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Mantle from Côte d’Ivoire

Mantle (detail); West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire; Baule people; 1960-69. Cotton; warp-faced plain weave, warp ikat, discontinuous supplementary weft patterning; 161 x 107 cm. The Textile Museum Collection 1968.9.2. Gift of Morton D. May.

Navy textile with stripes

The tropical country of Côte d’Ivoire is nestled between Liberia and Ghana on the south coast of West Africa. The Baule people migrated here from what is now southern Ghana (then the Ashanti Kingdom) in the 17th century and today represent one of the country’s largest ethnic groups. Traditionally farmers, the Baule grow coffee and cocoa beans, both major cash crops.  

A blue and white, rectangular textile with eight horizontal stripes, and linear designs.

Baule men wear striking mantles or wrappers like this one for special occasions. Women prepare the fibers: finely spinning the cotton and resist tie-dyeing the warp threads in indigo. Men weave the fibers into narrow strips — nine in this case — and join them together to make the full-length cloth.  

The Baule adopted the tie-dye technique from the Dyula people, active commercial traders, in the 1950s and 1960s. The red stripe along the bottom of this mantle is another feature borrowed from the Dyula. 

Baule men carved expressive pulleys for their weaving looms. Located at the top of a frame loom, the pulley works with the foot pedals to separate the warp threads and create space for the shuttle to take the weft threads back and forth. Baule pulleys are topped by carved birds, animals, masks and human figures.

A wooden carved human-like figure with an insect head.
Weaving loom pulley surmounted by a male masked figure, Côte d’Ivoire, Baule people, late 19th/early 20th century. Yale University Art Gallery 2006.51.180. Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection.
  • Two hands work on weaving a textile on a loom.
    A Baule weaver working in his studio in central Côte d’Ivoire. Photo by Mouahé. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Researched by Peggy Greenwood

Peggy Greenwood has been a docent with the museum since 2007 after retiring from a 40-year career with the Department of Defense. Previously she served the museum for seven years as a program volunteer. She is also active in the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild and dabbles in knitting, weaving, experimental stitch, sewing and surface design.