The house
yangoon, myanmar
If you are in any way acquainted with the collections of noted Malian fashion designer, the late Chris Seydou, or pay attention to depictions of Africans and Afrocentric characters in American popular culture, then these unique designs and textiles, known more commonly as ‘mud cloth’, are probably an iconic aesthetic that you are familiar with.
Originating amongst the Bambara people of Mali whose name for this style of textile-making is Bògòlanfini, these handmade mud-dyed cotton fabrics have become a symbol of Malian cultural identity that is used in dressing, design and art. The process involved with the making of bògòlanfini textiles is an organic eco-friendly activity that uses all natural substances.
Traditionally the textile is made using narrow strips of cotton cloth woven on looms in the villages producing ca 15 cm wide cloth, which is then sewn together by hand to produce a fabric wide enough to make into clothing etc. This base fabric on which the designs will be painted is first dyed either a rich red from a dye obtained through boiling the bark of a special tree, or in fresh yellow tones obtained through soaking the dried and pounded leaves of another tree.
Once the fabric is dyed it is ready to receive the mud, often applied with the help of a toothbrush and painted free hand or using stencils. The mud comes from the river Niger, and through a fascinating process of oxidisation it reacts with the natural dyes , producing a rich black when it has dried and been washed off the fabric. This process is also traditionally done on the banks of the river Niger or its tributary the Bani where the fabric is spread out to dry in the sun.
- See more at: http://www.malimali.org/what-is-bogolan/#sthash.pdBQtgFS.dpuf
LADY SINGS THE BLUES (BILLIE HOLIDAY)
Colorized image from an original black & white portrait first published in Down Beat magazine, February 1947
‘Afrocentrism Vs. Eurocentrism in Ancient History - The fight to correct centuries of Eurocentric racism’, Cliff Conner, Socialist Action, San Francisco, 1997.
Feminism is having a wardrobe malfunction.
Does your brand of feminism remove barriers for women, or simply move them around? Does is expand options for women, or does it just shift them? You don’t liberate women by forcing them to choose option B instead of option A. What is comfortable for you might not be comfortable for someone else, and it’s entirely possible that what you see as oppressive, other women find comfortable or even downright liberating.
Before you think the girl in the middle is a strawman, let me tell you I used to be her, back in my misguided youth. I considered myself the standard to which other people should adhere. But that was stupid. It’s not up to me to tell people how to dress, and it’s much nicer to let everyone choose for themselves.
Some women would feel naked without a veil. Some women would find it restrictive. Some women would feel restricted by a bra. Some women would feel naked without one. Some women would feel restricted by a tight corset. Others love them. Some wear lots of clothes with a corset. Some only wear the corset and nothing else. What makes any article of clothing oppressive is someone forcing you to wear it. And it’s just as oppressive to force someone not to wear something that they want to wear.
