UmBhaco: Colonial History and Cultural Stories
- Amahle Gebane
- Mar 10
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 1
AmaXhosa are known for their steez, for umswenko, looking SMART (read that in the Sowetan way) in our attire. However, the colonial history of our attire might complicate how one views this 'steez'.
Often 'decolonial' scholars try to connect with 'precolonial' (I hate this word btw) trends and fashions as a way to 'reconnect' with our history before imperial interference. So did AmaXhosa wear cotton garbs and beads in different colours before colonialism?
Andazi mna, because I approach the romanticization of ‘precolonial’ histories with caution. The past, in all its fullness, remains an enigma—one I revere too deeply to presume I could ever fully grasp. If I find myself wrestling to comprehend ubuXhosa in the present, with all the lived experience and context I hold, how much more daunting is the thought of iinkathi zomandulo? That does not mean we should not stop being curious about the past though.
In trying to understand the history of UmBhaco, I could not find a lot of written scholarship on how UmBhaco came to be, however, AmaXhosa have a strong oral history thus I just scraped my memory and remembered what many Xhosa elders have told me about UmBhaco.
According to the oral scholarship of our elders, this is what you need to know:
The Germans settled in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa
A lot of them came as missionaries
The goals of European colonialism were to: civilise, commercialise and christianise.
With the European weaponisation of Christianity and the ideal of 'modesty', German settlers 'gifted' amaXhosa cotton garb (what was the earliest iteration of Umbhaco)
AmaXhosa, like Germans, have a history of using clothing and embroidery for symbolism. Therefore, AmaXhosa added a much-needed twist to German garb.
To be honest, (Amahle changes to isidubada so the Xhosas can gossip among ourselves) adandidibodonidi udukudufadanada okudu'obvious kododwada udumladandodo budubadaluduledekidilede.
Make no mistake, Umbhaco is Xhosa attire, it is not an appropriation of German attire. Rather, it was a very appropriate response to colonial assimilation and the enforcement of colonial fashion. It cannot be appropriation because appropriation requires a specific power dynamic.
"Cultural appropriation occurs when a [dominant] group uses aspects of a culture that are not their own [(specifically a marginalised group)], without understanding or respecting the culture's significance. " Therefore, there is no appropriation in this case.
Knowing this history should not stop us from enjoying the beauty of our cultural garb. Often in the idealisation and the aspiration of the 'precolonial' look we forget that what we have postcolonially also tells a very important story. One cannot ignore the impact of colonialism, and by acknowledging it we are not romanticising it. We survived umgowo that Germans subjected us to, and out of that came Umbhaco - a tale of our cultural and historical ebbs and flows.
The past is a vast and sacred landscape, I seek to understand, but I know that I will never fully understand. There will always be questions to ask. And that's what's so excitingggg!!!
Here's a paper on the Germans in the Eastern Cape from Rhodes University:
Great article! I wanted to add some of the things I’ve found that perhaps you might be able to understand or interpret better.
I haven’t seen any evidence of cotton textiles in EC used before settlers arrive but a few people have said that umbhaco was made from umqhaphu before cotton. I haven’t had a lot of time investigate and also not a Xhosa speaker but my first few Googles showed that to be a cotton. I think two people mentioned it’s a different plant all together with a more silk like fibre. I don’t know! But perhaps you do :) Anyway, I bring that up as a possible avenue for how customs adapted and assimilated
I also bring that…