The role of women in the textile industry in Mozambique: A case study of Capulana from 1890-1965

Nuvunga, Lavita

The role of women in the textile industry in Mozambique: A case study of Capulana from 1890-1965

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Historical Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Capulana is a Mozambican term for a large rectangular piece of vibrantly coloured printed cotton cloth that is typically 1.75m in length by 1.10m in width, predominately used by Mozambican women to either wrap around the body, be used as a headwrap, baby sling, shawl, and for use in various ceremonies including that of traditional practitioners, weddings, and burials. While the capulana is no longer exclusively made from cotton fibre and is contemporarily made largely using processed synthetic fibres such as a blend of polyester, historically and indeed right up to the beginning of the Salazar regime in the post-WW1 period, the capulana cloth was largely dependent on cotton cultivation and networks of Indian Ocean and inland trade in the eastern and central African regions. The making of the capulana cloth can be traced back to pre-colonial forms of cotton cultivation in Mozambique, that when spun and woven together, was the primary form of cloth used for the same functionalities that the capulana cloth has today. To study the role of women in the textile industry in Mozambique, I use the capulana as a site of analysis to explore how the positioning of women in the changing sociopolitical environment of Mozambique from 1890 to 1965 influenced the trajectory of the production, exchange, and functionality of the capulana. In order to examine women's conditions in the cultivation of cotton, their positioning in the trade and exchange of textile trade and, the nature of the labour force under shifting political economies, I investigate women as the producers and consumers of the capulana specifically within the aforementioned periodization. These era's mark fundamental turning points in Mozambican history, referencing the societal structures that existed along the commercial connections and circulation of textiles in the Indian Ocean from the sixteenth century to a more focused analysis of the economic and social ecosystem that the Portuguese settlers exploited during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The study examines the political elements of the British Ultimatum of 18902 a pivotal moment that shifted the trajectory of cotton cultivation in Mozambique, thus impacting the socioeconomic stature of women in the textile industry. Central to the changing role of women in textile production was the legitimised continuation of forced labour (introduced by the Portuguese colonial empire on cotton farms), which was regulated through a system called Xibalo. I use Marcel Mauss's theory of gift exchange as a conceptual tool to approach understanding the historical and social significance of the capulana as an object in its entirety embedded in social relations; that is, as Mauss suggests to be thought of all at once, the ‘economic, juridical, moral, aesthetic, religious, mythological and socio morphological' elements and institutions, throughout an epoch of shifting governing structures. The study therefore captures various historical influences on and of the capulana in order to fully grasp the complexity of textile production in Mozambique and perhaps more importantly, for the full encapsulation of a history of actors that have too often been marginalised in various windows of history. By recentralising women in the production and use of the capulana in Mozambique, it is then possible to draw comparisons between precolonial and colonial modes of exchange, and valorisation of textile. The study finally weaves together how the positioning of women as key actors in the textile industry, and their proximity to the capulana as a key object, thus reintroduces their significance in the historiography of Mozambique - where often, men define the centre and parameters of discourse.