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25-401: Caam refers to the heddles of a loom. CAAM may refer to: Heddles In weaving, the warp threads are moved up or down by the shaft. This is achieved because each thread of the warp goes through a heddle on a shaft. When the shaft is raised the heddles are too, and thus the warp threads threaded through the heddles are raised. Heddles can be either equally or unequally distributed on

50-511: A certain person, event, and even a political cause. Much of the history conveyed had more to do with how others impacted the African people, rather than about the African people themselves. The tapestries tell stories of Roman and Arab invasions, and how the impact of Islam and Christianity affected African life. The same is true of major events such as colonialism, the African Slave Trade, even

75-464: A flat piece of steel, with the ends rotated slightly so that the flat side is at an angle of 45 degrees to the shaft. The eye is simply a hole cut in the middle of the piece of metal. Traditional heddles were made of cord. However, cord deteriorates with time and creates friction between the warp and the heddle that can damage the warp. Today, traditional cord heddles are mainly used by historical reenactors . A very simple string heddle can be made with

100-580: A result of the skill-level and final pattern design used. For example, hemmed appliqué is a simple technique still used today where raphia cloth pieces are cut into designs and sewn onto the base fabric. The decorative pattern depends on the region and the imagination of the embroiderer. The Asante in Ghana use non-figurative patterns representing proverbs while the Ewes use figurative weft patterns also representing proverbs. The Yoruba introduce rows of holes lengthwise in

125-412: A series of five knots in a doubled length of cord, which creates five loops. Of these loops, the important ones are the two loops on the ends and the loop in the center. The loops on the ends are used to stretch the heddle between the top and bottom bars of a shaft and are typically just large enough for the heddle to slide along the shaft. The center loop is the eye through which a warp thread is passed and

150-478: A shaft with the 'heddles' fixed, and all threads go through every shaft. Within wire heddles there is a large variety in quality. Heddles should have a smooth eye, with no sharp edges to either catch or fray (and thus weaken) the warp. The warp must be able to slide through the heddle without impairment. The heddle should also be light and not bulky. There are three common types of metal heddles: wire, inserted eye, and flat steel. The inserted eye are considered to be

175-413: A simple loop. Alternating warp threads pass through a heddle, as in a rigid heddle loom. Tapestry loom heddles are generally made of string. They consist of a loop of string with an eye at one end for the warp thread and a loop at the other for attaching to a heddle bar. See Loom#Heddle-bar . A repair heddle can be used if a heddle breaks, which is rare, or when the loom has been warped incorrectly. If

200-557: Is characteristic of weaving in West Africa, who credit Mande weavers and in particular the Tellem people as the first to master the art of weaving complex weft patterns into strips. Findings from caves at Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali propose its use from as far back as the 11th century. Stripwoven cloths are made up of narrow strips that are cut into desired lengths and sewn together. From Mali,

225-543: Is grated into a powder, then boiled before adding the fiber to be dyed. However, other dyes like the Kola nut do not need heat. Resist techniques such as tie-dye, stitched and folded resist, wax batik, and starch resist are typical dyeing methods used to introduce patterns and color on the cloth. Embroidery was used for both decorative and functional purposes. The embroidery techniques, such as buttonhole stitch and cut-pile embroidery, are often simple, but their intricate effects are

250-428: Is placed in the center of the heddle. String heddles can also be crocheted , and come in many different forms. Some modern hand weavers use machine-crocheted polyester heddles. These synthetic heddles minimize some of the problems with traditional knotted string heddles. They are used as an alternative to metal heddles to lessen the weight of the shafts. Inkle loom heddles are generally made of string and consist of

275-459: Is representative of specific qualities and attributes. For example, among the Ewe and Ashanti, black and white kente cloth is typically worn at funerals of elderly people to signify both a celebration of life and the mourning of death. In most cases end up with a widow wearing her late husband's apparel for several days. African textiles can be used as historical documents. cloth can be used to commemorate

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300-563: Is the main method of colouring fabrics. From the Tuareg nomads of the Sahara to Cameroon, clothes dyed with indigo, the most common dye in West Africa, signified wealth and abundance. The Yoruba of Nigeria and the Mandinka of Mali are recognized as experts in indigo dyeing. Natural dyes such as vegetable and mineral dyes were widely used including blue from indigo which is obtained from a stream that runs from

325-429: Is typically a single shaft, with the heddles fixed in place in the shaft. The warp threads pass alternately through a heddle and through a space between the heddles, so that raising the shaft will raise half the threads (those passing through the heddles), and lowering the shaft will lower the same threads—the threads passing through the spaces between the heddles remain in place. Rigid heddles are thus very different from

350-563: The African continent . Across Africa, there are many distinctive styles, techniques, dyeing methods, and decorative and functional purposes. These textiles hold cultural significance and also have significance as historical documents of African design . Some of the oldest surviving African textiles were discovered at the archaeological site of Kissi in northern Burkina Faso . They are made of wool or fine "short" animal hair including dried skin for integrity. Some fragments have also survived from

375-630: The Congo. Over time most of these fibers were replaced with cotton. Textiles were woven on horizontal or vertical looms with variations depending on the region. Ethiopian Cotton: With the exception of Ethiopia, textile weaving is less common in East Africa. In the 1st century, cotton was imported into Ethiopia by Arabs. Ethiopia has conditions that are good for growing cotton thus cotton was then locally grown and woven into cotton fabric on horizontal pit-looms mainly used by those with high social status. Dyeing

400-853: The Senegal River down to the Cameron border rich in Lonchocarpus cyanescens( a species of shrub from family Fabaceae. It is commonly known as elu in Yoruba, anunu by Igbo people as talaki in Hausa, sauru in Tiv and as ebelu by the Edo people) the main plant for indigo dyeing. Other natural dyes include Morinda brimstone tree for yellow, white from kaolin clay, black from charcoal or black clay, brown from mud, and red from Camwood. Some dyes like camwood need to be heated before use. The camwood

425-452: The best, as they have a smooth eye with no rough ends to catch the warp. Wire heddles are second in quality, followed by the flat steel. Wire heddles look much like the inserted eye heddles, but where in the inserted eye there is a circle of metal for the eye, the wire ones are simply twisted at the top and bottom. The flat metal heddles are considered the poorest in quality as they are heavier and bulkier, as well as not being as smooth. They are

450-542: The first heddle on the second shaft. The third warp thread would be threaded through the second heddle on the first shaft, and so on. In this manner the heddles allow for the grouping of the warp threads into two groups, one group that is threaded through heddles on the first shaft, and the other on the second shaft. While the majority of heddles are as described, this style of heddle has derived from older styles, several of which are still in use. Rigid heddle looms , for example, instead of having one heddle for each thread, have

475-403: The heddle in common use, though the single heddle derived from the rigid heddle. The advantage of non-rigid heddles is that the weaver has more freedom, and can create a wider variety of fabrics. Rigid heddle looms resemble the standard floor loom in appearance. Single and double heddle looms are types of rigid heddle loom, in that the heddles are all together. Heddles are normally suspended above

500-490: The loom. The weaver operates them by pedals and works while seated. Among hand woven African textiles , single-heddle looms are in wide use among weaving regions of Africa. Mounting position varies according to local custom. Double-heddle looms are used in West Africa, Ethiopia and in Madagascar for the production of lamba cloth. African textiles African textiles are textiles from various locations across

525-399: The shafts, depending on the pattern to be woven. In a plain weave or twill , for example, the heddles are equally distributed. The warp is threaded through heddles on different shafts in order to obtain different weave structures. For a plain weave on a loom with two shafts, for example, the first thread would go through the first heddle on the first shaft, and then the next thread through

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550-812: The technique spread across West Africa to Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria. Raphia fiber from dried stripped leaves of raphia palm was commonly used in West Africa and Central Africa since it is widely available in countries with grasslands like Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria. Cotton fibers from the kapok tree has been extensively used by the Dagomba to produce long strips of fibre to make the Ghanaian smock. Other fiber materials included undyed wild silk used in Nigeria for embroidery and weaving, as well as barkcloth from fig trees used to make clothes for ceremonial occasions in Uganda, Cameroon, and

575-502: The thirteenth century Benin City in Nigeria . Historically textiles were used as a form of currency since the fourteenth century in West Africa and Central Africa. Below is an overview of some of the common techniques and textile materials used in various African regions and countries. Stripweaving , a centuries-old textile manufacturing technique of creating cloth by weaving strips together,

600-414: The weaver finds a mistake in the pattern, instead of rethreading all of the threads, a repair heddle can be slipped onto the shaft in the correct location. Thus repair heddles have a method to open the bottom and top loop that holds them onto the shaft. Repair heddles can save a lot of time in fixing a mistake, however they are bulky, in general, and catch on the other heddles. In rigid heddle looms there

625-400: The woven cloth strip. Beadwork is common in East Africa and Southern Africa although it is still used in other parts of Africa including Nigeria and Ethiopia. Weaving is of great importance in many African cultures. The Dogon , for example, believe that spinning and weaving thread can be likened to human reproduction and the notion of rebirth. The color of cloth is often of significance and

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