Malian Mudcloth (Bogolan)

The Bamanan, a tribe of two million located largely in Mali, painstakingly create ‘bogolanfini’. Traditionally the patterns and designs carried messages and the cloths were worn at life’s pivotal transitions. All-natural vegetal materials are collected from within the immediate region and made into dyes by the artisan. Mud is used to paint the background around the pattern and symbols; this technique requires great skill, time and patience. The meticulous attention to design distinguishes this craft. ‘Bogolan’, also known as mudcloth, is a new take on the traditional bogolanfini. Bogolan designs are often simplified and the cloths have been adapted for use in home décor, clothing, accessories, and even shoes.

Mudcloth has gained recognition due to local fine artists promoting and exhibiting their work in Europe and Francophone Africa and also because of the work of celebrated Malian fashion designer, Chris Seydou. Artisans work in workshops or cooperatives painting cloth that has been provided to them by a merchant/exporter. There are also merchants known as ‘suitcase sellers’ who operate on a small scale. The value of exports in 2006 is estimated to be around $200,000, an imprecise figure due to informal trade.

Retailers in the United States and Europe further enhance the value of a bogolan cloth by producing finished items such as handbags, pillow covers and scarves, which sell for prices equivalent to full pieces of cloth. A pillow cover made from bogolan costs twice that of a mass produced pillow cover. Artisans have been adapting bogolan to accommodate a wide range of products without diminishing its singularity and recognisable intangible value.

Artists, many of whom have trained at the Institut National des Arts à Bamako, create unique cloths, sometimes abstract, sometimes resembling traditional bogolan; they may sell their work directly to clients or retailers, which will retail at up to $250. Several artists have capitalised on both the economic and social value of mudcloth by founding ateliers or workshops that teach this distinctive craft to young people, who learn an important income generating skill.

For their work painting a ‘pagne’ (eight to ten strips of cotton sewn together) measuring approximately 45" x 70", artisans earn $1-2. The merchant/ exporter may then sell the cloth for about $9. Wholesale prices range between $12-24 and at retail, a pagne can sell for $35-65 with prices reaching up to $125. Alternatively, independent artisans who fund themselves may sell their pieces for $12-48, depending upon negotiations with the buyer.

Price ratios where artisans earn 1-3% of the retail price of handicrafts are common for a very large number of artisan products from Sub-Saharan Africa (and from Least Developed Countries in other continents).

An IP strategy could directly build on three aspects of the intangible value of bogolan. The IP is derived from production traditions, evolving design work and aesthetic distinctiveness. An IP strategy could unify worldwide presentation and marketing of designs, and control the use of designs and pagnes by certification, or by licensing the garments, furnishings and other final products producers make. This could expand the applications of authentic bogolan to quality retail products (clothing, furniture, accessories) into a variety of categories, mostly at the higher end of the retail market, and protect against the risk of counterfeiting.

A bogolan aficionado believes the market has not nearly reached saturation and, certainly, individual high quality pieces could bear price increases of 20%, and perhaps 25%. Global marketing and management could triple the income of artisans and artists and gain a far larger share of the retail value, adding $375,000 to export income. Institutional issues, including the widely spread and small scale production situation, would need to be incorporated into an IP-enhanced strategy.

Value chain analysis will be available here shortly.

Adire African Textiles
http://www.adireafricantextiles.com

Africa and Beyond Ethnic Art Gallery
http://www.africaandbeyond.com

“African Mud cloth. The Bogolanfini Art Tradition of Gneli Traore of Mali”
Barton, Wayne D., African Studies Review (2007)

Indigo Arts, Tony Fisher
http://www.indigoarts.com

International Trade Center
http://www.intracen.org

“History, Origin and Significance of Mud Cloth”
Jones, Kimberly Michelle
http://library.cornell.edu/africana/about/mudcloth.html

The Niger Bend
http://www.nigerbend.com

Olesen, Bodil Birkabaek, Doctorate from Aarhus University, Denmark, September 2007
Field study July 2004-October 2005

“Bogolanfini in Bamako: The Biography of a Malian Textile”
Victoria Rovine, African Arts (1997): 40-51

Teinture Naturelle de Ségou
http://www.promali.org/ndomo/historique.html

“Mud cloth from Mali: Its Making and Use”
Toerien, Elsje S., Journal of Family Ecology and Consumer Sciences 31 (2003): 52-57

Woods, Phyllis, designer, importer, wholesaler
http://www.tribalinks.com

Zanzibar Trading Co.
http://zanzibar-trading.com