DECODING THE SYMBOLISM OF BOGOLANFINI, KORHOGO AND FON FABRICS

Abstract

Many fabrics produced in West Africa come with many symbolic designs that seem to reflect the social concepts and cultural dichotomies of the areas from where they emanate. These designs and symbols always need to be decoded to communicate very important religious, historical and socio-cultural information about the settings to which they belong. This study, aims at investigating the designs and symbols of three unique fabrics from West Africa: Bogolanfini (Mali), Korhogo (La Cote d’Ivoire) and the Fon Appliqué (Benin). Realising the need to inform many people across the globe about the existence and meanings of these fabrics and their symbols, with the current trends in globalization, this study, therefore, set out to identify these unique fabrics and decode the symbols that are represented in them. As a broader effort to help globalise indigenous West African fabrics, these three fabrics were chosen to encourage their wide acceptance, usage and application globally. In order to effectively conduct the study, case studies were used while data were largely obtained from archival records, interviews, documentation, participant and direct observation and physical artefacts. Some interviews were also conducted with curators, fabric producers, and dealers of West African textiles. The study concluded that these three fabrics like others prevalent in the West African sub-region are produced from different places under different conditions but their symbols seek to represent similar characteristic traits that revolve around varied messages geared towards historic, religious and socio-cultural engagements that the people, both users and producers alike can identify with.