Needlework in Africa

Annie Devenish (Editor) Senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Sophie Dulucq (Editor) Professor of History at the University of Toulouse and a former director of IFAS-Recherche in Johannesburg (Institut Français d'Afrique du Sud).Marie Opplert (Editor) Research project manager at the French Research Centre of South Africa, IFAS-Research.Brenda Schmahmann (Editor) Brenda Schmahmann is Professor in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Johannesburg.Jonathan Botes (Editor) PhD candidate at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Linda Chernis (Editor) South African archivist and heritage practitioner who has worked in museums and archives for the past 20 years. She is the archivist at the GALA Queer Archives in Johannesburg.Francisca Gigante Godinho da Silva (Editor) PhD candidate in Art History at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and an independent curator of international solo and group exhibitions and performances across Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Japan.Laurence Douny (Editor) Social anthropologist and Research Associate at Humboldt University, Berlin.Patricia Gérimont (Editor) Independent researcher, author and director of two documentary films, Images en bibliothèques (2014) and Pères blancs, Prêtres noirs (2018).Philippa Hobbs (Editor) Senior research associate with the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg.Rachel Dixon Kabukala (Editor) Associate Curator of African Art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and African Studies Program at Indiana University.Nessa Leibhammer (Editor) Independent researcher, writer and curator with a particular interest in material culture approached from an interdisciplinary position.Fatima Leveque (Editor) Master craftswoman specialising in textile design who was born in Morocco and worked between Morocco and France. She founded her company, La Métisse, in 1999.Myriem Naji (Editor) Social anthropologist and Honorary Fellow at University College London specialising in North-African textiles, dress, the body and gender.Shonisani Netshia (Editor) Lecturer in painting in the Department of Visual Art, Faculty Art, Design & Architecture at the University of Johannesburg.Line Relisieux (Editor) PhD candidate at the London School of Economics' Department of Geography and Environment.Christopher Richards (Editor) Director of Women's and Gender Studies and an Associate Professor of African Art History at Brooklyn College, New York. He is the author of Cosmopolitanism and Women's Fashion in Ghana (2022).Elisha Renne (Editor) Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Cloth that Does Not Die (1995) and co-editor of Textile Ascendancies: Aesthetics, Production, and Trade in Northern Nigeria (2020).Salif Sawadogo (Editor) Research assistant and research affiliate at Humboldt University, Berlin.Bonke Sonjani (Editor) Heritage practitioner and human rights activist at the human rights organisation, Iranti.Natalie Swanepoel (Editor) Natalie Swanepoel is an archaeologist at the University of South Africa, Pretoria.Vanessa Tembane (Editor) South African-born artist with a Mozambican heritage who currently resides and works in Johannesburg.

• Introduction – Annie Devenish, Sophie Dulucq, Marie Opplert and Brenda SchmahmannPart I: Histories of clothChapter 1 Threads of Life: Women and Spinning in West Africa 1000–2000 CE – Natalie SwanepoelChapter 2 The Shape of Cloth: Assembling Social Relations among Marka-Dafing Cloth Makers in Burkina Faso – Laurence Douny, Myriem Naji and Salif Sawadogo Part II: Clothing and gender politicsChapter 3 Which Are Better? The Gender Politics of the Embroidery and Sewing of Robes in Zaria, Nigeria – Elisha RenneChapter 4 Needle Resists in Traditional Dyeing in Mali: A Woman’s Art? – Patricia GérimontChapter 5 ‘A Lion Does Not Need to Roar’: The Enacted Feminisms of Chez Julie’s Fashions – Christopher RichardsChapter 6 Wearing Pride: Queer Activist T-shirts from the 1990s to the 2020s – Jonathan Botes, Annie Devenish, Linda Chernis and Bonke SonjaniPart III: Diasporic narrativesChapter 7 Interwoven Narratives: Migration, Diaspora and Local Weaving Stories in the Works of Zarina Bhimji, Otobong Nkanga, and Michael Armitage – Francisca Gigante Godinho da SilvaChapter 8 Graça and Vanessa Tembane: Capulanas and a Refabrication of History – Vanessa Tembane and Philippa HobbsChapter 9 Contemporary Art and ‘Ouvrages de Dames’: Or How to Fight Social Hierarchies and Gender Inequalities as a Diasporic Artist – Fatima Leveque and Sophie DulucqPart IV: Between private and public histories Chapter 10 Fact within Fable: Historical References in the Tapestries of Allina Khumalo Ndebele – Nessa LeibhammerChapter 11 From Trepidation to Hope: Representations of Covid-19 by the Mapula Embroidery Project in South Africa – Brenda SchmahmannPart V: Gender, identity and agencyChapter 12 ‘Embroideresses of Kasai’: Agency and Identity Among Kuba Women Textile Artists, Past and Present – Rachel Dixon KabukalaChapter 13 Performing Disrespectability: Kuhlonipha Challenged in Sanelisiwe Nkonyane’s Work – Shonisani NetshiaChapter 14 A Collective Self Expression? How Prison Tattoos Challenge Double Standards in Post-Apartheid South Africa – Line RelisieuxContributors Index