Yes the "Batik" technique of in-printing on fabric was adopted from Asia. However, the reason why it was easy to adopt was because an existing local West African technique called "tie and die" (translated to English) was used to create patterns of fabrics, so they just incorporated the new technology. With Batik you can create (and recreated, more importantly) specific designs, while with tie-and-die, you create one-off designs. The patterns can be similar but are individual every time. The difference can be compared to handwriting (tie and die) and typing (Batik).
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