Few textiles are as recognisable as Mali’s mud cloth, known as bogolanfini or bogolan. It is a handmade cotton fabric traditionally dyed with fermented mud and has become a symbol of Malian cultural identity.
How bogolan is made
Narrow strips of woven cotton are stitched into cloths, soaked in a dye bath made from n’gallama tree leaves, then dried and painted with designs in mud that has been fermented for up to a year. Its iron content reacts with the dyed cloth to leave dark marks. Traditionally men wove the cloth and women dyed it, and San is the centre of production.
From hunters to the catwalk
Hunters wore bogolan for camouflage and ritual protection, and women were wrapped in it after initiation and childbirth. Since about 1980 the government has promoted it as a national symbol. Young Malians wear it in miniskirts, jackets and boubous, the loose robes typical of West Africa, and the designer Chris Seydou is credited with popularising it internationally.
Sources: Wikipedia: Bògòlanfini, Wikipedia: Culture of Mali.
For more style ideas, browse the shop.