Gara

Origin

Gara is the name used in Sierra Leone for both tie-dye and batik, after the gara leaves of the indigo plant. It has a long history in the country, though no founding date is documented in the sources consulted. The Mandinka word taka, meaning tying, names the technique of folding cloth into pleats and binding it before dyeing. Synthetic dyes became increasingly popular from the 1960s.

Primary material

cotton, dyed with indigo, kola nut or synthetic dyes

Technique family

Resist-dye

Typical process time

Not documented in the sources consulted

Peoples

Mende, Mandinka

Preservation status

Actively practiced today

Availability

Widely available

Origins & history

The Victoria and Albert Museum records that Sierra Leone has a long history of tie-dye and batik, both known as gara, after the leaves of the indigo plant from which the traditional blue is made. Gara is traditionally made with dye from the indigo leaf and/or kola nuts, giving patterns in blue and/or ochre. We found no reliable founding date. Reports from Makeni describe gara families who say their craft came with them from Mali; that is a family account, not a documented history.

The Techniques

Gara covers two families of work. In tie-dyeing the cloth is folded, pleated or gathered and bound before dipping, so the dye cannot reach the tied areas. The Mandinka word taka, "tying", names the folding, binding and dyeing that produces a striped design. In batik, a resist is applied to the cloth before dyeing. Some accounts add that the dyed cloth is pounded with heavy wooden mallets for a lustre that resists dirt.

People and Places

Gara is associated with Freetown and with the town of Makeni, where Britannica describes it as an important activity of local women. The craft is passed by apprenticeship, often within families. A documented example is the Mende dyer Hawa Moiwai, born in 1972 in Bunumbu, who apprenticed from 1989 for about seven years with her aunt Kadijatu Kamara in Freetown and then with the specialist Pa Foday; her grandmother was also a gara dyer. A 2012 University of Missouri thesis by Kathryn Catalano-Knaack studies the history of indigo-dyed textiles in Sierra Leone through the work of Hajjah Khadijatu Kamara, one of the few named gara dyers.

Change Over Time

Synthetic dyes became increasingly popular in Sierra Leone from the 1960s, and today gara appears in a wide range of colours. Indigo remains the traditional and most widespread pigment. Contemporary gara is also made into garments: a 1994 dress in the V&A collection adapts the wide-sleeved West African robe (boubou or kaftan) in multicoloured tie-dyed cotton, bought in central Freetown.

Buying Notes

Ask whether the colour is indigo or kola-nut dye or a synthetic dye; all are legitimate, with different prices and fastness.
Ask whether the pattern was tied or waxed, and by whom.
Natural indigo darkens with repeated dips: a deep, even blue is a sign of many immersions, though colour alone is not proof.

Sources

Victoria and Albert Museum, dress, Sierra Leone, 1994 (T.2423-2021) (gara, taka, dyes, 1960s change).
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Makeni (gara tie-dyeing as an activity of Makeni women).
African Craft, Gara (tie-dye), Sierra Leone: Hawa Moiwai (apprenticeship biography).
Africanews, Preserving Sierra Leone's ancient Gara tie-dye craft (profile of a Makeni family of gara practitioners; we could not retrieve the full text and rely on its published summary).
Kathryn Catalano-Knaack, thesis on indigo-dyed textiles in Sierra Leone, University of Missouri, 2012.

Traditionally worn for