Pemba Peremba
Ukija na winda, hutoka na kilemba
Ukija na kilemba, hutoka na winda.
(Proceed cautiously in Pemba
If you come wearing a loin cloth, you leave wearing a turban
If you come wearing a turban, you leave wearing a loin cloth.)
Dress has historically been used as one of the most important and visually immediate markers of class, status and ethnicity in East African coastal society. As one of many forms of expressive culture, clothing practice shaped and gave form to social bodies. Examining transformations in dress and fashion illustrates, however, that boundaries between theoretically distinctive social categories were often vague in practice.