Pareos

In the 19th century, in East Africa, certain varieties of cloth were popular. Among them was a cheap, white, unbleached cotton fabric imported from the United States called PAREOS, which was worn by women. The other was Kaniki, a name given to cotton cloth from India. The colorful material was quite popular around the middle of the 1800s and, as demand grew, local merchants began to dye Merikani cloth a deep blue or black. The earliest designs were block printed and had repeating black and white spotted motifs, which inspired the name PAREOS.