A Contribution to the Preservation and Revival of the Cabo Verdean pano d’obra Textiles

Authors

Maggy Fragoso, Independent ScholarFollow

Date of this Version

2024

Document Type

Presentation

Citation

Textile Society of America 2024 Symposium

Shifts & Strands: Rethinking the Possibilities and Potentials of Textiles, November 12-17, 2024, a virtual event

Comments

Published by the Textiles Society of America

Copyright 2024, the author. Used by permission

Abstract

Textiles from Cabo Verde were highly prized for trading along the West Coast of Africa, from the second half of the 16th century till the end of the 18th century. These textiles originated from the fusion of different cultural sources making their design unique and very distinct from the other textiles of the West Coast of Africa: slave weavers were taken with their characteristic narrow strip looms to Cabo Verde by the Portuguese and were made to weave textiles with North African patterns and Christian references. One such textile is the pano d’obra (laborious cloth, i.e. very complicated to weave), which is characterized by an organized and symmetrical structure with a mixture of patterns like ‘stars and diamonds’ and others resembling ‘animal skin.’

From the 19th century, a marked decline in the production of these textiles is witnessed due to the demise of the local cotton, Indigofera and orchil dyes production, alongside with a lack of demand for the highly expensive pano d’obra. Nowadays, much simpler versions of the original pano d’obra are produced by local weavers and there is also a valuable attempt to grow cotton again in Cabo Verde.

This presentation will show the comprehensive study and analysis that is being done on the structure, patterns, and design of the original pano d’obra. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the accurate weaving of the pano d’obra, which is, in our opinion, the proper approach for its much-needed revitalization.