The two halves of this pattern represent ‘Day and Night’, a reference to Indonesia, where it was customary to wear light clothing during the evening and dark clothing during the day. This was originally ‘a single’ that has been widened. The original width of 1 yard (0,9144 m) was widened to 1.20 m.
This fabric is called Obofa Dadefa (½ stone ½ iron) in Ghana. Do you know the story behind it?
I first heard the term as a child on a holiday back in Ghana in the late 1980s. A famous Ghanaian musician told me and my siblings we were obofa dadeefa, referring to our dual-heritage as children of a Ghanaian father and a European mother. I immediately liked it for its strength (what's stronger than stone and iron?) and the fact that it belies globally pervasive stereotypes of mixed-race people as impure, torn, fragile, or disloyal. Only later did I realise there was a fabric carrying that name. I bought it in its two color-version (blue-white) that seems to transmits its meaning best.
