Habari

Culture, wisdom and creative journeys in kanga
Kanga Embroidery Gathering: An International Women’s Day Experience (Sunday 8 March, 2026)
Join us this International Women’s Day for a beginner-friendly embroidery session. If you’ve always wanted to try embroidery, this is the perfect place to start. You’ll learn a few foundational stitches on a kanga to take home, featuring the msemo: MAMA HUNIPOZA MOYO YANGU. Read more...
An Intersection of Cultures: Kanga Cloth and Furoshiki
We were delighted to see kanga cloth used in furoshiki—the traditional Japanese practice of wrapping and carrying items with cloth—shared by Heirloom Clothing & Fabric Store.   Read more...
Love in Kanga Misemo
Love is a prevailing theme in kanga misemo, and so, to welcome the month of love, we present a selection of love-themed misemo shared on Instagram by @thekangabook and @leonakesho. Read more...
Your Kanga, Your Way – An Embroidery Experience (Saturday 17 January, 2026)
Your Kanga, Your Way is an invitation to slow down and engage with the kanga as both cloth and conversation. Rooted in East African tradition, the experience brings people together to choose a kanga and respond to it through embroidery—creating space for personal expression, shared learning and making by hand. Read more...
Your Kanga, Your Way – An Embroidery Experience (Saturday 13 December, 2025)
Your Kanga, Your Way is an invitation to slow down and engage with the kanga as both cloth and conversation. Rooted in East African tradition, the experience brings people together to choose a kanga and respond to it through embroidery—creating space for personal expression, shared learning and making by hand. Read more...
World AIDS Day, 2025
Today, as we mark World AIDS Day, we share this kanga produced in 2002 by Urafiki Textile Company in Dar es Salaam. Across the top of its circular central motif runs the inscription: VIJANA TUMETANGAZA VITA DHIDI YA UKIMWI — “We young people declare war against AIDS.” Just above the lower border appears: KWA SABABU UWEZO TUNAO NA NIA TUNAYO — “Because we have the capacity and the will to do it.” This year’s theme, “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response,” reflects a world now grappling with one of the... Read more...
Cloth Meets Craft: The MAPENZI YA KANGA × Proverbs Headbands
We’ve long admired Proverbs’ signature kitenge headbands, so we’re thrilled to introduce a limited-edition collaboration: a mini drop of Twist-Top Headbands made from a curated selection of our Kenyan kangas. Read more...
Mali Ya Abdulla Introduces the Borderless Kanga
For more than a century, Mali Ya Abdulla has shaped how the kanga is seen, worn and understood — from giving the cloth its voice in the 1920s to releasing new designs every week that continue to inspire across East Africa and beyond. Continuing that legacy of creativity, the brand has introduced a fresh innovation: kangas without borders, with sayings positioned further down the cloth. Read more...
Kanga: Reimagined in Cyanotype
Every kanga carries a message, expressed through its form, motifs and proverbs — a language we know intimately. In Elizabeth Ashamu Deng’s reimagining, this language takes on a new form: cyanotype prints that convey the spirit of the kanga beyond the cloth. Read more...
Remembering Baba: The People’s President
Few figures have shaped Kenya’s conscience or carried its unyielding hope as profoundly as Raila Amolo Odinga. Through imprisonment, torture, and exile, he became not only an opposition leader, but the very embodiment of defiance during the oppressive years of one-party rule. For this, he paid a heavy personal price in the struggle for multi-party democracy, steadfastly advocating for our collective freedoms. Read more...
Threads of Connection: Kanga Collection
Some books don’t just tell a story — they hold a world within their pages. Kanga Collection is one of those rare treasures, tracing the journey of the kanga across time, culture and meaning through the lens of Chieko Orimoto’s extraordinary collection. Read more...
Kanga 101: The Pair — Doti
Every kanga begins its journey as part of a doti — a pair. Printed side by side as one continuous length of cloth, the two are only separated when cut and hemmed, ready to be worn in harmony or shared. Read more...