Some comments on the diisa

Happy to get some interesting comments on yesterday’s post on the diisa, a long fringed indigo men’s shawl, through my Facebook and Instagram pages.

Malian artist and master dyer Aboubakar Fofana commented:

“these two photos are amazing. The dissa shawl was such an important piece for a man from this region. It was given to a young man by his mother when he got married. She would have saved for this shawl since her son was very young- they were a lot of work and were worth the same as 10 head of cattle. They were indigo dyed, and when the man died, this shawl would be his shroud. The celestial blue of indigo would help him pass from this world to heaven. I'm very proud to be making a modern interpretation of the dissa, with its long fringes, and I hope I am carrying on the tradition of something important in my culture.”

And Belgian art historian Patricia Gerimont, who is working on a book on indigo dyeing in Mali, supplied this information on indigo in Burkina Faso (my translation.)

“the indigo shawls and wrappers in Burkina are dyed by a specific group called the Yarsé, and also by other groups of Marka dyers. The Yarsé speak Mossi but are of Marka origin, you also find them in Dogon country under the name Yélin.”

And here is another photo of Samory Touré wearing his diisa.

The Diisa, an indigo scarf of the Sahel.

The photo, by photographer Edmond Fortier, shows the Dioula warlord Samory Touré wearing on his head a plain fringed indigo headscarf called a diisa. In a brief discussion of these distinctive cloths in his book Textiles du Mali (Bamako 2003) Bernhard Gardi suggests these cloths were usually a mark of rank. Similar cloths, worn around the hips by young Dogon men, are seen in the photo below, also by Fortier.

And by a Wolof trader below:

Looking at the group of long fringed cloths from Burkina Faso that I posted on my site last week, one of which is shown below, and the remainder here, it seems likely that the tie-dye patterned examples form a previously unnoticed regional variation on this wider tradition of men’s prestige cloths.

Mossi Indigo Shawls

Rare variant style of vintage Mossi indigo shawls from Burkina Faso with 10 inch long braided fringes and tie dye patterning. There is a deluge of mostly very mediocre indigo dyed cloths coming out of Burkina at the moment but careful searching can uncover some gems amongst them. Message me for sizes and prices.

“Visvim” and Indigo strip weave

From Japanese cult brand Visvim, men’s jacket tailored from faded Burkinabe indigo cloths…

New at the shop today–Burkina Faso indigo

One of a group of Burkina resist patterned indigos I just found in Accra. I haven’t seen this type of patterning on these cloths before.

The original work wear - Mossi Indigo Cloths from Burkina Faso

The Mossi are the largest ethnic group in Burkina Faso, numbering some five to six million people. In the centuries preceding colonisation by the French at the end of the C19th the Mossi had used their skill as cavalry to maintain a large and powerful empire. Both weaving and indigo dyeing flourished in the region. Today vintage Mossi indigo cloths, woven from soft handspun cotton and faded through years of heavy use to a variety of subtle shades, are in great demand. 

 

“Weaving is an ancient tradition in the area now inhabited by the Mossi. Several of the original clans include stories of weavers in their myths of origin, and among clans near Guilongou, between Ouagadougou and Kaya, traditions state that the founding ancestor was a weaver who descended to earth on the threads of his warp carrying a wooden mask.

Working exclusively during the dry season, usually in large workshops that are organized and financed by merchants with adequate capital to purchase homespun or factory-spun thread, young men from 10 to 30 years of age produce vast quantities of plain, white cotton bands on horizontal narrow-warp looms.” Source: Dr. Christopher Roy, “The Art of Burkina Faso” Art & Life in Africa, University of Iowa.

Mossi indigo dyers, vintage postcard, circa 1910.

Working with partners in Burkina Faso we collect well used cloths from Mossi villages, then carefully select, sort, and wash them.  The colour of these pieces is fast and will not bleed on further washing or handling. We reject inferior recently made pieces or cloths aged artificially as the weave quality and handling are unsatisfactory. Our customers have used our Mossi indigos as shawls,scarves and throws, to tailor jackets and waistcoats, for upholstery, cushions, and a variety of other interiors projects. Wholesale prices are available on request.

At the moment in the shop we have a small group of beautiful hand made cushions backed with vintage indigo dyed French linen.

Cushions made from Mossi indigo cloths (not from us) can be seen in the June 2014 issue of World of Interiors below.

To view some of our current stock, along with other vintage West African indigo textiles on our website click here. Click on the photos to enlarge.

French National Archives–historic images of West African textile production.

Now online from the French Archives nationale d’outre-mer are over 5000 images taken before the 1960s in France’s former African colonies. Among the other treasures in this important resource are a number of superb images of aspects of textile production in West Africa. A few highlights are shown below.

“The weaver prepares his thread” Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 1930-60.

“Young Bobo girl spins thread”, photographer Berthier (Joseph, Louis), Burkina Faso (1945-1961)

“Loom” Burkina Faso, 1959 – some kind of craft training school probably.

“Dyers” photographer Chéron (Georges, Gustave, René) (1882 – ?), Kaya, Burkina Faso, (1908-1934)

“Dyers” – Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.

“Tukolor weavers” photographer Puigaudeau (Odette du) (1894-1991), Selibaby (Guidimakha),Mauretania, 1934.

“Hausa embroiderer”, Niger, before 1930.

“Weaving fibres of “liane floria”” photographer Krull (Germaine) (1897-1985), Bafoussam, Cameroon, 1943

“Diola-Floup weaver” Ziguinchor, Senegal, before 1960.

“Weavers” photographer Verger (Pierre) (1902-1996), Bamako, Mali, 1935/36.

“Weaving bands of ‘galak’” Chad, 1932.

“Weaver prepares his equipment” photographer Marcel Monnier, Bondoukou, Ivory Coast, 1892.

“Sudanic loom” photographer Marcel Monnier, Ivory Coast, 1892.

West African Robes: some early photos of Nigerian robes

To mark the recent update of the robe section of our gallery, today I am posting a selection of early images of this style of robe in use. Although this style of robe was made in and closely associated with the nineteenth century Sokoto Caliphate in north Nigeria, taking in Hausa, Nupe and northern Yoruba peoples, such was it’s prestige that it was traded and worn across a much wider expanse of West Africa.

Photographer unknown. Lagos, Nigeria, Circa 1890.

Photographer N. Walwin Holm or J.A. C. Holm, circa 1900-10. The Alake of Abeokuta.

Photographer unknown, Cameroun, early C20th.

Photographer unknown, Burkina Faso, early C20th. the Moro Naba, king of the Mossi, Ouagadougou.

Photographer unknown, early C20th, Tuareg Chief, Zinder, Niger.

Photographer unknown, early C20th. Hausa dance troupe, northern Nigeria.

Photographer unknown, early C2oth, Shendam, east central Nigeria.

Click on the photos to enlarge. Please visit our robe gallery to see our current stock and for more information.

Cloths with mobile phone motifs…

Ewe cloth with mobile phone motifs, woven by Chapuchi Bobbo Ahiagble.

Thanks to Deborah Stokes and Chapuchi Bobbo Ahiagble for the images from Facebook.

Seeing these prompted me to look again at the cloth below, collected in Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso in 2005, and the work of a Bwa weaver. This is the oldest cloth I have seen with a phone motif.

Mossi indigo wrapper cloths

Indigo has been on my mind a lot recently. I finally got around to reading Jenny Balfour-Paul’s classic book Indigo in the Arab World (Routledge, 1997) and ten days or so ago I returned from a brief trip to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso where I had passed an enjoyable week looking around for more Mossi indigo wrappers. These soft faded old cloths are among the best sellers in our shop (cushions made from them can be seen in the Andalusian estate on the cover of October 2012 issue of World of Interiors.)  Since then the post from Burkina has been bringing large bags of the cloths in their various shades, recalling Balfour-Paul’s wonderful list  - in eighteenth century Europe “dyers classified indigo colours into thirteen separate shades, beginning with the lightest: ‘milk-blue, pearl-blue, pale-blue, flat-blue, middling-blue, sky-blue, queen’s blue, turkish-blue, watchet-blue, garter-blue, mazareen-blue, deep-blue, and very deep or navy-blue (or ‘infernal blue’).” (page 117.)

On our cloths it is years of rigorous hand washing and drying under the fierce Saharan sun that have created the range of shades rather than the initial dyeing.

In the mid-C20th postcard above the cones of thatch cover the indigo dye pits to maintain them at the correct temperature. Two indigo wrappers may be seen hanging at the right of the figures.

Click on the images to enlarge.

For some of the Mossi wrappers and other of our vintage indigo cloths for sale click here.