Textile tradition · Mali
Mudcloth (bogolanfini)
Mudcloth — bogolanfini, or bogolan, in the Bamanankan language — is a handmade cotton cloth from Mali, dyed yellow in a bath of leaves and then painted with fermented, iron-rich mud that turns black where it reacts with the dye. Traditionally made by Bamana women and worn by hunters and by women at moments of transition, it became a symbol of Malian identity in the 1970s and 1980s and is now known worldwide through fashion and interior design.
Updated 3 min read
How mudcloth is made
Making bogolan takes days and several stages, each one done by hand:
- Weaving. Cotton is spun and woven into narrow strips, traditionally by men, and the strips are sewn together into a cloth.
- The leaf bath. The cloth is soaked in a dye made from the leaves of trees rich in tannin — above all n'gallama (Anogeissus leiocarpa) — then dried in the sun. It turns a pale yellow.
- Painting with mud. Mud, collected from riverbeds and ponds and left to ferment in jars, sometimes for months, is painted onto the cloth with sticks, brushes or metal tools. The iron in the mud reacts with the tannin from the leaves and turns dark brown or black. Painters usually paint the background around the motifs, so the designs are left in the lighter colour. Repeated coats deepen the black.
- Bleaching. Finally the yellow areas can be treated with a caustic solution that turns them white, giving the classic contrast of white or cream motifs on a dark ground.
What the patterns meant
Patterns had names that refer to proverbs, historical events, objects and animals; their meanings were passed down among the women who painted them and varied from place to place. Bogolan was not everyday cloth. Hunters wore tunics dyed in its colours, believed to protect them; women wrapped themselves in it after initiation and after giving birth, moments when a person was thought to be vulnerable and in need of protection.
From village cloth to national symbol
In the 1970s and 1980s, artists in Bamako took bogolan in new directions. In 1978 six artists founded the Groupe Bogolan Kasobane, using the technique for large paintings, textiles and design. At the same time the fashion designer Chris Seydou (1949–1994) cut bogolan into jackets, skirts and dresses, taking it onto international runways. Bogolan became a sign of Malian identity, worn with pride in the city as well as the village.
Mudcloth around the world
Since the 1990s mudcloth patterns have spread through fashion and home design worldwide. Two things have happened at once. In Mali, many workshops produce simplified bogolan for the market, sometimes with stencils and faster dyes — still handmade, but different from the old cloths. Elsewhere, factories print "mudcloth" patterns on cushions, rugs and wallpaper with no connection to Mali at all.
How to tell handmade mudcloth
- Seams. A handmade cloth is made of narrow strips sewn together; look for seams running the length of the cloth every 15 centimetres or so.
- Lines. Motifs are drawn by hand, so lines vary in width and shapes are not identical.
- The back. The mud soaks into the cotton, so the design shows, more faintly, on the reverse.
- Texture and smell. Handspun cotton is uneven, and a new cloth can keep a faint earthy smell.
- Price. A large, finely painted cloth takes a long time to make. Very cheap "mudcloth" is almost certainly printed.
Related
Mudcloth belongs with the other great cloths of the region — Ghana's kente and adinkra — in our guide to African textiles. The Bamako photographs of Malick Sidibé show how young Malians dressed in the decades when bogolan was being reinvented. For the region as a whole, see West African art. In Bamako, the National Museum of Mali has a permanent gallery of textiles.
