Artistry Permits and Custom May Ordain - Northwestern University

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covered with a thin silk veil.” 168 In seclusion, Malindian women dressed “with great
display, wearing silk robes, and on their neck, arms, and feet, chains of gold and silver.” 169
While it is clear that the seclusion of women was common, it is unclear whether or not
politically powerful women followed purdah. Sultanas may have been subjected to
seclusion near the end of the sixteenth century, as an English report of 1599 recorded that
the Sultana of Domoni “would not be seene.” 170
168 F. Pigafetta, A Report of the Kingdom of Congo and of the Surrounding Countries drawn out of the Writings and
Discourses of the Portuguese Duarte Lopez. London, 1881. 123.
169 Ibid.
170 “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.
171 “Descrição da Situação, Costumes e Produtos de alguns lugares de África, ca. 1518,” DPMAC. 5:366.
172 Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, 26-7.
173 A. Vespuccius, The Voyage from Lisbon to India, 1505-6, being an account of the journal by Albericus Vespuccius.
Ed. C. Coote. London, 1894. 29.
174 F. Pigafetta, A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, 120-1.
175 “Descrição da situação, costumes e produtos de alguns lugares de África, ca. 1518, Edoard Barbuse,” DPMAC.
5:380.
While rich silk and cotton clothing was a status symbol in the Swahili world, most visitors
to the coast noticed women’s jewelry, such as gold (makazi wa thahabu) and silver (makazi
wa fetha), more than any other adornment. An anonymous description of Kilwa reported
that women were “well appareled wearing a lot of gold and silver in chains and many
bangles which they wear on their arms and legs.” 171 Barbosa commented that Kilwan
ungwana women were not only “finely clad in many rich garments of gold and silk and
cotton” but wore “much gold and silver in chains and bracelets . . . on their legs and arms,
and many jeweled earrings in their ears.” 172 A participant in the plunder of Kilwa in 1505
recalled, “We found therein such great booty of gold, of silver and pearls, of golden pieces,
and of sundry precious wares, that it was impossible to reckon their value.” 173 Yet almost
fifty years later Kilwan women were again described as wearing “ornaments of gold and
jewels on the arms and neck, and hav[ing] large quantities of silver vessels,” a testament to
the wealth of the city-state even in its decline. 174
On Pemba, Zanzibar, and Mafia, women could likewise “adorn themselves with
gold and jewels brought from Çofala” 175 since the islands’ direct trade in foodstuffs with
much of the coast underwrote considerable ungwana material accumulation. Among
Zanzibari women, the “wealthier [went] about perfumed with amber and musk” and
generally dressed “in the manner of Malindi,” reported one visitor. 176 Barawan women,
176 G. de San Bernadino, Itinerario. in SD, 156.