Cyber Ethiopia

Today, we turn, dear reader, from traditional Ethiopian weavers, spinners, embroiders and tailors, our consideration in recent weeks, to their produce - and look a little at their produce: the country's national dress, or dresses. These were of course always changing, but in the interests of space we limit our focus today to the last two centuries or so. The dress of much of the highlands, with which we are concerned today (that of the lowlands will figure, have no fear, in a later issue!), was made mainly out of white cotton cloth though the shammas, or togas, worn alike by men and women, were generally decorated with coloured stripes which were woven into the material at either end. The traditional clothing of the menfolk consisted basically

of a qemis or shirt, a pair of trousers, a long waist-band, which was wound many times round the waist, a shamma, or toga, which loosely enveloped the body, and, in the case of the aristocracy and priesthood a kabba, or cloak.  One of Emperor Menilik's slaves onduty Status Defined Status was indicated by the type of cloth worn, the aristocracy being distinguishable by their use of silks and other fine materials, and, above all during the reign of Emperor Tewodros (1855-1868), by the wearing of very elegant shirts. Trousers Trousers were the basic garment of male attire and were worn by all classes, irrespective of rank. Such clothes were made of cotton, and were held up by a kind of string threaded through the uppermost part of the garment, which was of simple manufacture and without buttons. Considerable variations of style could nonetheless be discerned. Fashion was by no means constant and persons of different status and background wore clothes of different materials and cut. In the middle of the nineteenth century the British traveller Mansfield Parkyns, writing of Tegray, observed: "The trousers are of a soft-textured but rather coarse cotton stuff, made in the country, and are of two sorts: one called 'callis', the other 'coumta'. The former reaches halfway down the calf of the leg, the latter to about three or four inches above the knee. Both, if the wearer be a dandy, are made skin tight. I might enter into a long account of the peculiar fashions to which these trousers are subject, parts being doubled, parts single. One year it may be the fashion to have the seam of the 'calliss', below the knee, of about two inches long only, before it branches off on the thigh; while another year it will be lengthened to six or eight inches. The last was the measure at which I left it. This, however, was considered so very ultra fashionable, that except "for Dejatch Shetou, myself and one or two others, few dared to attempt it." Half a century later the British traveller Augustus B. Wylde noted that "the labourers in the fields wear nothing but knee breeches." "The peasant and the poor class", he explains, "wear loose drawers extending to just under the knee, where they fit tight and are gathered round the waist by a thong or belt". The trousers of the King, princes and chiefs, on the other hand, he explains, "will be rather larger and of better quality than those worn by the lower classes, and will be made of the best Manchester shirtings and fit tightly to the calf of the leg, which they entirely cover. If worn by a rich man the ends will very likely be embroidered in black, white, or coloured thread." Such differences based on class continued into the twentieth century: The Georgian, Dr Paul Merab, writing of Addis Ababa early in that century, observed that though the breeches of the rich were tight and extended to the ankles those of the poor were much shorter and also wider to give greater freedom of movement. Most of the trousers worn in Addis Ababa were by then made of imported cotton cloth, locally known as abujedid. Shirts Shirts were subject to even greater variations than trousers, on the basis of status. Emperor Tewodros formalised the shirt as a status symbol by establishing the principle that a subject, once invested with a shirt by the sovereign, could wear one of any material from the finest velvet or embroidered silk to the commonest calico, while the rest of the population were only supposed to wear long cotton shirts which extended below the knees. The late nineteenth century German traveller Theodor von Heuglin recalls that the shirts of the privileged class were usually made of yellow and red silk with silver buttons, while his missionary compatriot Henry Aaron Stern observed that the wearing by the aristocrat of his silken, damask or velvet shirt was "a privilege only granted to a few magnates and those whom the King delights to honour". The distinction continued long after Tewodros's death. Wylde later noted that, whereas a poor man would wear a loose shirt, people of higher status wore "a cotton or flannel shirt, either of native or European make, tucked into the drawers", and, on grand occasions, "highly decorated satins, silks, and embroidered damask of European and Indian make." Dr. Merab, writing of post-World War I Addis Ababa, also drew a careful account of this garment, which, he relates, still revealed its wearer's social status. The normal shirt, such as that worn by ordinary people, was, he says, buttoned at the neck, had very long sleeves with many folds in the forearm, and, on one side of the chest, a tiny pocket with a small opening in which small objects were kept. The lower part of the shirt, according to the same observer, was split at the sides and came down to the knees, being worn over the breeches, and thus looking a little like a European smock. Variations on the basis of class were, however, considerable. The shirts of the common people were thus made of coarse white cotton cloth, while those of people of rank were of white serge, and those of the chiefs of striped cloth. In the case of persons of distinction the collar and sleeves were often decorated with embroidered button-holes and fancy gilt buttons, the use of gold buttons being restricted to princes or persons specially authorised by the Emperor to wear them. The Cummerbund, or Belt A particularly remarkable garment was the Ethiopian waistcloth or cummerbund, i.e. a kind of wide belt, which was made of cotton and was of immense length. "The belts", Mansfield Parkyns notes, "vary in length from 15 to 60 yards, and are about one yard in width. In quantity of cotton they are nearly all of the same weight, as the very long ones are in proportion finer than the shorter. An ordinary soldier's belt will measure from 30 to 40 cubits (15 to 20 yards). The one I usually wore was 70 cubits long (35 yards); while a few great chiefs... who like to give themselves the trouble of turning round for a few minutes every time they put on their belts or take them off, have them as long as 120 cubits (60 yards). The belt", he adds, "is a sort of defensive armour. I have heard men assert that it will protect its wearer not only from a club blow or sword cut, but even from the lance of the enemy; while others who deny that it would resist a fair stroke of the lance, approve of it as a protection against blows which may glance off the shield, or which, having pierced the shield... would otherwise wound, or perhaps kill, its owner." The above account was by no means exaggerated as may be seen by glancing at the comments of other observers. Stern for example declares that the average waistcloth was "so long that... it serves the purpose in warding off blows or in protecting the thrust of sword or lance", while Merab says that in the 1920's most Ethiopians, irrespective of social class, wore a cummerbund which would be wound round the waist five or six times. The Shamma, or Toga The most distinctive item of traditional Ethiopian dress was, however, the shamma, or toga, which, like the shirt, was subject to innumerable variations, partly in the size and type of cloth, and partly in the form of decoration. The early nineteenth century British ship's captain, Charles Johnston, describing the clothing worn in Shawa, for example observes: "The body cloth, or robe, is common to both sexes, but those of the men being generally much larger than those of the women, are generally double folds of cloth, of four cubits in breadth, and at least seven cubits long. Sometimes they are of an extravagant size. A narrow border of the blue and woolen stuff... woven into the cloth, is the only ornament, and these coloured stripes will be sometimes repeated at the distance of a foot from each other through the whole length of the cloth." And we still need someone to write a definitive catalogue of shamma borders, and their names!