What is African/Dutch wax prints…?

African wax prints, also known as Dutch wax prints and Ankara wax, are omnipresent and common materials for clothing in Africa, especially West side of Africa. They are industrially produced colourful cotton fabrics with funky patterns and unique technique. It also goes by the names of super wax, java, and Ankara, with ‘wax’ named fabrics having a somewhat glossy, stiff, waxy feeling surface even though they are roller printed.

The process to make wax print is originally influenced by batik, an Indonesian (Javanese) method of dyeing cloth by using wax-resist techniques. For batik, wax is melted and then patterned across the blank cloth. From there, the cloth is soaked in dye, which is prevented from covering the entire cloth by the wax. If additional colors are required, the wax-and-soak process is repeated with new patterns.

As an art form, the method is ancient. The Egyptians used batik to decorate the cloths mummies were wrapped in in the 4th century BC.

During the Dutch colonisation of Indonesia, Batik was popular with Christian missionaries who used it to cloth converts to the church. Western African soldiers also brought back beautiful Javanese fabrics to their wives after serving in the military in the Dutch East Indies between 1810 and 1862.  

Also Dutch merchants and administrators became familiar with this technique and passed some examples to the owners of textile factories in the Netherland who began developing machine printing process which imitated batik technique. This is where the term ‘Dutch wax’ and ‘wax hollandaise’ originated from, since the prints’ predominant country of origin became Holland. 

When Dutch and Scottish trading vessels began introducing the fabrics in West African ports, starting in the 1880’s, they received a strong reception and the trade had gone very successful. Over time they learned their fabrics were more popular in sub-Saharan Africa than in Indonesia, so colors and designs began to adapt to the African preferences to cater to the tastes of this new market. 

The Dutch wax prints quickly integrated themselves into African apparel. Women used the fabrics as a method of communication and expression, with certain patterns being used as a shared language, with widely understood meanings. Many patterns began receiving catchy names. Over time, the prints became more African-inspired, and African-owned by the mid-twentieth century. They also began to be used as formal wear by leaders, diplomats, and the wealthy population.