A hand-painted bogolanfini ("mud cloth") throw from Mali. Men hand-weave narrow cotton strips on a double-heddle loom and stitch them together into a single cloth, which is then dyed using leaves from the n'gallama tree and patterned by hand with fermented mud — washed and reworked repeatedly to build up the dark background tone against the pale, undyed motifs.
Patterns and colours traditionally carry meaning tied to gender, social status and personal taste, so no two cloths are alike.
