In the maze of Stone Town's streets, roving packs of little boys dressed in white robes (kanzu) with new hats (kofia) zoomed around corners, exploding with excitement.
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His view is of a tranquil sea, boats bobbing in the breeze as fishermen back from pre-dawn catches serve waiting customers while women in black buibuis or shawls, men in long white kanzu robes, and donkeys bussle along the seafront.
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The major center of kanzu knitting and production is Mende, Uganda. The kanzu is worn at wedding ceremonies during the introduction, also known as the Kwanjula. During the Kwanjula the groom's family is required to appear dressed in kanzu and they must also present a kanzu to the bride's family. The kanzu is worn with a suit jacket, blazer, or sport coat.
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The kanzu is the traditional wedding attire for men in the Great Lakes region. During wedding ceremonies it is customary for the groom to wear a white kanzu and a kofia. In Tanzania and Kenya, the groom wears a black or white bisht on top of the kanzu. The groomsmen and other men who are members of the wedding party wear the kanzu with a suit jacket.
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In Kenya, the Tanzanian Kanzu is worn by Muslims of all tribes. Christians wear the kanzu (rarely)for informal events, including church services, but the dashiki shirt or kitenge shirt is used as formal wear for Christian weddings. Both religious communities wear a kofia, a small cap with the kanzu. In Kenya, it is customary for Tribal chiefs and Muslim Imams to wear a black bisht with the kanzu when attending a formal event.
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In Tanzania, the kanzu was introduced by Arab traders and missionaries from Oman who were conducting dawah. The Tanzanian kanzu is identical to the Arabic thobe. Originally, the kanzu was made from silk. Today, due to Islamic restrictions on silk garments, it is made from polyester or other synthetic fabrics made to resemble silk.
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The Kiganda/Ugandan kanzu was introduced to the Buganda Kingdom by Arab traders. Kabaka Ssuuna was the first Kabaka of Buganda to wear the kanzu. After the Kabaka adopted the attire it became the formal wear of all Baganda men. The kanzu spread from the Baganda people to other ethnicities and is a national costume of Baganda men.
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Linen kanzus are the most expensive. The main difference between the kanzu and the Arabic thobe is the design. The traditional kanzu has maroon embroidery around the collar, abdomen, and sleeves. The embroidery is called the omulela.
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Among the Swahili men of Tanzania and Kenya, the kanzu is always worn with a suit jacket, blazer, or sport coat. For formal wear a Tanzanian man will don a kanzu, a suit jacket, and a kofia (cap). Tribal chiefs wear the kanzu with a black bisht when attending a black tie event. A white or ivory bisht is worn to white tie events.
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The distinctive feature of the Tanzanian kanzu is the tassel that hangs from the collar. In some families, the tassel is perfumed with African oils or Arabic attar (oils) before wedding ceremonies. The kanzu is always worn with a kofia, a small embroidered cap. In the West, and in many Arab countries, the Tanzanian kanzu is sold by merchants as an Omani thobe, Yemini dishdasha, or Emirati thobe.
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In East Africa, the kofia is commonly worn in the Muslim communities in the coastal areas of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Some Swahili speaking populations that are Muslim wear the kofia with a white robe called a kanzu in the Swahili language. In the United States, the kanzu is sold as an Omani thobe, Emirati thobe, or Yemeni dishdasha. A white kanzu and suit jacket or blazer is the formal wear of Swahili peoples.
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Men wearing kanzus at a wedding in Kampala, Uganda. A kanzu is a white or cream coloured robe worn by men in the African Great Lakes region. It is referred to as a tunic in English, and as the Thawb in Arab countries. The kanzu is an ankle or floor length garment.
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Recently, some tribes have started to wear the Tanzanian kanzu for informal occasions, including church services, or Friday prayers at the mosque.
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He produced the Hijab and Kanzu fashion show in 2016 and co-produced The Vintage fashion show alongside his boss Joram Muzira in 2017.
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Although the Tanzanian kanzu was borrowed from Arab culture, it is worn by all religious faiths, including Christians, Muslims, African Jews, and members of African traditional religions.
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In many Western countries, the bisht is sold by merchants as a Saudi abaya or Abayah. According to custom, a kanzu must be crisp, that is dry cleaned and starched, before it is suitable for formal wear. The kanzu is the national costume of Tanzania, and is the formal wear of most of the tribes in the country. For informal events, a Saudi manufactured thobe with a mandarin collar or the dashiki shirt and a kofia is the traditional attire.
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Women wearing Gomesi at a wedding in Kampala, Uganda. A gomesi or busuuti is a colorful floor-length dress. It is the most commonly used costume for women in Buganda and Busoga. Traditional male attire is the kanzu.
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It is customary for important persons to wear the kanzu with a black bisht. Traditional attire for women in Baganda is the Gomesi. In popular culture, Ugandan clothing was featured in the controversial film, The Last King of Scotland.
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Baganda people in their cultural outfits. men put on Kanzu, and ladies Ggomeesi Ganda social organization emphasized descent through males. Four or five generations of descendants of one man, related through male forebears, constituted a patrilineage. A group of related lineages constituted a clan.
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In Uganda, the kofia is worn with the kanzu on informal occasions. Jomo Kenyatta, the first President of Kenya, was often photographed wearing a kofia. The kofia is popular in Comoros. The traditional kofia has tiny pin holes in the cloth that allows the air to circulate.
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In the Yoruba language, Ade means crown, and fila means cap. The city of Kufi is located in Yorubaland near Ibadan. Other West African names include fula, fila, and malo hat. This cap is called a kofia in the Swahili language of East Africa (see the kanzu article for further information).
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In Zanzibar, and Northern Uganda, the Bargashia is a popular hat. This hat was named after Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, the former Sultan of Zanzibar. Unlike the kofia, it is covered in embroidery and does not have pin holes. Like the kofia, the bargashia is worn with the kanzu.
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The fez is also worn with the kanzu and dashiki in East Africa. The East African style has a tassel that hangs from the top of the hat. The red fez was introduced into the region by the military. During British colonial rule of East Africa, the red fez was worn by a regiment called the King's African Rifles.
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It serves as the national costume of Tanzania as well as the Comoros, where it is called/pronounced 'Kandu' as well as thawb. The robe is also worn in some coastal Muslim regions of Tanzania and Kenya. The men of Uganda in Uganda consider it their most important dress. Kanzu is a Ganda word of Swahili origin, which means "robe" or "tunic".
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A bisht is usually worn for prestige on special occasions such as weddings, or festivals such as Eid, or for Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah or Salat al- Janazah. It is usually worn by secular officials or clergy. In Iraq it is worn by tribal chiefs. The bisht is also worn by East African nobility, including tribal chiefs, kings, and imams, over a kanzu or tunic.
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In Uganda, the groom wears a suit jacket on top of the kanzu, and the bride's attire is the gomesi. In Tanzania and Kenya, the bride's attire is a white wedding dress or the West African boubou. Use of wedding attire characteristic of the Great Lakes region has spread throughout the African diaspora. There are also some locals who prefer to wed in West African attire (see the dashiki).
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Since the Nakba, or 1948 Palestinian exodus, the thobe has also come to represent Palestinian political identity. Another example is a very long, oversized woman's garment with a heavily embroidered front panel and billowing back, also known as a Khaleeji dress, which is most commonly seen in the West worn for performance of the Saudi women's social-style dances, in which manipulation of the large thawb is a key component. This garment is also known as Kanzu in Swahili, and is commonly worn on the Swahili Coast by Swahili men.
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It is suggested that the term kandys/candys was probably an Iranian word that was appropriated by the Greeks to describe the Persian garment, which in Old Persian would have been called kandu (cloak). Other Old Iranian terms include kanzu-ka (Median), kan-su-ka (Elamite) and gnjwg (Parthian), all of which correspond with the term cloak. The prefix 'kan-', in such languages, means to cover or to throw, as in a coat thrown round the shoulders. Although some sources have suggested a link to kontusz, the Polish term for a greatcoat,, cited by Nick Sekunda, cited by Rüdiger Schmitt the link is anachronistic and not considered credible.
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