CHAPTER SIX: Literacy in Bweyale 6.1 Introduction
6.4 Livelihood and community literacy practices
6.4.2 Specific literacy practices in different livelihood activities
6.4.2.3 Literacy in tailoring
recorded as minutes in English. There are very strong reasons for writing these minutes in English. Meetings and minutes are practices that are associated with modern institutions and organisations. The language of these modern institutions and organisations is English.
The use of English therefore gives formality and status to the meeting of the Bodaboda riders. The files containing these minutes are kept by the chairperson or the secretary of the group, both of whom are able to read and write according to Ocan. Ocan said, “We hold our meetings once a month… to discuss such complaints from customers”.
(Interview with Ocan conducted in Luo on 9th July 2005).
These measurements are taken of different parts of the body (shoulder, waist, length and so on), and they are recorded accordingly using idiosyncratic shorthand letters such as L for length, H for height, W for waist, B for breast, Sh. for shoulder and so on (see Figure 29 below). These measurements are recorded into the record book under the customer’s name. This is followed by measuring the cloth, sewing and cutting it into different patterns. When the dress item is completed and the customer has paid for and taken it, the record is ticked off and it ceases to be useful. The book will continue to be used if it still has some free pages in it and once full, it is thrown away. That is why Lamunu had no problem surrendering her used up record book to me (See Figure 29).
Figure 29: One page from Lamunu’s record book.
I concluded that the writing in tailoring was somewhat idiosyncratic because Anena was not able to read Lamunu’s shorthand for shoulder ‘Sh’. When Lamunu overheard our discussion, she said it meant, ‘Shoulder’. Lamunu herself was also not consistent in recording her measurements. For example, Figures 29 and 30 are different recording formats written by Lamunu. Figure 30 had no shorthand labels like ‘L,’ ‘Sh,’ ‘W,’ or ‘B’.
The principle in this format, according to Lamunu, is writing the measurements in a specific order that is, the first figure is Length, the second is Shoulder, and the third is Waist and so on. With this order, you can leave out the shorthand letters if you have many customers like school pupils to deal with. This shows that the circumstances or volume of work change the way the measurements are recorded by tailors. It also shows that there is a lot of flexibility in recording the measurements depending on the individual creativity of
each tailor and his or her working conditions. However, some basic things like the body measurements do not change and this is what guides all tailors’ literacy practices.
Figure 30: A different recording format by Lamunu, a tailor.
In Figure 30 above, for example, the measurements are written without indicating whether they are in centimetres, or inches. Furthermore, the use of multiplication symbol
“X” like in 42 X 31 X 24 has a different meaning from the actual multiplication. This looks different although the underlying format that informs tailors literacy practices remains the same as I stated above in this section.
Some tailors do not record their measurements in books. Anena, for example, did not have any record book. When I asked Anena to show me her record book, it was Lamunu who answered, “Anena does not use books she sometimes writes on the wall (directs my attention to the wall of their shop, on which there are some figures written in chalk) or uses her memory”. Anena herself confirmed this when she said, “I can simply look at a person, and determine the size of cloth that can fit them” (Observation field notes: 22nd February 2005). However, even though she does not take and record customers’ actual measurements, she has, from her experience, some idea about the different measurements required to make a dress for a customer. Okere related a similar experience of writing his measurements on any surface including the pieces of cloth he is working on or the wooden surfaces of his sewing machines. When I asked him about his records, this is what he said, “Books..., books…, in most cases I write on the cloth itself, times I write
even on wood, because I will be using the information immediately”(Interview with Okere was conducted in Luo on Wednesday 25th May 2005).
Whatever the case, literacy has an important role in tailoring, and some knowledge of tailoring is required for a person to understand the literacy practices of tailors. This knowledge includes knowing how to read and write measurements and cutting the patterns according to the measurements. This knowledge can be learnt informally, non- formally through apprenticeships and close association with a tailor or formally. Both Lamunu and Anena learnt tailoring through formal training programs organized by tailoring schools. In the tailoring schools, they learnt what to measure, how to record such measurements and use it to make clothes. All these processes involve reading a tape measure and writing measurements in a book or on any other materials that can hold the written information in a readable form until the clothing is made.
All the three tailors learnt the literacy practices of tailors as part of their training or learning experiences. As Anena puts it, “There are no special lessons for learning how to read and write as tailors, we simple learnt tailoring and this includes what tailors read and write as part of their work” (Field notes: 21st February 2005). In other words, they learnt the literacy practices of tailoring by immersion in it during both training and practice.
In spite of their individual differences, like Anena writing on walls, Okere writing on any surface including the cloth materials he is tailoring, and Lamunu using a school exercise book, the literacy practices of tailors are similar, and constitute a distinct practice within the livelihood literacy practices. Even a tailor like Anena who does not record her measurements, has a mental framework of what she could have recorded, and she use this mental picture to cut the fabric accordingly. Cutting the fabric also involves using a tape measure. The tape measure that is very important in tailoring (and always hangs around the tailor’s neck) is like their trademark. The literacy practices of tailors are learnt as part of the process of acquiring the knowledge of tailoring.
The basic function of literacy in a tailoring shop is to capture information such as the clients’ names and measurements. Literacy is integrated into the tailoring process, although some tailors may work without the use of a written record, except reading a tape measure that is integral to their work.