Fair trade used to promote quality craftwork in Mali

Traditionally, women are the ones spinning cotton. As an activity that is unprofitable and rudimentary (use of the distaff and thighs), it is often left to old women. Actually, women spinners are unavailable during the 5 months devoted to farming and harvesting. This creates a shortage of yarn, leading to an increase in the price of yarn for weavers and at times a halt in their activity.

In order to revitalize craft spinning, to ensure the supply of hand-spinned yarn and bring income to the women, ami&co has decided to provide the association's weaving workshop with 20 new spinning wheels. Made in Ségou, in a "formal" metal manufacturing workshop, this spinning wheel uses simple technology and is cheap to manufacture because the raw material and the labour are all available locally.

This new spinning wheel is revolutionising traditional cotton and wool spinning by changing an activity that was up to now unproductive into an attractive one with the increase in its productivity : the spinner increases her production and income three-fold.

Traditionally, in Mali, men are the ones who weave. However, it's a woman, Perrine Rousseau, who will carry out the training of weavers on weaving looms that are more efficient than the ones used traditionally by Malian craftsmen.

While the craftsmen will develop new technical skills, the designer Perrine Rousseau will expand her sources of inspiration by using traditional techniques and designs. This two-way training will lead to mixed-style weaving, evidence of the exchanges between the craftsmen and Perrine Rousseau.

The Mandingue legend says that it is a hunter's wife who discovered this technique, as she noticed the indelible stains left by a decoction of medicinal plants dried directly on the ground, the chemical reaction produced by the contact between the mud and the dyes. By using this principle and changing the dyes and patterns, the Mandingue have given them codified meanings. Each pattern, colour, will mark a specific episode of men and women's life. Themes will come from proverbs, historical facts, a symbolism on man and his place in society.

The word bogolan, from the Bambara language, comes form the words bogo, earth, and lan which means "with". It refers to both the material and the specific style of dyeing. The bogolan is a technique used for dyeing and printing which requires many stages alternating between soaking and washing. Contrary to chemical dyes that
The Mandingue legend says that it is a hunter's wife who discovered this technique, as she noticed the indelible stains left by a decoction of medicinal plants dried directly on the ground, the chemical reaction produced by the contact between the mud and the dyes. By using this principle and changing the dyes and patterns, the Mandingue have given them codified meanings. Each pattern, colour, will mark a specific episode of men and women's life. Themes will come from proverbs, historical facts, a symbolism on man and his place in society.

The word bogolan, from the Bambara language, comes form the words bogo, earth, and lan which means "with". It refers to both the material and the specific style of dyeing. The bogolan is a technique used for dyeing and printing which requires many stages alternating between soaking and washing. Contrary to chemical dyes that pollute a lot, the bogolan, which is obtained from organic matter (clayey mud from the Niger river (bogo), tree barks, decoctions of leaves or roots), the bogolan respects both the health of women and the environment.