Olubugo (Luganda)
Barkcloth was worn as a toga-style garment by both men and women, with women adding a belt. Cloth dyed white or black was reserved for kings and chiefs for official functions, and barkcloth featured in coronation ceremonies, healing rites, funerals, …
Barkcloth-making has been practised continuously in the Buganda kingdom for at least three centuries. It served as the dominant form of dress until cotton, introduced by Arab traders in the early 1840s, gradually displaced it for everyday wear.
Barkcloth was worn as a toga-style garment by both men and women, with women adding a belt. Cloth dyed white or black was reserved for kings and chiefs for official functions, and barkcloth featured in coronation ceremonies, healing rites, funerals, and cultural gatherings, as well as practical uses such as curtains, mosquito netting, bedding, and storage. Production was carried out by men within the hereditary Ngonge clan, under a chief craftsman known as the kaboggoza, who made cloth for the royal family.
Barkcloth-making was proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005, and formally inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Though the craft declined historically with the introduction of cotton, it has seen active revival and promotion in recent years, led in part by the Buganda kingdom itself.
The inner bark of the mutuba tree (Ficus natalensis) is harvested during the rainy seasons (toggo, March-May, and ddumbi, September-December) through horizontal cuts along the trunk. The bark is removed, and the tree is then wrapped in banana leaves to heal and regenerate — a process taking roughly a year before the next harvest. The harvested bark is beaten at length with different types of wooden mallets to thin, widen, and soften it, then dried in the sun, which gives the cloth its characteristic terracotta-brown colour.
No vendor fabrics linked to this technique yet. Check back as producers add listings.
No verified producers linked to this technique yet.
