Stylogeny combining Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth × Uli

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Style combination · Pairs well

Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth × Uli

Both leave pale signs in a dark-dyed ground, bògòlan by painting mud around them and ukara by stitching raffia to resist indigo; ukara itself is restricted to Ekpe, so borrow the light-on-dark idea with public signs placed freely, credit each source and keep each motif's meaning.

From the research on Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition

Mix them and make something Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth Uli

TogetherBògòlanfini Mud Cloth × Uli1900 · 1900
A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Uli, their arrangement from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth, the finish from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

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What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition

Type from Uli
Colour from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth
Form from Uli
Composition from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth
Surface from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth

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The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Uli

Together

Ojuju, standing in for Nsibidi signs as an ideographic set, drawn by hand (there is no standard font; check each sign's meaning and keep to public signs)

Text · Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth

The mud-dyed cotton cloth of the Bamana and other Malian peoples, in which the ground rather than the motif is painted: cloth dyed yellow with n'gallama leaves is covered around each sign with fermented iron-rich mud, and the unpainted signs are then bleached pale. Worn by hunters and by women after initiation and childbirth, it became a national emblem of Mali from about 1980 and spread through Groupe Bogolan Kasobané, Chris Seydou's fashion and stencilled export cloth.

Archivo; Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth used Bògòlan sign repertoire used as a glyph set and Irregular hand-painted sans capitals when text must accompany bògòlan-derived graphics

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The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth, with a counter-accent from Uli. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition

  • #2b1d14 ground · 39%
  • #e9dcc0 ink · 15%
  • #c99a3b accent · 20%
  • #8c4a2a accent · 15%
  • #23305a accent · 11%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #2b1d14;
  --ink: #e9dcc0;
  --accent-1: #c99a3b;
  --accent-2: #8c4a2a;
  --accent-3: #23305a;
  --font-display: "Ojuju", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Archivo", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth: Bògòlan motifs carry named references to Bamana history, proverbs, myths and animals such as the crocodile, and cloths worn by hunters and by women after initiation or childbirth were believed to protect and to absorb dangerous forces. Learn what a pattern refers to before using it, do not sell printed 'mudcloth' pattern as hand-made bògòlan, and commission, credit or collaborate with Malian makers (for example in Kolokani and Bamako workshops) rather than copying their cloths.

Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition: These are living traditions with restricted parts. Nsibidi has a sacred side kept by the Ekpe and Mgbe leopard societies, and ukara cloth is used exclusively by Ekpe members, so never copy society signs or ukara layouts for decoration, merchandise or invented 'secret' meanings; use only signs whose public meaning has been checked with knowledgeable members of the community. Uli is Igbo women's art, which declined after Christian missionaries discouraged it, and the mostly male Nsukka artists were criticised for drawing on it; credit and commission Igbo and Cross River artists, including women painters such as those of the Upa Women Artists Collective, and do not present invented pseudo-nsibidi or generated 'uli' as historical work. Keep the two traditions apart in credit: uli is Igbo women's painting, nsibidi a sign system of Ejagham origin kept by Ekpe and Mgbe men's societies; never label one as the other.

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The two styles

Vertical bands of repeating cream, ochre and rust geometric motifs cover a dark brown background. Diamonds, chevrons, crosses, triangles, dotted grids and striped almond shapes have slightly irregular, painted edges. 1900–present · Sub-Saharan Africa Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth The mud-dyed cotton cloth of the Bamana and other Malian peoples, in which the ground rather than the motif is painted: cloth dyed yellow with n'gallama leaves is covered around each sign with fermented iron-rich mud, and the unpainted signs are then bleached pale. Worn by hunters and by women after initiation and childbirth, it became a national emblem of Mali from about 1980 and spread through Groupe Bogolan Kasobané, Chris Seydou's fashion and stencilled export cloth. A cream poster reads “NEW GROWTH” beside a black, flowing illustration combining a raised-arm human figure, curling stems, spirals, and leafy shoots. Dotted trails, small triangles, and simple branching symbols decorate the sweeping forms. 1900–present · Sub-Saharan Africa Uli & Nsibidi Line and Sign Tradition Two linked graphic languages of southeastern Nigeria. Uli is Igbo women's body and wall painting: freehand lines that swell and taper, spirals and small named motifs set asymmetrically on open ground, so gaps count as much as marks. Nsibidi comprises hundreds of pictographic and abstract signs from the Cross River region, kept chiefly by the Ekpe and Mgbe leopard societies and reserved white on indigo ukara cloth. In 1962 Uche Okeke took uli into modern ink drawing; at Nsukka from the 1970s younger artists, Obiora Udechukwu above all, carried uli and later nsibidi into drawing and painting.

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More combinations

With Bògòlanfini Mud Cloth

With Uli

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