This article explores the cultural and historical context of textiles that were never woven, the product of failed efforts by a colonial administration to transform a distinctive West African art form: strip-woven cotton fabric. Although these textiles were the result of an unsuccessful project, they nonetheless provide insights into the agency of visual culture at colonial intersections. Textiles that were woven also figure in this exploration of cotton and colonialism, primarily to emphasize their distinction from those that were not. Both sets of textiles are from the Soudan Français (today Mali), the largest of France's West African colonies and a major cotton producer. Although we know little about the forms these never-made—more accurately, almost never-made—objects might have taken, we do know why and when they were to be made. These textiles would have been created in the 1930s, a decade that saw two events that featured West African weaving: the...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Winter 2019
October 01 2019
A Wider Loom? French Colonial Preoccupations with West African Weaving
Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine is Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of two books and numerous other publications on African textiles and dress practices, with a focus on Mali. Her current book project is Cloth Colonialism: Cultures of Cotton in France and French West Africa. vrovine@email.unc.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Victoria L. Rovine
Victoria L. Rovine is Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of two books and numerous other publications on African textiles and dress practices, with a focus on Mali. Her current book project is Cloth Colonialism: Cultures of Cotton in France and French West Africa. vrovine@email.unc.edu
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2019 by the Regents of the University of California.
2019
The Regents of the University of California
African Arts (2019) 52 (4): 66–83.
Citation
Victoria L. Rovine; A Wider Loom? French Colonial Preoccupations with West African Weaving. African Arts 2019; 52 (4): 66–83. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00503
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionEmail alerts
203
Views
Advertisement
Cited By
Related Articles
The Seen and Unseen: Weaving as a Metaphor for Wave/Particle
Duality
Leonardo (April,2016)
Weaving Objects: Spatial Design and Functionality of 3D-Woven Textiles
Leonardo (August,2019)
The Loom Machines of Boott Mill (Lowell) : A Composition from the New England Soundscape Project
Leonardo Music Journal (December,2019)
Related Book Chapters
Weaving an Introduction
Weaving A Lexicon
The Brain Is Wider Than the Sky
The Spider's Thread: Metaphor in Mind, Brain, and Poetry
“Wider Still and Wider, Shall Thy Bounds Be Set”: Empire and Anxiety at the Fin de Siècle
The Infographic: A History of Data Graphics in News and Communications
Third Part: Generating a Wider class of RES
Computational Models of Referring: A Study in Cognitive Science