Djerma Textile

The textile is constructed from seventeen narrow loom-woven cotton strip units joined through continuous longitudinal seams across a planar rectangular field. Checkerboard, linear striped, and monochrome woven fields establish the primary surface rhythm, interrupted by repeated multicoloured horizontal bands and geometric motif registers comprising single and concentric diamond forms, linked-diamond motifs, repeated hourglass motifs, hexagonal forms, and triangular chevron bands distributed across the strip units. The woven intervals create a measured sequence of visual transitions while preserving continuous vertical organisation throughout the textile. Each strip unit terminates at its outer edge in a woven fringe formed from the warp ends, integral to the strip construction rather than an applied border.

Surface is compact and stable throughout the textile. Colour retention remains coherent across the ground field and adjacent registers. Minor edge fraying and thread displacement are concentrated along exposed fold transitions and seam intervals, while the woven structure remains intact across the joined panels.

Textiles of this type functioned within systems of ceremonial presentation and social display, where narrow-strip weaving permitted expansion into large-scale wearable and architectural textile forms.

From the Felice Maffei Collection, acquired in Mali, 1986.

Title

Djerma Textile

Culture

Djerma

Origin

Niger

Date

20th century

Dimensions

H 315 cm (124 in) · W 320 cm (126 in)

Medium

Cotton

Provenance

From the Felice Maffei Collection, acquired in Mali, 1986.

Condition

Stable surface; colour retained; woven structure intact.