Filafani (Senufo)
Korhogo cloth is used as clothing, as decoration for homes and shrines, as protection against vengeful spirits, and for pieces commissioned for hunters, funerals, and rites of passage. Over eighty documented motifs carry individual meanings: the guin…
Korhogo cloth — filafani in Senufo — is produced by the Senufo people around the city of Korhogo in northern Côte d'Ivoire. Its modern form took shape in the late 1960s and early 1970s, influenced in part by American Peace Corps volunteers who encouraged new production methods. An earlier prototype, "fila cloth" — six narrow strips of cotton sewn together — gave way to full cotton panels by the early 1980s.
Korhogo cloth is used as clothing, as decoration for homes and shrines, as protection against vengeful spirits, and for pieces commissioned for hunters, funerals, and rites of passage. Over eighty documented motifs carry individual meanings: the guinea fowl represents feminine beauty, the hen motherhood, the goat masculine prowess, the crocodile and lizard masculine fertility, the snake and tortoise the earth, the chameleon death, the lion royal power, and the fish life and water. The palette is dominated by earthy browns, blacks, and creams from the mud-based dye.
Around 2019, 124 Korhogo cloth motifs were registered for protection by the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI). The craft remains popular with both Ivorian city dwellers and tourists today.
Cotton is grown, hand-spun into thread, and hand-woven into cloth. A mud-based pigment, fermented and darkening over time, is prepared and applied to the woven cloth — typically with a stencil — to create the finished motifs. Women handle the spinning and pigment preparation; men weave the base cloth and paint the designs.
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