sakalaare
- Museum number
- Af2005,07.2
- Description
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Sakalaare (blanket) composed of seven hand woven narrowstrips hand sewn together selvedge to selvedge. Each narrow strip consists of bleached white cotton warps and bleach white cotton, died red, brown and yellow wool wefts. This combination of warps and wefts is used to create a sereis of decorative weft bands in brown, yellow, red and white decorated with supplementary weft geometric shapes predominantly diamonds and triangles.
- Production date
- 1985
- Dimensions
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Length: 283 centimetres
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Width: 146 centimetres
- Curator's comments
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This sakalaare blanket was woven by a maabube weaver called Samburu Saare. Like other types of kaasa blankets, the sakalaare are used by the Fulbe and other people in the Inland Delta of the Niger River in Mali. They were and remain also widely traded in West Africa, reaching markets in Ghana and in Nigeria.
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Sakalaare is a prestigious and remarkable sheep-wool and cotton blanket which is accessible mainly to wealthy people among the Fulbe. This piece was woven in Sangubaka (Region of Mopti) in the late 1990s by a weaver called Mangel Saare. It shows the classic decoration of a good quality sakalaare with transverse weft-faced white, saffron-yellow, light brick-red and black bands symmetrically organised starting from the centre and decorated with geometrical compositions made in weft techniques.
The motifs on the blanket are:
- almaajè, which is the leading motif found in two bands on both sides from the central band
- a variation of the bitshirgal and
- amrewal (name of a water tortoise), found at both ends of the strips.
The white oval motif in the central black band is called tshukè.
Both sides of the blanket are finished with a plait called sembiyaji, made of plaited black wool threads.
The process of making a sakalaare is a woman’s responsibility. A woman would commission it for her husband or her children. The production is a complex process starting with gathering the necessary quantity of wool and cotton threads either by spinning and dyeing, or by buying them. The weaving is commissioned with a maabo weaver. The maabube (singular 'maabo') form a specialised cast of weavers in the Fulbe society. The finishing is done exclusively by the client, i.e. in most cases by the Fulbe. The plait sembiyaji on the sides is made or bought by the client’s husband. All the strips and plaits are assembled together by a skilled Fulbe.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2005
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased from Kolado Cissé in Bamako through Claude Ardouin.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Af2005,07.2