AFS 185: Clothing and Development in Africa

The course explores the importance of cloth, clothing, and fashion in Africa’s development. It takes a historical journey on how Africa was integrated into the global economy through cloth trading. Students will learn about how colonialism used clothing as an imperial tool to define Africans and how Africans in turn used clothing as a political tool in their struggle for independence. Clothing was further utilized to shape the new independent identity and nation building in Africa. Post-independence Africa has witnessed phases of political, social and economic cosmopolitanism in fashion, through the rise of second-hand clothing, trade liberalization and the current rise of innovative fashion designers.