A chitenje, or in the plural vitenje, is a tremendously useful, ubiquitous household item in Malawi. It’s roughly 2 meters of brightly colored fabric. Many wear it on the daily and in many different fashions. The likes of Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, sports teams, or some sort of colorful design flatter the simple reams of fabric. It is the quintessential piece of Malawian dress. Walk into any tuck shop and you immediately brush your dome against the folded textiles from Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, and on. They are the single most colorful thing any Malawian owns. And oh, it’s so very useful, allow me to demonstrate its many uses:
• A wrap for respect
• Shawl for warmth
• Head scarf
• Sitting mat
• Backpack
• To carry children
• As a towel
• As an apron
• As a pot holder
• As curtains
• As a tablecloth
• Make a fruit hammock, yes a real life “banana hammock” actually holding the many bananas I buy daily
• Scrap fabric for sewing
• Handkerchief
• Sweat rag
• To wrap katundu for traveling, anything from maize, to bananas, to ground nuts get wrapped in the cloth and thrown up to balance on top of one’s head.
This is just a start. There seems to be endless uses for it.
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