African clothing speaks loudly

Tuvumiliane tusikosane kwa jambo dogo. Translation, "Let's be patient with one another and not fight over small things."

This phrase is one of many featured on traditional Swahili Kanga clothing, which is being showcased on the ASU Museum's online exhibit.

"Wearing What Cannot be Spoken," features the research of Rose Ong'oa, a heritage studies doctoral student. Ong'oa did her research in East Africa,and worked on the exhibit with Marti Allen of the ASU museum.

The exhibit was a live exhibit in the museum last year.

"The cloth is so beautiful, it really lends itself to an online exhibit," said, Lenore Shoults, assistant director for education programs and communications for the Museum. "We felt that it would be a great addition to the Web site."

According to the exhibit "It highlights the struggle of Swahili women, of slave descent, to cope with the challenges that have faced them since the abolition of slavery in East Africa in the late 19th century to the present."

It also tells the history of the kanga cloth, which was worn by newly freed women.

"The story of the kanga cloth is so unusual," Shoults said. "It's a great cultural exchange among the students."

There is also audio featured on the Web site, in both English and Swahili translations.

Shoults said the Swahili audio is not only educational but allows the African women featured on the site, to be able to understand it.

Margaret Collier the designer of the online exhibit, said it wasn't difficult making it, just time consuming.

"The hardest thing was getting the concept," Collier said. "How I started was to make it look exactly how it did in the gallery, but it didn't look very attractive."

Instead Collier took everything from the exhibit and organized it into Web pages.

This online exhibit will be a permanent feature on the museum's Web site.