Mud cloth (bogolanfini)
Artist Unidentified
20th century, about 1960
Object PlaceMali
Medium/TechniqueCotton, pigment
DimensionsOverall: 147 x 117 cm (57 7/8 x 46 1/16 in.)
Credit LineGift of Geneviève McMillan in memory of Reba Stewart
Accession number2009.2772
On View
Not on viewClassificationsTextiles
DescriptionThe mud-dyed cloths of the Bamana, called bogolanfani, are used for a variety of purposes. The patterns are created by first dying the cotton cloth in a vegetable dye, which is then painted with a mixture of iron-rich mud. When introduced to sunlight, the chemical reaction between the vegetable dye and the mud creates the dark colors. Hunters wear protective bogolan when in the wild and young women are wrapped in them during excision rituals.
ProvenanceGeneviève McMillan (b. 1922 - d. 2008), Cambridge, MA; 2008, to the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation, Cambridge; 2009, gift of the Geneviève McMillan and Reba Stewart Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 17, 2009)
mid 20th-century
early 20th century
mid 20th century
