Darkest Africa painting guide

[Tim Peterson]

Expeditions into Darkest Africa - A Painting Guide

EXPLORERS

Early European explorers tended to wear clothes of a cut and colour popular
at home, or a specially made, often idiosyncratic, travelling costume.
Later a white or pale khaki "uniform" with a tropical helmet or
wide-brimmed hat became the norm. Some of the more famous explorers were
associated with a particular costume:

Livingstone - a red smock and a blue peaked cap with a gold band.
Baker - a loose smock and trousers, dyed in natural shades, with a peaked
cap with neckflap.
Speke - light brown trousers, a greenish tweed waistcoat with many pockets,
and a check shirt.
Stanley - a frogged jacket and curious hat of his own devising, in a pale
shade of khaki.

Flags - expeditions starting in Zanzibar usually carried the Sultan's plain
red flag, and often a national flag too.

ASKARIS

Skin - could vary from yellowish bronze to dark brown. Askaris would not
wear warpaint, although some would have tribal scars.

Loincloths - most commonly off-white cotton, sometimes dyed yellow-brown,
indigo (all shades from blue-black to faded denim) or white with a narrow
reddish border. Other more colourful fabrics included blue with a broad
red stripe, dark blue with a red or yellow border, multi-coloured checks
and sometimes plain red. In practice these best clothes would be kept for
special occasions, and everyday loincloths would be ragged and stained.

Waistcoats - blue or red in imitation of the Zanzibaris.

Coats and Shirts - if worn at all, could represent a rudimentary uniform eg
the white coats with red or blue cuffs and a matching 1' square between the
shoulders worn by Imperial British East Africa Company troops in 1890.

Hats - either fezzes and caps, in red or white, or turbans, usually white.

BEARERS

Dressed more poorly than askaris in plain fabrics or animal skins.

ZANZIBARI ARABS

Skin - varied, from olive to dark brown, with the number of generations a
family had been settled in East Africa.

Gown - a long shirt with full-length sleeves. Originally this was a dull
yellow, but by the 1870s was usually white, its brightness increasing with
status. At the waist there was usually a sash, often white although any
colour could be used. A shorter shirt, in a striped or patterned fabric,
was sometimes worn over the gown.

Waistcoats and Jackets - dark blue or red zouave style with contrasting
edging and decoration.

Overmantles - in dark blue or red, worn by leaders.

Hats - white fezzes or turbans. Wealthier Arabs often used multicoloured,
striped silks for their turbans.

Flags - a blood-red flag was the sign of a caravan from Zanzibar, although
the contingents of individual leaders carried their own flags. These were
probably simple vertical or horizontal stripes in blue, red and white,
although patterned fabrics may have been used.

RUGA-RUGA

Clothing - a mixture of askari, Zanzibari and tribal styles. Red cloaks
were sometimes worn. Officers wore Zanzibari-style white gowns with red or
blue coats.

Hats - large turbans with feathers, feathered tribal headdresses and
probably fezzes.

Ornaments - hung with charms, lots of ivory bangles, brass or copper wire
around wrists and ankles.

CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES

Skin - from light to very dark brown, fairly uniform within a particular
tribe

Loincloths - animal skins, bark cloth (pale red-brown) and later imported
cloth.

Hair and Headgear - huge variety of hairstyles, which were often the
distinguishing feature of a tribe. Feathers could be fixed in hair -
ostrich feathers (long white and short black) in East Africa, and parrot
feathers (long crimson and short grey) in the Congo basin. Feathers could
also be attached to animal skin or basketwork caps.

Warpaint - not always used, but when it was red and white were the usual
colours. Patterns usually involved painting parts of the body in solid
colours (eg white arms and legs or red upper body). Sometimes the entire
body could be painted, half red and half white. A tribe might use a common
style, but would not be painted absolutely uniformly.

Shields - in East Africa, when used, were round or oval and made of hide.
They were often unpainted, although at least one tribe painted theirs half
red and half black. Any combination of red, white and black is possible.
In the damper Congo, where hide was unavailable or would rot too fast,
shields were made of basketwork or light wood. Both types were commonly
painted black, either plain or with geometric patterns left in the natural
cane colour. Shields were held by a central hand-grip.

NOTE: specific tribes, like the Masai or Azande, will be covered in the
next painting guide.

Mark Copplestone, Guernsey Foundry 1998