Theories, concepts and classifications of African costumes, dress culture, make-up and body designs in the 21st century

Abstract

Scholarly interrogations of African dress culture and body designs have mostly engaged non-African experiences and theories in interrogating indigenous practices. This has placed a limitation on cultural expressions of identity and inadvertently exposed the need to frame discourses around traditional African design engagements and indigenous conceptual models. The study employs the analytical, descriptive and interpretative approach of the qualitative research methodology to conceptualise, classify and describe the indigenous and contemporary practice of dressing, costuming and make-up and body designs in Africa. The emphasis is on attires/dresses/clothing, body designs, costumes and make-up practices utilised in everyday life; on special occasions; on stage; in films; carnivals; street performances and traditional communal performances. In this study, the researcher deconstructs the term ‘costume’ as currently used in describing African dressing. It attempts an understanding and classification of costumes from three levels of artistic and historical distinctions which are; indigenous traditional designs (indigenous trad.); modern traditional designs (modern trad.); and contemporary traditional designs (contemporary trad.). Given the identified gaps in existing scholarly presentations on traditional dress culture and body adornment, it maintains that African scholars should be encouraged to expand the scope of discourse through further constructions of identity for indigenous cultural products.