A Baule Weaver, Ivory Coast, 1960s.

Vintage postcard, postmarked 1969, showing a  Baule or Dioula weaver in Côte D’Ivoire, wearing an indigo overdyed robe cloth and weaving an ikat pattern. Note the indigo on the loom’s heddles. This is not normal weaving attire so we can assume he put on a finished cloth or his best outfit for the photographer.

Ivory Coast Chiefs: some images from the Smithsonian Elisofon Archives

Baule dignitary N'Goran Koffi with his linguist and elders, Kouassiblekro, Ivory Coast, Baule dignitary N'Goran Koffi with his linguist and elders, Kouassiblekro, Ivory Coast, Eliot Elisofon Field photographs, 1942-1972 [slide].eepa_01519.jpg (1230×840)

Kyaman chiefs and notables, Anna village, Ivory Coast, [slide]. Contained in: Eliot Elisofon Field photographs, 1942-1972 The photograph depicts Ebrie (now Kyaman) dignitaries wearing prestige clothes and regalias. .eepa_01546.jpg (1230×840)

 

Dan men wearing hat called tarboosh, Man region, Ivory Coast.The photograph depicts three men wearing black and white robes of locally woven cloth. Their red hats, Tarboosh, are similar to those worn by other Moslems further north. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Westinghouse Film and traveled to Africa from October 26, 1970 to end of March 1971. eepa_02708.jpg (840×1230)

Click on the photos to enlarge. For many more please explore at the Smithsonian Eliot Elisofon Archives here.

Exploring the West African textile collections of the Musee du Quai Branly: Part One – some unusual indigo cloths.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof fold resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof fold resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Wolof stitch resist indigo early C20th.

Senegal – Soninke or Wolof tied resist indigo, early C20th.

Senegal – Wolof stitch resist indigo early C20th.

Ivory Coast, tied resist indigo – attributed to the Baule. Collected 1900.

Click on the photos to enlarge.

The Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, holds one of the world’s most significant collections of West African textiles, with particular strength in some of the former French colonies. The entire collection is accessible on line  via their website. Check the textiles button then enter the country name in the box below.

Cloth of the month–an exceptional Bondoukou man’s cloth.

fr473 - One of a very small number of museum quality Bondoukou men's cloths, this subtle and beautiful piece uses complex blocks of coloured weft threads muted by the predominant indigo warp as the sole decorative effect. Although this is a very old decorative technique found in some of the earliest Ghanaian textiles the sophisticated effect achieved here by varying the colours and the placement of blocks is to my knowledge unique. One strip is missing from each edge (they were likely removed because they were excessively frayed) but the cloth is otherwise in very good condition with no patches, holes, or stains. Dates from C19th or early C20th. Measurements: 118ins x 71ins, 300cm x 180cm. PRICE: Email for price.

Bondoukou is in the north east of Ivory Coast, not far from the border with Ghana. Culturally and historically  it shares many features with the nearby Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana, such as small Akan kingdoms and chieftaincies ruling primarily farming peoples and significant communities of Muslim traders of Malian ancestry. The textiles of this region, as I discussed in my article in Hali magazine a few years ago, now on my website here, share features with both Asante and Ewe cloths from Ghana and with Ivoirian cloths of the Guro and Baule.

Two cloths from the collection of the Museum de Kulturen, Basel, published in the important exhibition catalogue Woven Beauty: The Art of West African Textiles edited by Berhard Gardi (Basel, 2009) illustrate the early use of the same technique.

This cloth, collected in 1840, is the oldest documented kente in the world. Here red, yellow, and blue weft stripes are muted by the white warp. The author notes that it may be attributed to either an Asante or an Ewe weaver – although I would suggest the red edge strip is strongly indicative of an Ewe origin.

This second piece, collected in 1886, is attributed by the author to the Asante on the rather weak grounds that the collection location is nearer Asante than it is to the Ewe. It is closer to our cloth in that indigo and white stripes are used in the warp although the variety of weft colours is still much less, and the pattern layout much less sophisticated. Click on the photos to enlarge. More Bondoukou cloths on our website here.

The 1/4 million euro weaver’s pulley….

A Baule (Ivory Coast) weaver’s heddle pulley, collected in 1927, sold yesterday at Sotheby’s Paris for Euro 240,750.. more info and auctioneer’s description here

Hand woven textiles in Cote D'Ivoire today..

Côte D’Ivoire is home to a fascinating diversity of textile production traditions, the vast majority of which have hardly begun to be researched. Aside from the tie dyed raffia cloths of the Dida people, most of which incidentally are actually very newly made for export sale, the collectors' market has paid little attention to Ivoirian fabrics. Over the past decade the Civil War and the uneasy peace in a divided country that has followed have made further research difficult or impossible. For this reason I was very interested in the glimpses of contemporary cloth production and use provided by the photos and short texts in a newly published book. Somewhat misleadingly titled "Arts au feminin en Côte D’Ivoire", edited by Philippe Delanne, (le cherche midi, Paris, 2009) this is a glossy government endorsed survey subsidised by the UNFPA. Alongside printed fabrics it shows people at celebrations and events wearing a wide variety of locally woven cloths. By the far the most widely illustrated are modern Baule ikat dyed cloths as shown in the first photo.
The Baule are an Akan people who migrated to their present location in central Côte D’Ivoire from Ghana in the C16th but seem only to have learnt weaving from their Dioula neighbours in the early to mid C20th. Note the standing posture of the weavers in the photo, unlike the seated style of the Asante and Ewe in Ghana. The book notes that there are around 300 weavers in a cooperative group in the village of Bomizambo 45km from Yamoussoukro.

In contrast to the Baule, the weaving of the Dan people in the central western part of the country is very obscure. Perhaps surprisingly given the attention paid to Dan masks and sculpture I am not aware of any published images before this that show Dan textiles and weaving.

Some modern Gouro cloths worn for a wedding. The lady in the centre is wearing a Baule cloth, but the woman at the left and 2nd from right wear complex weft float decorated Gouro fabrics.

Finally, a Malinké masquerader near Bondoukou wears a modern Abron cloth.

For a selection of our vintage textiles from Côte D’Ivoire see here and for further reading see here