Wax fabric: history, names and meanings of African patterns

“My rival’s eye,” “Your foot, my foot,” “Money has wings,” “If you go out, I go out”... In West Africa, wax fabric is never just fabric: it is a sentence. It is chosen for what it says, given as a gift to convey a message, and worn to answer someone without opening your mouth. Yet this fabric, which has become a symbol of Africa, was born on the other side of the world, on the island of Java. Here is its history, and especially that of its names.

From Java to the African coast

It all began with batik, the Indonesian art of drawing on fabric with hot wax before dyeing it: the wax protects the areas that are meant to remain light. In the 19th century, European manufacturers, first in the Netherlands and then in Great Britain, sought to imitate this batik by machine to sell it in Indonesia, then a Dutch colony. The result was not perfect: the resin crackled, allowing the dye to seep through in fine, irregular veins. Javanese buyers rejected these imitations.

West Africans, however, loved them. The crackling, considered a flaw in Java, became a sought-after signature on the Gold Coast. European merchants soon realized that this market had its own tastes: the Scottish Ebenezer Brown Fleming is often cited for adapting the designs to the preferences of his West African female customers in the late 19th century.

The legend of the Javanese soldiers

It is often said that wax was brought back by Gold Coast soldiers, recruited in Elmina by the Dutch colonial army and sent to Java in the 19th century, who supposedly returned with batiks in their luggage. It is a beautiful story and appears in many books. But historian Ineke van Kessel, who closely studied these veterans, found no evidence that they had started the wax fashion. The success of wax is probably due more to the traders and, especially, the women traders.

How is wax fabric made?

• The resist: hot resin is printed on both sides of the cotton using engraved rollers, where the fabric is meant to remain light.
• The dyeing: the fabric is dipped in a first bath, often indigo. During handling, the resin cracks and the color seeps into the fissures: these are the crackles.
• The colors: the resin is removed, and then other colors are added, sometimes by hand or with stamps. The colors overlap slightly, giving wax fabric its textured effects.
• The result: a fabric whose front and back are equally beautiful, and where no yard is exactly like the one before it.

Wax fabric is distinguished from fancy, a more affordable fabric printed on one side without a wax resist. Since the 1960s, wax fabric has also been made in Africa, notably in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Benin.

The Nana Benz, queens of wax fabric

In Lomé, Togo, the great market was dominated by incredibly powerful women traders who bought wax fabric in bulk and resold it throughout the region. In the 1960s and 1970s, some became so wealthy that they drove Mercedes-Benzes: they were nicknamed the Nana Benz. It was they, along with the women traders of Cotonou, Accra, and Abidjan, who made wax fabric a phenomenon. They were also the ones who gave the wax fabrics their names.

Why do wax fabrics have names?

A new design would arrive at the market without a story. To sell it, one had to invent one. The women traders therefore named each pattern according to current events, a rumor, a proverb, or what their customers believed they saw in it. According to the collection Wax Stories by the Zinsou Foundation in Cotonou, the Nana Benz began naming the wax fabrics to sell them better, and kept the tradition of inventing their names and legends. The book summarizes: “wax fabric is a true memory of past events.”

The finest example is probably the Snail: the design represented a bird from Indonesia, but Togolese women saw a snail emerging from its shell, and that is the name that stuck. A single wax fabric can thus bear three different names depending on whether you are in Lomé, Accra, or Abidjan.

The language of wax fabrics

These names turned wax fabric into a true language, particularly useful to women. In societies where it was not always appropriate to say things to someone’s face, wax fabric allowed women to speak without speaking, with, as Wax Stories writes, “all the ambiguity of the unsaid.” The women traders readily classify wax fabrics into major families:

• The “chérie coco” fabrics, those of love, couples, and rivalry: Wedding Flowers, Your Foot, My Foot, My Rival’s Eye, Apple of Discord, Mary Theresa’s Nails.
• The fabrics of prosperity: the Swallows (“money has wings”), Billionaire.
• The “dinner is served!” fabrics, inspired by what people eat: the Shrimp, the Peanuts, the Little Macaronis, the Snail.
• The fabrics of daily life and modernity: the Gramophone, Electric Bulb, Ludo Kouin, the Intertwined Rings.
• The fabrics of power and wisdom: the Leopard Skin, Makaïva.

Wax fabric in a woman’s life

Wax fabric accompanies every stage of life. It is part of the dowry: the groom’s family gives wax fabrics to the bride’s family, and their number and quality show how highly they are regarded. Over the years, women have amassed true treasures of wax fabrics, stored in trunks and passed down to their daughters. Wax fabric is also used as a collective ceremonial outfit: at a wedding, party, or funeral, an entire family or group of friends may choose the same fabric to show their connection. It is sold by the piece, often 6 yards long, or about 5.5 meters, enough to make a wax fabric outfit, a top, and a headscarf.

Wax fabric today

Today, wax fabric is everywhere: on the streets and on runways, in the work of African designers and in museums. It is also at the center of debates. Born from European imitation and for a long time produced outside Africa, is it truly African? Many say yes: it was African women who chose it, named it, transformed it, and made it famous. A fabric belongs to those who give it meaning.

The wax fabrics in our workshop

At KEMI HOME ART, we bring these fabrics and their stories to the table. Each pattern is prepared in our Alfortville workshop, then placed and glazed by hand before firing, made to order. Discover the story of each one:

All our pieces can be personalized: color, name, date, or message. Write to us.

Frequently asked questions about wax fabric

Where does wax fabric come from?
From Javanese batik in Indonesia. In the 19th century, European manufacturers imitated it by machine; these imitations found their audience in West Africa, starting on the Gold Coast.

Is wax fabric African?
It was born from European imitation, but it was African women who adopted it, named it, and made it famous. It has also been made in Africa since the 1960s.

Why do wax fabrics have names?
The women traders, especially the Nana Benz of Lomé, named each new design to sell it, drawing inspiration from current events, a proverb, or a rumor.

Who are the Nana Benz?
The great wax fabric traders of the market in Lomé, Togo, who became so wealthy in the 1960s and 1970s that they drove Mercedes-Benzes.

What is the difference between wax and fancy?
Wax fabric is printed on both sides using a wax or resin resist, which creates the crackling; fancy fabric is printed on one side without a resist.

What is crackling?
The fine colored veins that appear when the resin cracks during dyeing. They are the signature of wax fabric.

How long is a piece of wax fabric?
Wax fabric is sold by the piece, often 6 yards long, or about 5.5 meters: enough to make a wax fabric outfit, a top, and a headscarf.

Did Ghanaian soldiers bring wax fabric back from Java?
It is a widespread legend, but historical research has found no evidence that these veterans started the wax fashion.

Sources: Wax Stories, Zinsou Foundation, Cotonou, 2019 · Ineke van Kessel, African Studies Centre Leiden, 2019 · ASC Leiden, on the origin of wax fabric