We learned about traditional Tanzanian dress at one of our information sessions. Many women here wear Khangas...a cotton cloth with a message. Some of these messages are of love, sympathy, faith or wisdom. We are told when buying Khangas to be careful because occasionally the messages are not nice.
Khangas are often worn as skirts with the message strategically placed to the back. Some women wear their Khanga as a shawl, as a head covering, or rolled and placed on the head as a soft place to carry goods. We witnessed a woman carry an entire bunch of bananas to our home-base on her head.
Here is picture of Paula wearing a Khanga in manner that she could also carry maize to market or a child.
Men traditionally wear suits.
We also learned of the traditional dress of the Maasai tribe. Both men and women dress alike in skirts, shawls and sandals. The cloth the Maasai use is usually in very bright colours especially oranges, reds and purples. This tribe lives in very traditional ways.
While it was great trying on these traditional items, it was also comforting to return to western clothing. Most of these traditional clothing items are wrapped or tied in place. It would seem very easy to have them accidentally pulled off.
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