vice President of Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, America.

Little did Juuyawatu, De Souza and Saul know that they were about make history.

Hyman Saul got two of the samples facetted and showed them to the Director of Tiffany & Co, Henry Platt, who fell in love with the stone (Who wouldn’t?). He gave it the name 'Tanzanite' which was clearly an obvious assertion to its country of origin, our wonderful Tanzania and also perhaps because he believed it to mirror the beauty of a classic Tanzanian night. Platt went onto describe the stone as "the most exciting event of the century" and went on to launch a huge marketing campaign that created the phenomenon that has the taken the gem world by storm. In fact, Platt even got Tanzanite to be the first Gemstone to have been added by the American Gem Trade Association to the list of Birthstones since 1912 and it is now an official Birthstone for December (perfect birthday present for your beloved).

So you see like a supermodel, Tanzanite was discovered, marketed and now she was going to be dishonoured.

Shortly after the tragic September 11th Terrorist attack in 2001, a front page Wall Street Journal article was released by Daniel Pearl and Robert Block which made unfounded terrorist links to Tanzanite. Indeed, the authors alleged that a substantial amount of Al-Qaeda funding was generated through an illicit trade in Tanzanite stones.

However, as with most things that have no ground to stand, the following year (February 2002) Mike O'Keefe, who was the Officer of East African Affairs for The US State Department at the time said that the US had no evidence of Al-Qaeda funding through Tanzanite.

With a lack of credible evidence linking tanzanite and terrorism Zale (US based gemstone jewellers) resumed Tanzanite sales in May, 2002, and this was gradually followed by other marketers. Indeed, some coloured stone wholesalers say that Tanzanite should have never left the showcases at all, since no one pulled Diamonds when they were found to be supporting terrorism in Sierra Leone.

So just Kate Moss (who was dishonoured albeit for reasons that are valid – drug use is not wise for a model with such a high profile, she went to rehab though and is still the queen of the catwalk) who rose again after her really bad time in the public eye and being removed from all advertising deals, Tanzanite rose too. You see since De Souza took the stone to Nairobi, Tanzanite has risen to become one of the darlings of the gemstone world.

As a matter of fact, Tanzanite is now currently outselling Diamonds in some parts of the world (notably South Africa), and recent demand from rapidly developing economies such as India and China who have seen an increase in affluence, has helped to place Tanzanite at the forefront of colored gemstone sales. So everyone should be buying Tanzanite right?

Well, the answer to that is, no.

Tanzanite is an expensive gemstone. It’s not expensive because we want it to be expensive. It’s expensive because it’s rare. Since Tanzanite is found in one single area in Tanzania (Merelani), and because supply is finite, with estimates stating that Tanzanite (in the top grade) will be completely mined out within the next ten years, many have deemed Tanzanite as the 'Stone of a Generation' and one which will make an excellent investment.

It’s like any free market economy where the main driving force of the market is based upon supply and demand. When something is in high demand, yet its supply is limited that it cannot cope with the demand, then obviously the price of the commodity in question will skyrocket (a modern example of this being oil). The price you pay for a fine quality Tanzanite, say between 2 - 10 carats, is approximately $2000 to $5000. This is not to say that you can’t buy Tanzanite for anything less than that, you can purchase a beautiful pair of Tanzanite earrings for around $250.

To put it in perspective, the supermodel has got it all. She is beautiful, strong, classy, expensive and so is Tanzanite.

Like the Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and the Olduvai Gorge, that we so proudly promote as our heritage land marks, it’s time we did the same for Tanzanite. Let’s celebrate its beauty and what is has done for Tanzania. Rightly said, the slogan ‘Be Born to Tanzanite’ used by TanzaniteOne to promote Tanzanite globally is a personal favourite of mine (I might even be tempted to buy a T-shirt with that slogan); it tells the world of how precious this gemstone is and how proud we should be.

If you didn’t know, you will now, that the Maasai Tribesmen give it to all their newborn children as a bearer of good fortune. They believe Tanzanite to have many mystical and healing powers and that it uplifts and opens the heart.

A gemstone that shows us a graceful, gracious way to live and people who wear it feel a spiritual power pulling them up.

The Maasai are wise men. We should listen to them. Lift your heart and soul. Buy a Tanzanite (or buy me one!)

References:
http://www.tanzaniteamerica.com
http://www.swalagemtraders.com
http://knol.google.com/k/josh-robbins/tanzanite/
http://www.tanzaniteone.com