African Fashion: The Sophisticated Craftsmanship Behind West Central African Clothing

Thu, 14 May 2026 01:53:20 +0200

In the Early Modern Period (around 1500-1800), West Central Africa (modern day Angola, the Congos, and Gabon) was home to a variety of different types of cloth and clothing. In this video, we discuss some of the textiles, jewelry, and other adornment that people in this region wore to cover up or show off status, primarily focusing on the kingdoms of Kongo, Ndongo, and to a lesser extent Loango. Join us as we explore some Central African Fashion History! This video is part of Untold Black History III, a collaboration for Black History Month discussing interesting and positive Black history from around the world. No Generative AI was used in the creation of this video.

Check out the Untold Black History III playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLivC9TMdGnL8Nnt6Ra8JPQUzHCPI9tcUE&jct=5s3lCP4eK5V4eiLuTPeFSg

Thank you to the following people for lending their voices to some of the primary source quotes in this video:
@ravinelux
@CivilWarWeekByWeek

Citations:
1. Vansina, 266; Heywood, 12-13
2. Heywood; Fromont
3. Vansina; Gibson and McGurk
4. Vansina, 272; Heywood; Fromont
5. Thornton, 12-13
6. Vansina, 276
7. Vansina, 265
8. Vansina, 267-268
9. Vansina, 263
10. Thornton, 19
11. Fromont, 845
12. Heywood, 22
13. Fromont, 846
14. Heywood, 196
15. Vansina, 272-273

Sources:
Fromont, Cécile. “Common Threads: Cloth, Colour, and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Kongo and Angola.” Art History, Volume 41, Issue 5 (November 2018): 838–867, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8365.12400

Gordon D. Gibson and Cecilia R. McGurk, “High-Status Caps of the Kongo and Mbundu Peoples." Textile Museum Journal, Volume 16 (1977) https://archive.org/details/gi....bson-mc-gurk-high-st

Heywood, Linda M. Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, 2017.

Thornton, John. “Precolonial African Industry and the Atlantic Trade, 1500-1800.” African Economic History, no. 19 (1990): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.2307/3601886.

Vansina, Jan. “Raffia Cloth in West Central Africa, 1500-1800.” Essay. In Textiles: Production, Trade, and Demand, 263–82. Ashgate Publishing Limited, 1998.

Clips used:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhznFtHhkBo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCpT-4vctNY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oStCNLZBjUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ADpO6bau8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijVfGarTEfc

Other Resources:

https://mavcor.yale.edu/mavcor....-journal/nature-cult

https://mavcor.yale.edu/mavcor....-journal/depicting-k

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00:00 Intro
00:45 Types of Adornment
01:37 Textiles in West Central Africa
03:44 Making Raffia Fabric
06:38 Class and Clothing
11:59 Decline of West Central African Fashion
12:35 Conclusion