In the Western world, we walk around consuming culture that originated in Africa, with no recognition given to indigenous Africans who cultivated and developed the aesthetics that so many of us appreciate today. The exclusion of precolonial African contributions to the world is based on racist ideas developed to justify looting Africa and enslaving Africans in the Americas. In Pt. 2 of our look at Precolonial Textile Cultures, we examine how Baba’s book aims to challenge these stereotypes of Africa’s inferiority.

Black Material Geographies is part of Whetstone Radio Collective. Learn more about Black Material Geographies here.

Find show notes here.

And transcript here.