Introduction

Tartan has a globally iconic and recognisable cultural image which links it immediately to Scotland and Scottish heritage. Although there are fabrics found in many parts of the world that consist of the same arrangement as tartan and are not part of Scottish material culture, the influence of the Scots can often be recognised by residuals of tartan patterns that appear in national or religious clothing. In August 2014 my organisation, the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora (CIAD), curated its first large scale project which was the culmination of research into how tartan style patterns came to be found on different types of fabric in several different parts of Africa, India, and the Americas. The project was entitled Tartan: Its Journey through the African Diaspora and outlined how the uniforms of the Scottish Highland Regiments and the colonial involvement of the British government and the East India Company left their mark on the African cultures they encountered throughout the British Empire.

Tartan: Its Journey through the African Diaspora involved a great deal of planning, liaising and collaboration with many organisations to bring it to fruition. The idea was not just to tell the incredible story of how sartorial influence could travel around the world and impact aspects of African material culture, but also to redress history from the perspectives of the people left with this legacy. How did colonised people take this imperial remnant and appropriate the colonising Other to their cultural advantage, and how have they sought to establish their own identities through its use? Essentially, the project looked at how these communities adapted, adopted, or absorbed this influence to bring significance to elements of their own dress cultures.

The outcomes represented in this project were the culmination of three years of research. They highlighted the heritage of the communities we were focusing on and explained how cultures often intertwine to develop different traditions and practices. These were explored in the influence of tartan on madras cloth in the Caribbean, in the emergence of tartan patterns amongst the Maasai in Kenya in the form of the shuka blankets they wear, and through the discovery of the relationship to tartan that developed amongst the Zulus in South Africa.