Wearing What Cannot Be Spoken Intro

Wearing What Cannot Be Spoken

This online exhibition features the research of Rose Ong'oa (pictured below), an Arkansas State

University Heritage Studies PhD student. It was originally mounted at Arkansas State University

Museum in honor of Black History Month (February 2008). 

(Enlish audio production, narration, and editing by Lenore Shoults; engineering courtesy of Alex Brown.
Swahili audio production and editing by Lenore Shoults; narration by Rose ong'oa; engineering courtesy of Alex Brown.
Online exhibition designer: Margaret Collier)

Listen to Audio (Choose English or Swahili) 

         

   This exhibition highlights the struggle of Swahili women, of slave descent, to cope with the challenges that have faced them since the abolition of slavery in East Africa in the late 19^th century to the present. The lifestyle of the Swahili set them apart as a distinct African ethnic group as early as the 12^th century; they lived in stone houses as opposed to the mud houses of other African peoples, they professed Islam, and owned slaves.

                                     

   Due to Swahili's long-standing social and political position, the British colonial government, in post abolition East Africa, favored members of the Swahili society, reserving certain types of rights only to members of this society. To access such rights, ex-slave women claimed Swahili identity, which entailed the command of Kiswahili language, and adherence to Islamic tenets. They created physical manifestations of their Swahili identity in their kanga clothing and managed to assert the legitimacy of the identity. In contemporary Swahili society, women continue to use kanga to challenge social, religious, and political ideals within their society.

                               

Photos on this page by Julie K. MacDonald, 2008                 

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