Minneapolis Institute of Art

Wrapper

Djege Coulibaly

Date

20th century

Medium

Cotton and indigo dye, strip woven, weft face

Culture

Bamana

Department

Arts of Global Africa

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Archeological finds from the Tellem caves in Mali show that strip woven fabrics have been an important part of West African tradition for well over a thousand years. Indigo blue and white weft faced cotton blankets such as this appear to have been part of the aesthetic traditions since the 11th century and evidence indicates that until the successful efforts by colonial powers to subvert local cultivation, West Africa was one of the major world centers of cotton cultivation. Bamana

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