Minneapolis Institute of Art

Army tunic

Unidentified Mahdist

Date

about 1890

Medium

Cotton, wool

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

It looks as though it were designed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris in the 1910s, the colorful patches of felted wool giving this tunic a “modernist” look. Yet it’s part of a soldier’s uniform from Sudan, where Muslim leaders successfully fought against the colonial government at the end of the 19th century. The religious Mahdi army wore patches on their uniforms as a reference to the ragged clothes of mystic dervishes, a show of contempt for worldly goods. Africa

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