Our African ancestors from diverse cultural backgrounds took their colourful, rich and unique dress customs to Jamaica. When opportunities arose they used their knowledge, experience and skills to dress up in artistically designed clothes with matching accessories, in order to nurture and maintain links with their homeland and maintain cultural pride in their appearance.
Slave owners granted permission for this ritual dressing up of slaves on special occasions, such as religious services, funerals, christenings and public holidays. The act of “granting permission” was covertly to affirm and validate their superior status within the colonial society. However permission provided opportunities for the enslaved to dress up in clothes to suit their own taste, to look and feel good, and to help them temporarily escape their poverty and subordinate position within colonial society.
Dressing up sometimes functioned as a mask that shielded and concealed their identity. For example, peasant women were able to dress up so that they could pass as upper middle class women.
To achieve the desired appearance, the enslaved had no choice but to use their small savings from market trading, to purchase refined materials and accessories. The fabrics purchased for making their “dress up” clothes included:
Damask
A fabric made of wool and linen or cotton with contrasting shiny (light) and matte (shade) surfaces. Damask was popular among some slave women and worn during public holidays and special occasions.
Muslin
A thin light cotton fabric that was used to make ankle length dresses for special occasions and was commonly worn with a shawl over the shoulder.
Calamanco
A checked fabric made from cotton and wool.
Satin
A smooth silk-like material with glossy and dull surfaces
The enslaved also used their knowledge, skills and experience in the manufacturing of clothing to produce low cost linen and lace from tree bark, and in textile dyeing to add vibrancy to their clothes with its symbolic and artistic meaning.
As stated in Blog 3, vibrant colours were culturally and socially important to them, so they used their clothes as symbols of resistance and abhorrence of slavery. For example the colours “Red” and “White” were appealing because of symbolic association with resistance, courage, strength and African religions.
Dressing up in “White” also enabled them to move freely and undetected between the established churches and their African religions.
Designs of Women’s dress up clothes
Women took great pride in what they wore and were boastful and competitive in their dress sense.
Slave seamstresses had the opportunity to express their individuality, creativity, flexibility and adaptability in the design of “dress up” clothes. They used their knowledge of diverse African dress styles, European fashion trends and material resources available on the island, to make visually appealing and sometimes “over fussy and flamboyant” clothes. This enabled a variety of stylistic and cultural expressions within the slave community.
However dress up clothes were designed to have a more European/Victorian appearance – long, fussy and constraining- as an outward sign of social mobility and awareness of current fashion trends.
Accessories
Enslaved women wore colourful beads, bright jewellery, head wraps, scarves and colourful ribbons, bought from market traders, to maintain their African identity.
Women also adopted the European fashion trend of wearing Trimmed bonnets and hats of various sizes, shapes and colours, on special occasions. Until mid 19th century, fashionable bonnets, made from refined fabrics in all shapes and sizes, were lavishly trimmed with flowers, feathers, bows and loops of brightly coloured ribbons, and were kept on the head with ornate hatpins.
Bonnets and hats were worn to shine, to compete with other women, to make a statement, to make fashion, to make themselves feel good and to instill a sense of pride and dignity and to reflect their social standing within the slave community.
Designs of Men dress-up clothes
Enslaved Men wore European dress styles i.e. black short or long tailed jacket, waistcoat, white shirt, cravat, bow tie, white trousers and black trousers,. They also wore Bowler/Top hats on special occasions. These hats were very popular in the 1870s among elite and middle class men but were worn by slaves when they dressed up.
Footwear
Women and men wore leather shoes bought from local market traders or made- to -measure by slave cobblers, from ox hide bound with thongs. They were worn for long journeys or for special occasions.
Cross-dressing
Women and men cross- dressed. This activity was commonplace among some African slaves when women dressed up as men, and men dressed up as women. They cross- dressed to escape servitude, to disguise themselves as freed slaves and to resist being caught. They also used cross-dressing as a covert activity to obtain information to help plan their revolt/revolution.
Wearing their masters’ clothes.
Some slaves deliberately and covertly obtained and dressed up in their slave owner’s clothes. This was with intent to ridicule them or cast spells on them, to weaken their spirit and to defeat the “enemy”. They also wore their master’s clothing to disguise themselves, when attempting to escape.
What our African – Jamaican ancestors wore Post emancipation
Discussion with friends and review of old photographs, led me to believe that most African – Jamaicans abandoned the colourful, rich and unique African dress customs that our ancestors brought to Jamaica.
Although there were some rudimentary attempts to amalgamate African and European dress styles, including the use of brightly multi- coloured cotton fabrics, tie dyed fabrics, linen and lace, the higher the social aspiration of the individual Jamaican, the fewer African elements were seen in their dress. According to Buckridge (2004) the adaptation of European dress designs was perceived as a sign of progress in elegance, grace and civilization.
This blatant transformation to European dress code could result from the prolonged and deliberate process of African cultural annihilation. It could also be due to unavailability of African printed fabrics on the island for trading/purchasing; the lost art of cloth manufacturing; and the deskilling of the seamstresses in creatively designing African clothes. The post emancipated seamstresses had no choice but to make clothes as desired by their aspiring customers, to earn their living.
Most African -Jamaicans also accepted and conformed to European values and beliefs about body exposure and its link with sexual immorality.
Post-emancipation designs
Freed middle class women wore Victorian long skirts with trains and multiple layers of frills and laces, held out by a stiff or caged crinoline, a flounce over the skirt, a corsage and tight fitting bodices trimmed with lace or frills, puffed or elephant sleeves, bonnets or hats, gloves, gold jewellery and predominantly white shoes.
Peasant women in rural areas continue to wear brightly coloured multi-patterned dresses, a sign of cultural retention, panama hat, jippi-jappa hats, church hat, head scarf/wrap and leather shoes with a low heel.
Peasant men wore brightly coloured multi-patterned shirts, khaki trousers, jippi -jappa hats, and panama hats. On special occasions they would dress in log sleeved white shirt, a jacket or waistcoat, cravat, bow tie, white or black trousers, or black suit, bowler/top hat and leather shoes.
The Bandana became similar in style and colour (red) among day labourers, peasant women and men and market traders. Although its popularity as a woman’s head wrap or item of clothing had decreased over the years, it remained symbolic. The red and white plaid cotton bandana material represents the traditional folk costume for women and men in Jamaica and became the “National costume” when the Queen of England visited Jamaica in 1953.
Summary
Our goal is to inspire, educate and entertain. Our costumes are meant to convey the message of a unifying force, our place of origin, our culture and group affiliation.
From this brief historical overview it can be seen that our costumes are an essential part of the continuum in telling our story of our ancestors will to survive enslavement. They are worn with dignity and pride as a statement of our love and respect for our history, our culture, our people and our-selves.
Written by Beverley Bogle (Januka Quadrille Group Coordinator) (April 2013)
For further information about our costumes, please contact Beverley Bogle via our web contact address. Thank You.
All our costumes are made by one of our quadrille dancers – Ms Jean Watson.
Reference: Buckeridge. S O, (2004) The Language of Dress. Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica – 1760 –1890. University of the West Indies Press.
Love the look of those old time material dressing