Product (Red) label bogolan bag made by Moussa Fofana’s workshop.
Photo courtesy of Sara Rosen Berthé
Product (Red) bags waiting for shipment.
Photo courtesy of Sara Rosen Berthé
In the late 1960s, when imported machine-made fabric entered the Malian market, it was affordable only to a select few. A few years later, however, the prices reversed. As machine-made fabric rapidly increased in quantity, its sheer volume undercut the cost of traditional fabric.
As a result, traditional mud cloth is rapidly becoming too expensive for many Malian citizens. Although families may still display a piece of bogolan hanging on a wall in their home, tourists buy most of the mud cloth produced in Mali today.
