Les pagnes! – The French word for the fabrics that you see people wearing either wrapped around their waist or in tailored hip hugging creations just about everywhere in Burkina. Every big company and every event with some self respect gets their own pattern printed for people to wear. For the presidential election, Blaise Compaoré’s face was seen on emblems on people’s clothes everywhere. Every 8th march there is a new print (that comes in several colour combinations) to celebrate the day of the women. FESPACO (the film festival) has its own print, as well as SIAO (the biannual handcraft convention)
My mom works with textiles so she wanted to visit a fabric-printing factory. After a little asking around she found out there is one in KOUDOUGOU, Burkina’s third largest city, an hour’s drive from Ouaga. The cab driver, Dominique, who took us there had a sister in Koudougou so he called her up and she jumped in to the car and showed us the way. I love how everyone is helpful here. Always ready to give a hand. Nothing is ever a problem – you just ask someone. It might take a little time – but it will always be sorted. Apparently you’re supposed to book a visit in advance, but even though we just showed up without warning, we were guided on a full tour, after just a little waiting. We got to see every part of the process from print design, bleaching the cotton, to the actual printing. It was really cool and I recommend it to anyone who is ever in the surroundings!
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