"Ours are ancient designs. They have meaning" -- Nakunte Diarra
Originated by the women of Mali's Bamana culture centuries ago, contemporary hand-dyed cloth speaks of many types of wealth: cultural and environmental knowledge; money earned in sales; and human connections formed as the cloth moves from local to international markets. Today, contemporary Malian artists use mud cloth designs and techniques in their paintings and clothing designers create contemporary fashions. People around the globe relate to the rich graphics of Malian mud cloth, or bògòlanfini, as a symbol of African culture and heritage.
In this exhibit, explore the many meanings of mud cloth and craft your own bògòlanfini.
The Artist: Nakunte Diarra
The Designer: Chris Seydou
The Painter: Ismaël Diabaté
Make Your Own Bògòlanfini
Learn more about the diversity and dynamism of African peoples in African Voices
"What I do is important, and when you see these bògòlanfini textiles you will remember me." - Nakunte Diarra
Since the 1950s Nakunte Diarra has made her own mud-dyed cloth in Kolokani, Mali, using bògòlanfini techniques she learned from her grandmother and mother. Nakunte has in turn passed this knowledge on to her son, her granddaughter, and the many students who search her out. Clients from across the world also come to Nakunte, seeking her gifted creations.
"Since God created the world...Bógólan was there," says Nakunte. For centuries, Bamana people have used bògòlanfini to mark major life transitions, and its traditional patterns refer to Bamana culture and history. While Nakunte draws on the rich symbolism associated with mud cloth, she also juxtaposes old and new patterns in unexpected ways. She calls old patterns "Bamana," expressing the cloth's deep roots in her culture. She calls new patterns "Mali," because they have been developed since Mali won its independence in 1960.
Traditionally, Bamana women make mud cloth during the dry season which lasts from October to May. During this season more time can be spent on non-agricultural activities like pottery and mud cloth. However, Nakunte works on her bògòlanfini designs thoughout the year. "It is my main occupation during both rainy and dry seasons. I withdraw from other tasks to keep making bogolan. I don't even spin cotton anymore."
"I make all kinds of bògòlanfini, from many materials, because
I work in a different technical dimension than its originators."
Chris Seydou, Bamako, Mali, 1992
In the 1980s clothing designers began applying bògòlanfini techniques in their contemporary works. Chris Seydou, who pioneered this movement, got his start in the tailor shops of Mali, at age 16. He first designed Bógólan clothing in Paris, at 26. Seydou embraced Malian mud cloth as part of his heritage and delighted in its graphic quality. He simplified the older patterns, creating designs that he tailored into Western-style mini-skirts and jackets.
Chris Seydou's clients were young, fashionable, urbanites in West Africa, Europe, and America. He created tailored clothing that is radically different from the traditional flowing robes which remain the formal clothing of choice for most Malians. In 1993, Seydou founded the African Federation of Fashion Creators, but he died the next year after a brief illness. Designer Yves St. Laurent recalls working with Seydou in Paris: "He worked at my side and represented the hope of African clothes design...with him has disappeared the talent of a genuine creative artist."
The use of mud cloth to create contemporary fashions continues in Mali through the work of three major design groups: Atelier Jamana, Groupe Bògòlan Kosebane, and Atelier Chris Seydou - a group of tailors who once sewed Chris Seydou's fashions. Atelier Chris Seydou now create their own clothing line using bògòlanfini as well as indigo-dyed cotton textiles, marketing their clothes through the Santoro gallery in Bamako, Mali. The success of Seydou and others has inspired young designers to experiment with a range of Malian hand-dyed and hand-woven fabrics.
"I use bògòlanfini to draw Malians back into their own culture...to
bring something new to international contemporary art."
Ismaël Diabaté, Bamako, Mali, 1992
Painter Ismaël Diabate helped transform bògòlanfini from a distinctly Malian clothing style to an internationally recognized fine art. In 1981, Diabate began working with Bógólan in his paintings. He believed that colonialism had undermined the Malian aesthetic and considered the mud-dyed technique part of a cultural revival.
Ismaël Diabate's own work combines traditional mud cloth techniques with contemporary media and styles. He has created herbal and mineral dyes, added colors to the mud cloth palette, and developed new dye application methods, such as spray-painting. Diabaté painted this traditional mud cloth pattern on handwoven cloth-using nontraditional acrylic paints. He chooses colors from the local environment, from the browns of adobe architecture to the greens of plants.
This painting by Ismaël Diabaté combines bògòlanfini technique with a specifically Malian subject matter-symbols that recount the Earth's creation. It features a Bamana symbol associated with both the Earth and uncircumcised boys. When Diabate graduated from the Malian National Institute of the Arts in 1968, Bógólan courses were not available. Today, Bógólan technique is part of the curriculum and a growing number of Malian artists work with its mud-dyes, cloth, and symbols.
A real mud cloth takes two to three weeks to make, but you can make a virtual one in a matter of minutes. Learn the traditional bògòlanfini technique from master artisan Nakunte Diarra and then design your own mud cloth.
Cotton is grown locally and woven by men into long strips, called finimugu, which are sold in large rolls at the market. These narrow strips are sewn together - either by Nakunte's husband or a tailor - to make a cloth.
Nakunte soaks the cloth in water infused with cengura tree leaves, which enables the fabric to absorb the mud dye that will be applied later. In the process the mixture also turns the cloth yellow. The cloth is then laid out to dry.
Mud cloth designs are negotiated. Clients may have a particular design or motif in mind, or they may leave the design entirely up to Nakunte. The patterns in Nakunte's mud cloth have names and are rich in meaning.
In the mud cloth, it is the dark areas around the symbols that are painted with mud. Nakunte begins by painting the borders and works her way inward. Nakunte uses iron-rich muds to paint designs on the cloth. With wooden sticks or iron tools, she paints only the negative spaces, letting the main image stand out in white. As the mud dries, the cloth absorbs its color. When the cloth is totally dry, Nakunte washes off the excess mud.
Nakunte's work is known for its dark color which she achieves by applying a second coat of mud. After the second coat sets, Nakunte washes the cloth again and soaks it in solutions made from boiling leaves, further enhancing the color.
As the final step, Nakunte applies a caustic soda - called sodani - to the yellow areas where the mud was not applied. The soda bleaches these areas white so that the designs stand out boldly from the dark mud-dyed background. A final washing completes the bògòlanfini.
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