Textiles from Mali |
Featured Textiles: merging culture, agriculture and
art;
Bògòlanfini wrapper (skirt)
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160 x 75 cm 5 strips, each 15 cm wide Cotton, hand-spun thread.
1978 Originates from the environs of Djenné 81-x-682
Bògòlanfini wrapper (skirt) Bamanan / Minianka
This much-washed wrapper belonged to a young woman from a family of
blacksmiths. The word bògòlan is a Bamanan term that comes from a dyeing
technique involving decoctions of plants and earth rich in iron oxide.
In Bamanan, bògò is a common word meaning earth, clay, or mud; lan is
a suffix. Bògòlan can therefore be translated as “made from earth”.
The term bògòlanfini details the fact that the object involves decorated
fabrics, as fini means fabric or woven material.
This work was once the sole prerogative of women, allowing them to embellish
clothes for their immediate circle. Over the last twenty years, however,
men and women in the urban centers have seized the technique and overturned
the traditional usages and decoration, everyone
is benefiting from a financially rewarding self-sufficiency. The bògòlan
has thus become symbolic of a Malian identity, which becomes West African
in the sub-region and African in Southern Africa or beyond the Atlantic
Ocean.
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