page_title: Shweshwe
section_title: Name
hierarchical_section_title: Shweshwe / Name
caption_attribution_description: English: Five Xhosa women performing in traditional Xhosa costumes and facepaintings. Picture from the Waterfront in Cape Town.
context_page_description: SeShoeshoe is a printed dyed cotton fabric widely used for traditional Lesotho clothing. Originally dyed indigo, the fabric is manufactured in a variety of colours and printing designs characterised by intricate geometric patterns. Due to its popularity, seshoeshoe has been described as the denim, or tartan, of Lesotho.
context_section_description: The local name shweshwe is derived from the fabric's association with Lesotho's King Moshoeshoe I, also spelled "Moshweshwe". Moshoeshoe I was gifted with the fabric by French missionaries in the 1840s and subsequently popularised it.
  It is also known as sejeremane in Sotho, and ujamani in Xhosa, after 19th century German and Swiss settlers who imported the blaudruck ("blue print") fabric for their clothing and helped entrench it in South African culture.
caption: Xhosa women in traditional costume wearing indigo shweshwe aprons
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