Passing on plant dyeing skills across West Africa

Burkina Faso is one of Africa’s largest cotton producers, with a centuries-old tradition of natural dyeing and handwoven textiles. Bogolan (meaning ‘made from the earth’ in Bambara) is a dyeing technique using fermented mud and organic plant dyes, practised across the region for generations. But the craft is under pressure. Colourfastness is difficult to achieve, natural materials are harder to source, and recipes remain inconsistent. Fewer artisans practise it. Fewer still can teach it.

Sougouri Sawadogo, 52, is one of them. The Burkinabè Bogolan master spent a week passing on that knowledge to 21 practitioners: textile technicians, weaving and dyeing artisans, engineering students and university professors, most of whom teach themselves, but wanting to deepen their skills. Five had travelled from Benin to attend. The training drew on three locally sourced dye plants such as siiga leaves, pingninga fruits and monome husks, alongside traditional potash and alum as mordants to fix colour to fabric.

The week was organised under the EU-ACP Business Friendly Programme, which supports artisan businesses across Burkina Faso and Benin.