The most commonly worn item of clothing by women in Malawi is the Chitenje (also known as a Kitenge in Tanzania and Kenya). Chitenji is a type of colorful, patterned cotton fabric that is common in many African countries like Malawi and Zambia. Locally, chitenji is used for everything from making clothing, to wrapping skirts, to carrying infants. It is sold by unit length in shops or sizable open markets. The types of patterns that one can find on pieces of chitenji are extremely numerous meaning that you rarely see the exact same pattern twice.
A chitenje is a rectangle of fabric (generally 2 x 1 metres) worn by women around the waist or chest. Chintenjes are an everyday piece of clothing. They are very often covered with a great variety of pictures, colors, patterns and usually include slogans, sometimes political slogans
The chitenje is generally wrapped around the waist and tied as you would tie a towel or sarong. Normally clothing (certainly underwear) is worn under the chitenje and this can cover up slightly shabby clothes with the chitenje's multi-coloured fabric
Chitenje's can be worn around the head as well, wrapped in a similar way to a head towel, and is used for decoration or to cover any hair-dos that may be in progress. It is also a very useful cushion for carrying...well anything that can be carried on the head!
A chitenje also makes an incredibly useful custom sling for a baby, and is either constructed so the baby can hang at the front, or slung over the back, with legs tucked around the side of the mum. Some of the more enterprising mothers are also able to breastfeed while the child is in the sling - allowing hands to be free for other, more imporant tasks!
Like heritage, African fabrics have been around for ages and will continue to be versatile like the Chitenje!
xoxo
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