Shweshwe

Indigo-dyed cotton cloth reached southern Africa through Dutch trade routes from India as early as the 17th century. It was introduced more directly to the Eastern Cape in the mid-19th century by German traders and settlers, who called it "ujamani" ("German print"), and Xhosa women began adopting it as part of traditional dress from the late 1850s. The cloth's name is explained two ways in available sources: one links it to King Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho, said to have received indigo cloth as a gift from French missionaries in the 1840s; the other describes it as an onomatopoeia imitating the rustling sound the cloth makes when worn. Industrial production in South Africa itself began in 1982, when Da Gama Textiles opened its mill in Zwelitsha, Eastern Cape, with expertise from the British firm Tootal; Da Gama acquired exclusive rights to the "Three Cats" brand in 1992.

Shweshwe is worn as part of traditional and ceremonial dress among the Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu, especially for weddings, and has become a strongly identifiable element of South African fashion more broadly. Patterns and colours are described in general terms as signalling marital status or tribal affiliation, though no source documents a fixed, named meaning for each individual colour or motif.

Da Gama Textiles remains the only known manufacturer in the world still producing traditional discharge-printed indigo cloth at scale, though the market faces growing competition from cheaper imported imitations from China and Pakistan.

The Process