ticketsMember | Make a donation

Bogolan Tunic

Before 1910
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Bogolan has served as a bodily shield for those vulnerable to an excess of nyama, the energy of action. Hunters, exposed to prodigious quantities of nyama following the killing of prey in the wilderness, have used it as protective apparel. For those in the Bamana heartland who were especially resistant to the imposition of Islam during the last century, it constituted a form of indigenous Bamana cultural expression through which traditional ideas of spiritual potency were boldy manifested.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Bogolan Tunic
  • Date: Before 1910
  • Geography: Mali
  • Culture: Bamana peoples
  • Medium: Cotton, dye
  • Dimensions: W. 31 7/8 × D. 13/16 × L. 42 1/8 in. (81 × 2 × 107 cm)
  • Classification: Textiles-Costumes
  • Credit Line: Musée du Quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, Paris (71.1930.61.904)
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing