Baoulé Village, Ivory Coast— Weaving Rhythms

village

I was visiting a friend in Abidjan, and she knew someone in a village near Yamoussoukro, the capital. He welcomed us, hosted us, and showed us everything.

We arrived in the village at night, and I could already see the weaving looms in the dark, underneath the trees. I asked whether they grow their own cotton and indigo. They don't — the cotton comes from Mali, the indigo from Germany. Not a plant-based blue, unlike in Vietnam, where I had worked before and seen the whole process done locally.

I woke up at six in the morning to the rhythm of the bobbins running through the looms — long threads of cotton spanning across the sand, men and boys already busy weaving. One length of fabric is 18 metres and takes a full day to finish. Once complete, it is cut and zigzag-sewn into two separate pieces, called pagnes — the size you wrap around your waist, like a sarong or skirt.

The Baoulé People in the center of Ivory Coast weave a very narrow fabric in stand in looms. The cotton yarns are dyed with indigo- the indigo/white pattern is determined by the spacing of the rubber bands that keep parts of the yarn covered to stay white after the dip dye.

indigo yarn indigo yarn ready