A West African plant or the fiber derived from it, used for making textiles or rope.
From West African languages, likely related to words for fiber-bearing plants. The term entered European languages through Portuguese and Dutch traders in the 17th-18th centuries.
Amafingo textiles represent a forgotten chapter of African trade—European powers so dominated the narrative that we almost lost track of which African plants were processed into valuable exports before colonization flipped the trade completely upside down.
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