Sëru rabeul (Wolof)
Pagne Manjak cloth was originally reserved for funerary rites and major ceremonies — births, baptisms, engagements, and weddings — accompanying Manjak life from birth to death. The craft today is sustained in part by the Ateliers de la Communauté Man…
Woven Manjak cloth belongs to the Manjak (Manjaco) people, who originate from present-day Guinea-Bissau and are established today in Senegal's Casamance region, the Gambia, and Cape Verde. In Dakar, the craft is tied to a local legend of a spirit teaching the technique to a Manjak man from the village of Kalëkis — a tradition passed down orally rather than a documented historical event.
Pagne Manjak cloth was originally reserved for funerary rites and major ceremonies — births, baptisms, engagements, and weddings — accompanying Manjak life from birth to death. The craft today is sustained in part by the Ateliers de la Communauté Mandjak (Acoma), a cooperative founded in 1978 in Dakar's Fass neighbourhood with over a hundred members, formed in response to declining cotton spinning in Senegal and the exodus of young apprentices from the trade.
Woven Manjak cloth today survives as a niche craft, sold through specialty boutiques in Dakar and Saint-Louis and adopted by designers such as Aïssa Dione, rather than through industrial production.
Cloth is woven by hand on a narrow-strip horizontal loom, producing bands typically around 30 cm wide (ranging from 20 to 90 cm depending on the intended use). A skilled weaver produces roughly 3 to 5 metres of woven cloth per day. The woven strips are then hand-sewn together, with hems, fringes, and joins finished by hand.
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