Culture: Malian Fashion & Clothing

As a predominantly Muslim country, Malian clothing is often considered very conservative by western standards. However, relative to many other Islamic countries, the mode of dress here is very loud and expressive.  Markets are filled with brightly colored cloth and people take great pride in their clothing and appearance, so much so that if you tell someone you would like to take their picture, they often will ask to change clothes first! 

Ready made outfits are generally not sold and people buy fabric instead to take to their local tailor. So the first challenge in creating a Malian outfit is finding the right design, amount, and quality of fabric. First, there are 3 qualities/types of fabric : fancy, vacksy, and bazin. (in increasing order by price). So its important to know what you want beforehand so you can bargain with the vendor.  Bazin is often worn by the “big-shots” from Bamako but only for very important holidays for rural villagers. Most rural villagers settle on making a nice outfit made   out of a brightly colored vacksy, and those who are low on cash settle for fancy. To the left, our 2 favorite  Woso (fried sweet potato) ladies model Bazin and Vacksy outfits :)

Next, once you’ve settled on what you would like made with the fabric, you bring it to your tailor and explain. Do you want embroidery? a zipper in the back? a lining? Thats all going to cost extra. You chat and bargain over the price and once you’ve come to an agreement, you get measured and you’ll have a finished outfit within the next week. 

But what do people order at the tailor?

Women wear long wrap-skirts known in french as pagnes. This is basically a 2m x 1m piece of fabric tied around the waist. Only rarely and only in big cities have I seen Malian women in pants. In general, it’s simply not done here. Still, I get away with wearing pants in my village when I’m doing manuel labor or riding my bike because I’ve explained to my neighbors that I simply don’t know how to do those things in a skirt. The pagne is usually accompanied with a matching shirt made from the same material. Often shirts are long and loose, covering the shoulders.  However, the younger generation is starting to wear more western looking designs, like spaghetti straps, etc.  Women also wear bright colored head wraps, required if you are married. However, though I cover my head for very formal ceremonies, I’ve decided to pull the “tubabu” card in this area because its too hot to keep a head wrap on all the time! 

There are a few rules that are too essential to leave out :

Rule #1: Cover your knees. This is so important! If a woman takes off her shirt to breastfeed her child in public, people won’t even take notice. But if she shows her knees, everyone gets very uncomfortable.

Rule #2: Tie your skirt on the left side of your body. Only prostitutes tie on the right side as a way of advertising.

For men, the wardrobe is much more western. Men wear long cotton pants (never shorts except for playing soccer) and a collared shirt, often made of a Malian fabric. Formal wear for men is a long flowing Boubou (imagine a shirt that extends to your ankles)  and matching pants. Older men will often add a small prayer cap for extra style points.

One thing that  many Americans don’t realize is that a huge amount of our second hand clothes get flown to developing countries and are sold in local markets. They’re known as the “dead tubab” clothes because before they knew better, people thought the clothes came from white people who had died. Who else would have so much to give away? Now, whenever a word is misspelled or a shirt is printed upside down, they send the leftovers to developing countries like Mali. We often laugh when we see arrogant teenagers striding around in an Avril Lavigne or Madonna tshirt. Our previous host mother constantly wore a shirt advertising Ice Cream Sundaes for a local shop— torture in a place where you can’t get Ice Cream! The other day we even rode our bikes past a man wearing a University of Michigan jacket. It is very common to see these “dead tubab” clothes being mixed and matched with traditional clothing.  Our favorite example of this is a tiny little 7 year old next door who wears this huge coat when the temperature dips below 70 degrees F :) Adorable.

 

~Joye (and James)