Bogolan Fabric

Every morning Monday through Friday I go to "Work" if you can call it that. I report into the Union Associations of Artisan's of Koutiala. Go through greeting everyone there and then sit with the President of Bogolan Association of Koutiala. Drink tea and just kinda be there. She doesn't speak French (my French still is not that good) and I don't speak Bambara.

Through language difficulties we have become friends. She knows my host mom. Several times a week I buy tea, now drinking tea in Mali is a ceremony as much as its the actual drinking of the tea.

Here is some information on Bogolan fabric and how its made;

Bògòlanfini (sometimes bogolan) is a traditional Malian fabric dyed with fermented mud, particularly associated with the Bambara. The name is a Bambara word meaning "earthcloth."

In the creation of bògòlanfini, simple cotton cloth is woven, shrunk, and then soaked in a preparation of leaves from certain trees. An artist then outlines an intricate design with a mud dye, often taking several weeks to cover the entire cloth. Yellowish areas of mud are then treated with a caustic soda, bleaching them back to white for a stark black and white design. Traditionally, a man will do the weaving while a woman will do the dyeing.