Satane

This lady, Satane, lives in Diabolo. Her name in combination with the already startling name of the village cunjures up fearsome ideas which could not be further removed from this sweet natured old lady who I met for the first time in 2007, when this picture was taken. She was old then, but she still worked, painting her lovely fine patterns on the ‘paignes’ made from the coarse woven cotton strips The bogolan was made originally for village consumption and the pieces used to be worn by the women as cloths to wrap around the hips.  With the arrival of cheap industrial cotton ‘paignes’ the bogolan gradually lost its local use, but the bogolan workers found a a new outlet through the white traders who used to pass by and commission work which they sold on the  European or American market.