How The Sewing Machine Gave Power — And Fashion Cred — To African Women

Madzwamuse, Masego. "How The Sewing Machine Gave Power — And Fashion Cred — To African Women." In "Goats and Soda" Stories, 13 May 2021, on the NPR website here.[1]

Interview with Catherine McKinley on her collection of photos: "The African Lookbook [... gives us] images that present a stereotype-busting way to look at African women, their relationship with fashion — and their ability to turn the sewing machine from a tool synonymous with toil, lack of choice and oppression into a means for them to achieve economic power."

See also "American Sewing Machines," and note this story for the African continent as a wide area where the sewing machine was important for the literal domestication of "The Machine Age," in many cases bringing sophisticated machinery into the home and bringing ordinary people — women especially — into daily interaction with a device that could work for exploitation in a sweatshop, or empowerment.

RDE, finishing, 18May21, with thanks to Cheryl Johnson