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.

New book: Bazins du Mali by Patricia Gerimont

Livre

Bazins du Mali

Du textile vestimentaire à la création contemporaine

Publié à l’occasion de l’exposition à la Maison de la culture de Tournai, du 15 janvier au 1^er mars 2015, cet ouvrage de 104 pages, illustré de très nombreuses photos, mélange sans complexe les genres : histoire, essai, carnet de voyage et catalogue lié à l’expo. Vous pouvez en découvrir quelques pages dans le pdf joint en attache ou sur ma page facebook.

Ce livre est vendu en prévente au prix de 12 € (au lieu de 15 €, à partir du 15/01). L’argent ainsi récolté sert à éponger quelque peu les frais liés à l’organisation de tout ce projet.

Ce montant est à verser au compte de

l’asbl « Autres Regards », 7, chemin champ du moulin, B 1430 Rebecq

IBAN BE8300 164687 7215

BIC : GE BA BE BB

Soit, je vous remets le livre en mains propres le jour du vernissage ou un jour à convenir ; (attention, le prix de 12 € suppose un versement avant le 15/01) ;

soit, je vous l’envoie par la poste : dans ce cas ajouter pour les frais d’expédition :

§ 4 € pour la Belgique

§ 7,20 € pour l’Europe

§ Afrique : Sénégal, … : 8,52 €

§ USA : 8,52 €

Merci de m’indiquer par mail le mode de livraison souhaité.

Patricia Gérimont

Patricia.gerimont@hotmail.com

New book- “Indigo: the Colour that Changed the World” by Catherine Legrand

This is a beautifully presented and illustrated book that, perhaps inevitably,  relies heavily on the pioneering and more scholarly work of  Jenny Balfour-Paul (Indigo – British Museum Press, 1998), covering much of the same ground but adding some interesting if largely anecdotal material and a good number of often wonderful photographs.

The African section presents brief summaries of familiar material but also a fresh look at the most accessible surviving centre of indigo dyeing on the continent,  among the Dogon people of Mali. The author travelled this region in the company of Belgian author and film maker Patricia Gerimont (whose excellent book and DVD on Malian dyers should not be missed.)

All photos from Indigo: the Colour that Changed the World by Catherine Legrand (Thames & Hudson, 2013.)

Bazin de Bamako – at the International Festival of Extraordinary Textiles, Clermont-Ferrand

Organized by author/filmmaker Patricia Gérimont, the Malian dyer Sanata Magassa presented her remarkable fabrics at the recent festival, accompanied by an exhibition at the musée Bargoin. The dresses in some images are from a workshop at Louvain la Neuve, styled by Issa Tio. All phot0s by Patricia Gérimont, please do not reproduce without permission.

“Dames de Couleurs / Colourful Ladies”–new DVD on women dyers in Mali

“Sanata and Dicko are dyers  in Mali. Sanata produces coloured bazin fabrics with her co-wives in Bamako.
Dicko lives in the bush in Dogon country and dyes loincloths using indigo.
They have amazing skills, and yet both constantly face the same challenge : ensuring a decent life for their children.”

“Dames de Couleurs” is a new Dvd exploring the continued vitality of dyeing traditions in Mali today, moving from urban Bamako to a village in Dogon country. Produced by Patricia Gerimont and Jean-Claude Taburlaux it will be available in September from http://www.cvb-videp.be/ – hopefully with an English subtitle version. Patricia Gerimont is the author of Teinturieres a Bamako: Quand la couleur sort de sa reserve (Ibis, 2008) which is one of the best recent books on an African textile traditions, available from French Africanist bookseller Soumbala.

Below are a few more of Patricia’s photographs – click on images to enlarge. All photographs in this post are copyright Patricia Gerimont. Please do not reproduce without permission.

Bamako

Dogon country

Recent European Publications on African Textiles

A brief round-up of recent European publications on sub-Saharan African textiles. A later post will cover recent books on African fashion. French Africanist booksellers Soumbala (www.soumbala.com) are a good source for most of these.

	Kerstin Bauer, Kleidung und Kleidungspraktiken im Nordern der Cote d'Ivoire (Lit Verlag, 2007) is Bauer's important doctoral thesis (University of Basel, 2005) which highlights the crucial but previously under appreciated role of the Dioula in West African textile history.
	Mai Diop, Pagnes... Panos... Les etoffes magnetique des Mandjak - Guinee Bissau - Cap Vert - Senegal (Les Ateliers d'Art Tesss, Saint-Louis) Beautifully produced booklet on Mandjak and Cape Verde cloths.
	Bouilloc, C et.al. Afrique Bleue: les routes de l'indigo (Edisud, 2000) - exhibition catalogue
	Anne Grosfilley, Afrique des Textiles (Edisud, 2005) - useful introduction to current textile production with emphasis on Francophone West African
	Anne Grosfilley, Textiles d'Afrique: entre tradition et modernite (Edition Point de Vues, 2006) - exhibition catalogue
	Mali: Photographies et Textiles Contemporains (Musee de Design et D'Arts Appliques Contemporains, Lausanne, 2003) - small exhibition catalogue
	Pauline Duponchel, Textiles Bogolan du Mali (Musee d'Ethnographie, Neuchatel, 2004) - important and substantial publication based on years of field research.
	Gravellini, Anne-Chantal, and Annie Ringuede. Blues et ocres de Guinee: Teintures vegetales sur textiles. (Paris: Sepia. 2005) - beautiful book with extensive photography
	Patricia Gerimont, Teinturieres a Bamako: Quand la couleur sort de sa reserve (Ibis, 2008) - superb and very well illustrated.
	Anne-Marie Bouttiaux et al. African Costumes and Textiles: From the Berbers to the Zulus (5 Continents, 2008) - coffee table book of Belgian private collection, worth getting for the costumes, hats etc, but the West African textiles are disappointingly ordinary and in some cases wrongly labelled.