Kawandi Quilt
Siddis in Karnataka
by: Kelli Coles
Yesterday afternoon I went to the Loving Blackness exhibition currently showing at the Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) in Philadelphia, PA. The exhibition consists of artwork by twenty artists “exploring moments of tension and solidarity between and among the African and Asian American communities through painting, photography, sculpture, and video.” From this exhibition, I want to highlight the kawandi quilts featured in the exhibition in a display, entitled Siddis in Karnataka by artist Sarah Khan. These quilts were made by the Siddi women of Karnataka in southern India. Yes, India. These women are members of a community who are said to be descendants of early African immigrants to India and enslaved Africans (not immigrants) brought to Goa, India by the Portugese beginning in the 16th century. According to scholar, Henry J. Drewal, over time they escaped enslavement and moved south into northern Karnataka to establish free, independent communities. In my studies, I learned people of African descent were taken to India during the slave trade but I was still initially surprised to see this quilt-making connection to women in India. However, the Siddis and some African Americans in the US are descendants of the same people in Africa. We are all people of the African diaspora displaying our shared expressions of identity, ingenuity, and resourcefulness, of course there would be a connection!
The wall of beautiful, multicolored kawandi quilts in the exhibition immediately reminded me of quilts made by various other groups of women in the African diaspora I have learned about. It also brought to my mind the quilts in my family which my great-grandmother taught my mother to create, when my mother was young. As in my family, these kawandi quilts were made by the women from stripes ripped from well-worn pieces of clothing into bedcoverings or mattresses for their children, grandchildren, and themselves. In the displaying of this exhibit, the artist, Sarah Khan, brings awareness to these quilts, this wonderful connection of quilt-making across the African diaspora, and the promotion of the Siddi Women’s Quilting Cooperative. This cooperative was established with her colleagues to help these women and other marginalized groups in India raise funds for seeds, school uniforms and books, medical expenses, farm equipment, and livestock. Please check out other kawandi quilts in the Henry John Drewal link below and if you are in the Philadelphia area check out Loving Blackness at the Asian Arts Initiative, before it closes at the end of April.
Sources: Asian Arts Initiative http://asianartsinitiative.org/event/loving-blackness Henry John Drewal, kawandi quilts http://www.henrydrewal.com/sales.html The Siddi, an African Community in India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD7sp-L9lUk
Photo by author.
