In Tanzania, the traditional « must » for women’s clothing is the « Kanga », which is not just a piece of clothing but also quite a powerful communication tool. We meet Mama Kabisa and her cherished collection of Kangas which is something of a family treasure.
The young people, though, look for modern fashion and it is the Chinese textile industry who knows best how to profit from this trend.
In the shanty towns, people are also into fashion but here – as Moses explains – the clothes come from humanitarian aid organisations and are auctioned off to the highest bidder. We meet Gabriel, a Massai warrior and his take on practical dress, or a Sikh family man who explains his own dress code which consists of wearing five objects that start with the letter “K”!
In short, we discover a wide spectrum of fashion trends in Tanzania – from the latest experiment which consists of using bark of wood for making a wedding dress, to the very traditional in the shape of Ahmed, who proudly wears his bargashia, a traditional hat with ancestral Yemenite embroidering.