Artistry Permits and Custom May Ordain - Northwestern University

156 “Descrição da situação, costumes e produtos de alguns lugares de África, ca. 1518,” DPMAC. 5:358.
157 “Descrição da Viagem,” 110.
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quarter of a length a cloth, others narrow woolen cloths of many colors, and of camlets
[chamalotes], and other silks.” 156 Mombasa boasted a “large quantity of rich silk and gold
embroidered clothes” as well as imported carpets. 157 Royal attendants at the court of the
Maore sultan, much like elsewhere in the Swahili world, were “richly appareled . . . with
long silk garments embroidered, after the Turkish manner.” 158
Silk cloth was produced on the coast, as already seen, but the importation of the
raw material necessary to produce it drove up its price. However, enough Swahili were able
to afford it that the silk industry of Pate thrived until the late 1600s. Small amounts of
silk were used to weave turban cloth, and imported cloth in general—if not destined for
interior markets—was fashioned into locally usable garments. When Kilwa was plundered
in the early sixteenth century, de Almeida’s soldiers went to great lengths to carry away
“beautiful garments” as well as gold and silver. 159 Malindian ungwana wore “rich turbans
of silk cloth,” 160 and many observers immediately understood the significance of headwear
and the prestige-value of silk in the social stratification of Swahili society.
The skull-cap, kofia, and turban were exclusive to coastal society and marked
Swahili identity. The style and use of cloth in men’s headwear, however, reflected distinct
social categories. De Monclaro keenly observed the stratification of Swahili society and
understood it, roughly like the Swahili themselves, through the idiom of men’s headwear.
He recorded that three social groups in Swahili society could be discerned by their
personal adornment, the first group being “those of the carapuça” or skull-cap. This
classification probably denotes the non-ungwana, or those generally lacking the capital to
invest in the richly worked kofia. He continued that there were “others of the barretinho,”
probably referring to the kofia, the embroidered circular cap which, as described earlier,
was the preserve of the ungwana. Finally, speaking of the political elite, Monclaro
recognized that “others wear a toque,” or highly ornate turban. The term “mouros de
touca” is commonly found in early Portuguese narratives and consistently refers to the
most wealthy and politically powerful in Swahili cities—wealthy landowners, merchants,
158 “The Voyage of Captaine John Davis to the Easterne India, Pilot in a Dutch Ship; Written by himselfe [1599],”
in The Voyages and Works of John Davis the Navigator. Ed. A. Markham. London, 1930. 137-8.
159 A. Vespuccius, The Voyage from Lisbon to India, 1505-6, being an account of the journal by Albericus Vespuccius.
Ed. C. Coote. London, 1894. 26.
160 “Descrição da Situação, Costumes e Produtos de alguns lugares de África, ca. 1518,” DPMAC. 5:368.