Featured Textile: Bogolanfini Mudcloth

This thing is so freakin beautiful I can't even stand it. It feels warm, soft, and substantial. It smells like earth and plants. It's just luscious!

Mali

This is Bogolanfini! Bogolanfini is Bamanan for Mud cloth. Bogo means mud or earth, lan means with or by means of, and fini means cloth. Okay? This cloth is made by Bamara/Bambara people of central Mali in western Africa. Bambara = the people who refuse to be ruled.

The cloth is hand spun of local cotton and hand woven by men. They weave long strips on narrow looms, and then the strips are sewn together to create a large panel. The cloth is then washed and left to dry in the sun. 

The dried cloth is soaked in a kind of tea made from leaves from the n'gallama tree (Anogeissus leiocarpa), which turns the cloth yellow. The cloth is then dried again in the sun. 

  

The cloth is then ready to be decorated. Both men and women decorate the cloth in recent times, but traditionally the women carried out this part of the process.

The dye is made of a special mud collected from riverbeds that has been left to ferment for up to a year in a clay jar. The mud is painted onto the cloth using a small bamboo or metal spatula. The cloth is then washed and painted again and again to make the designs more vivid. After the final application of mud is removed, bleach or soda is applied in some areas to lighten the dye or whiten it completely. The cloth is left to dry in the sun a final time and is then ready to be used!

Motifs and colors can be associated with gender, status, or place of origin, although some are purely decorative. It is thought to offer ritual protection to the wearer.


Recommended Reading:
- Imperato, Pascal James and Marli Shamir, " Bokolanfini: Mudcloth of the Bamana of Mali", African Arts vol.3 # 4, Summer 1070:32-42
- Renewing Tradition. The revitalization of Bogolan Mali and Abroad. The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Catalog of Exhibition, 2000
- Rovine Victoria. "Bogolanfini in Bamako: The biography of a Malian Textile" African Arts, Vol. 30 #1, Winter 1997: 40-51, 94-96

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MIRI