Nani Visit's UNI

There is no better way to learn than hands on experience like Nani Agbeli, an Ewa artist from Ghana, showed us in the last 2 days. Not only was it interesting and knowledgable, but it was so much fun and exciting! Nani shared with us the batik process of wax resist dying of cloth and also introduced us to his culture's music and dance rituals.

Batiking was something that I can actually take home with me and keep meaningful. Doing the actual process in person was even easier to connect to what we have learned so far about textiles rather than the helpful video from class or the readings from the book. But of all the techniques of textiles, I'm glad we stuck to stamp dye rather than the more complicated weaving process like kentes. We started the process by choosing what stamps we wanted to use for a pattern. Most stamps are symbols  of meaning while others are just for decoration. Unfortunately, the stamps I chose for my design did not signify and special meaning. I then sketched my 3 different stamps for my cloth design/pattern, dipped my stamps into the hot, melted wax and plotted them. After the wax quickly dried, I folded my cloth, got it wet and dipped it in the purple dye. After a day of setting, I soaked it in hot water and scrubbed off as much of the leftover wax as possible and took it home to iron. Only thing left to do is find a way to wear my new batik!

My Batik! 

Thursday night I went to Nani's drum and dance performance, something we haven't really explored in class yet, so it was very interesting seeing how meaningful it is. His outfit consisted of multiple layers of cloth gathered like a skirt finished off with pants and flared fringe. This outfit is used for stage performance only but when it is danced for the traditional and spiritual reasons before war, they wear only pants or what they will go to war in. The music was made up of beating of the drums accented by sounds Nani made to express feelings of pain from war. There was also a lot of chanting, which to my understanding, was repetitive of questions and answers. The dancing was very intense and was a major cardio workout! Interestingly, certain dance moves represented something spiritual. For example, making the sign of the cross or bowing before the dance is like asking the spirits for protection during war. Doing fighting moves is like being face to face with the enemy without weapons. I tried to keep up with Nani and his furious moves but I wasn't quite coordinated enough, although I did manage a little dance challenge from him! 

Me and Nani in his performance costume!

I wish Nani could visit us throughout the rest of the semester so that we could continue to learn from him! I hope to enjoy more hands on experiences to gain knowledge about arts of Africa!