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frican textiles “are used for special occasions—funerals, initiations, marriages, and coming-of-age
celebrations,” says Christopher Roy ’70, Professor of Art History and the Elizabeth M. Stanley Faculty Fellow
of African Art History at the University of Iowa. “Both men and women weave, men on narrow-band,
horizontal warp, double-heddle looms, and women on wide-band, vertical warp, single-heddle looms.”
This Dafing ethnic group embroidered men’s weave from Burkina Faso is from the University’s Christopher Roy ’70
and Nora Leonard ’69 Roy Collection of West African Textiles, which the Roys gave to St. Lawrence in 2007.