Cotton hammock (mboma)

Mende, early 20th century
From Sierra Leone, Africa

A luxury fabric for transportation

The Mende weavers devised this type of woven hammock, mboma, to carry chiefs and dignitaries in the interior of Sierrra Leone where there was no access by river and horses could not be used because of the fatal bite of the tsetse fly. The flaps of the hammock were elaborately decorated, acting as a visible indication of the chief's high social status. In the 1930s British officials had hammocks made for their own use. After the Second World War (1939-45) motor transport increased and the hammock gained increased significance as a ceremonial fabric at funerals, as a wall-hanging, or to cover a platform, although its use as a means of transport declined.

This hammock was made of plain, naturally dyed cotton yarns, woven on a man's tripod loom in strips of cloth which were then sewn together.

Specialist Mende weavers produce this distinctive cloth, known as kpoikpoi, and sometimes referred to as 'country cloths' (as they are produced up-country). Complex patterns are achieved using the tapestry weave technique, where a pattern of a different colour is woven backwards and forwards within its own area of the design.

V. and A. Lamb, Sierra Leone weaving (Hertingfordbury, Roxford Books, 1984)