Bamana Peoples, Beledougou Region, Mali

An eye-catching garment of contrasting black and white patterns is considered by Bamana people to be a “document,” because it carries accumulated knowledge belonging to society. The textile is encoded through design motifs whose nonrepresentational, irregular patterns embody secrets. The shirt is a catalogue of esoteric knowledge associated with hunting, a profession both respected and feared by Bamana. Not only is hunting dangerous, it implies penetration of the wilderness, a domain of unpredictable obscurity and potentially devastating powers.

Hunters’ shirts are worn not for actual hunting, but for ceremonial occasions. Some Bamana hunters’ shirts are literally covered with amulets, claws, and charged horns containing “secret things” that possess life force. A shirt made from mud-dyed bogolanfini cloth that is not covered with attachments, such as this example, is still considered to be a highly charged amulet. Bogolanfini artists are elderly women who guard the knowledge of the profound meaning of the designs painted into the cloth.

Cotton with mud-dyed painted design, mid- 20th century
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Slater, 1981.133