After local manufacture returned to Zwelitsha, demand for authentic Shweshwe rose fourfold in a decade — the cloth came home, and the home reordered.

Reading the cloth: the muted brown bars are the years bolts came from Manchester, Augsburg, and Sebnitz mills; the indigo bars mark Da Gama’s Zwelitsha run. The two darkest bars carry the small star-motif — the bleach-pattern signature.