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Weaving
is another craft shared by the Bamana, Senufo and the Dogon, however fabrics
that once were made for ritual use, are now decorative and designs
reproduced for export. An example of this is the ‘mud-cloth’ or bogolanfini (pronounced
"Bo-ho-lahn-FEE-nee") of the Bamana, rich with lines, dots and
geometric motifs that once had special meaning to the people (Spring 1997,
p44). While there is evidence of weaving of plant fibers in Africa as early
as 5000 to 4000 BC, it is thought that the horizontal loom and weaving of
cotton was introduced sometime in the first millennium. The Puels (Fulani)
were the first to learn the trade from Syrian Semitic people from the
northeast. While first working with wool, the Puels became skilled at
working the loom and developed the practice of working with the new fiber,
cotton--learning the techniques from the Arabs. The oldest known mention of
the local production of cotton fabrics in the area is in a book written by
the Arab, El-Bekri, dated 1068 (Thomas, Mainguy, and Pommier 1985, p.95).
The techniques in weaving strips of fabric spread rapidly. Both loom and
cotton industry were transmitted to the Tukulors, the Wolofs and then to the
different Mande people of the Sudan, soon reaching the Bambara, the Dogon
and others (ibid.). SEE
MORE EXAMPLES HERE (Gallery)
The fabric of the Bamana, the Dogon and the Senufo
is woven in strips approximately six to eight inches wide and then sewn together for dying
or painting. Men do the weaving of strips while the women spin the cotton into thread. The
Bamana and Dogon still stitch their fabrics by hand while the Senufo have taken to using a
machine stitch (from actual samples). The whole process of weaving is a primary reference
in stories about the origins of the world as found in the writing of Griaule (1965) about
the Dogon:
"At
sunrise on the appointed day the seventh ancestor Spirit spat out
eighty threads of cotton; these he distributed between his upper teeth
which acted as the teeth of a weaver’s reed. In this way he made the
uneven threads of a warp. He did the same with the lower teeth to make
the even threads. By opening and shutting his jaws the spirit caused
the threads of the warp to make the movements required for weaving.…(Harris
1993, p. 295)
The Dogon and the
Bamana use similar techniques to color their fabrics. First the entire
piece of fabric is dyed yellow (sometimes brick red) using sap obtained
from roots. Next designs are painted on with a mud mixture and coated with
a highly corrosive soap forming a type of resist. With this done, the
fabric is treated with very dark river mud (nearly black). After the
corrosive as taken effect, the fabric is soaked several times to reveal a
lighter pattern against the dark ground. Some of the Bamana designs are
said to have represented the chi wara (long zigzag lines), cricket legs
(short double zigzags) and the crocodile (long parallel linear pattern).
Irregularities commonly occur, as they are produced free hand (Spring
1997, p.44). Some area of Mali produce a fabric using the same weaving
technique, however the black designs are painted on directly leaving a
positive print on the fabric. The Senufo also work in this manner, as they
have been known to paint animal images directly onto the fabric with the
earthen dyes. The Senufo also employ other colors of natural dyes in
addition to black.
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