Burkina Faso Strip Weaving

Narrow cotton bands characterise traditional Sahel ( Fulani) textiles.
Moussa Keita from the western town of Djibasso ( near Mali border) still uses this ancient tradition. It takes around 4 days to weave a full blanket.The width of the cloth they produce ranges from 8cm to 21cm, hence the term strip weaving, and is generally of raw, creamy cotton that is then sewn together and dyed in a variety of ways. The cloth either has motifs woven directly into it or the motifs are embroidered afterwards to simulate this more complicated kind of weave. This method of weaving is at least a thousand years old and has not changed in all that time, with the oldest archeological remains of similar cotton strip weaving found in caves in Mali (Bolland 1992: 62) being dated at around the 11th century and the sun-Saharan trade of textiles is even more ancient