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The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End
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Man's Protective Tunic
Nigeria; Hausa peoples, late 19th century
Cotton, leather, paper, pigment; 35 7/8 x 34 5/8 in. (91 x 88 cm)
The British Museum, London (Af1940,23.1)
Provenance: Acquired from Captain Alfred Walter Francis Fuller, 1940
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Every inch of this simple cotton tunic was inscribed and invested with prayers by an itinerant Hausa artist who sought to transform it into a mantle of invulnerability. The Islamic belief in the power of the Koran's written word is reflected in elaboration by a draftsman gifted in deploying it eloquently as a visual form of expression. The texts were not intended to be read for their content but rather to be experienced aesthetically as an assault on the senses produced by their sheer cumulative effect. The extraordinary measures taken to load the surface visually with protective script suggest that the garment was made for an important warrior to wear as a form of mystical body armor into battle.
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