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• 1 2024-08-29T01:37:12+00:00 Korhogo Textile (Senufo) 3 plain 2024-09-19T14:58:21+00:00
  Maker Once Known, Senufo People (Côte d'Ivoire)
  Korhogo Textile (ca. 1970-1975)
  cotton cloth, pigment
  70.5 x 95.5 cm
  Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum
  75-69
  
  This is a Korhogo textile, a very distinctive form of textile produced by the Senufo people. With its characteristic black or dark brown figural decorations appearing on a white or cream field, Korhogo cloths may not match the Kente cloths for their vividness or Kuba cloths or other bark cloths for their geometric precision in decoration, but they are an equally recognizable and distinctive textile tradition. In African Fabrics, author Ronke Luke-Boone offers this explanation of the role of Korhogo cloths in Senufo society:

  "The Senufo, who make Korhogo cloth, believe powerful supernatural spirits live among them. The spirits can be vengeful or quite helpful, so the Senufo strive to stay in the spirits' good graces. To achieve this, they consult a diviner (a religious person in their community) who interprets what should be done. Often, the action involves commissioning a 'fila' garment (fila is short for 'filafani wii' meaning 'painted cloth') which serves as protection. The cloth is decorated with humans, human-like figures, and representations of the stars, sun and moon, chameleons, swallows, snakes, fish, lions, and other animals. These animals hold meaning within Senufo culture and mythology, and artisans may group the figures to convey more complex meanings. The diviner also wishes to stay in the spirits' good graces and commissions cloth to use as wall hangings in shrines" (Luke-Boone 2001: 47).

  While clothing is made from Korhogo cloth, in this case this Korhogo was intended to be a wall hanging. You can see another example of a Korhogo cloth like this one from the collections of the Wereld Museum Amsterdam. Luke-Boone describes the process for producing these cloths as well, saying:

  "Men and women have distinct roles in making Korhogo cloth. Both males and females cultivate the cotton. Women spin locally grown cotton into yarn, which men weave into narrow strips (approximately 4" wide) of cloth. The narrow strips are stitched together to make larger pieces of cloth of varying sizes. Men decorate the cloth using dyes made by women. The artisan stretches the plain cloth on a flat board. Working with a spatula and without preliminary sketches, he traces designs with a light-brown plant-based dye. The first lines are quite faint, and he reinforces the image with additional tracings. The cloth is then dried in the sun. The entire cloth is immersed in a bath of black, transparent dye, turning the whole cloth black. This second dye is a mordant that makes the first dye and decoration colorfast. The cloth is then washed to remove the black dye from all areas by those where it binds to the figures painted in the first step" (Luke-Boone 2001: 47).

  The Korhogo photographed in this project is made from white cotton woven strip cloth with black painted figures of animals and plants. The birds depicted on the lower register of the cloth may be guinea fowl, which are a symbol of feminine beauty in Senufo society. Leopards, or leopard designs, are also a common design element, as are lions. Given the spots on this cat, we might infer the artist was depicting a leopard on this cloth. In their catalog record for a Korhogo cloth, the Whitworth Art Collection points to the popularity of these cloths on the art market, after American Peace Corps volunteers encourage the introduction of these cloths to the tourist market in the 1960s and early 70s. Given the timing of when this cloth was made, it is likely that this cloth was created by a Senufo artist, with traditional techniques and symbology, but with the intent of selling this work on a global market.