2nd part of our trip in the North of Ivory Coast
When we arrive in Korhogo, we meet Mamadou, who proposes us to be our guide during these 2 days. This was a nice shot. He knew everything about the areas.
We begin our tour at Waranienie village to see the weavers.
There is 2000 people living in this village, with 2 chiefs: one is a muslim chief, the other one is an animist chief.
We can notice where is the animist part of the village, because of their rounded houses.
Only men are weavers here.
Each loom needs 200 threads to make strips of 15 cm wide.
Then these strips are sewed together to become clothes, tableclothes, bedcovers...
Women are also part of the process, but with wool.
They have to card the wool
and they have to sheer the wool with a little distaff, wich is maintained with a Kapele pearl.
The shedule :
We leave to now discove the famous Korhogo’s canvas.
Canvas also made in Waranienie village !
We met Yeo Drissa,a famous artist painter in fact. (He has been chosen to represent Ivorian art, when the national football team was going in Germany to play games in 2006)
In the family techniques are passed from father to sons. Yeo works with passion since the age of 6, and wouldn’t like to go elsewhere ton do anything different, he says.
With his brothers, they make 3 canvas per day.
Canvas are personnal totems. (Anyone has a personnal helping animal, met by chance on a special day. By becoming the totem, the animal will send its protection. The protected will then stop eating this animal.)
Natural colours :
fermented corn juice for black ( millet beer or tchapalo)
le sorghum for red and orange
for brown, black and red are mixed
Using these paintig knives isn’t as easy as it seems.. my lines are not very straits :p
Anyway, I give my canva to Yeo as a souvenir of this sharing moment :)
The day after, we go to discover the hand crafting of the Kapele village pearls.
Damele Braima, working on pearls since the age of 7 explains us the whole process.
The pearls are crafted with clay from the river and some Shea butter !
With the bamboo pikes they are pierced and they dry like that under the hard sun 24 hours long.
Then it is rolled into some rice bran and burned until it becomes black.
Then we can begin to paint the pearls, using a little chicken feather.
This is a real technique, we have to make the pearl spin quickly so as to put the thin circles on it !
Hard work for me, Damele helped me to keep my pike straight while spinning :)
Result :
The one I have made !
Here again, the same colours as for the Korhogo canvas are used.
In addition, white pigments are obtained from Kaoule stones, have we been told.
And green comes from tech or cashew leaves.
It’s now time for us to go to visit the Shea butter traditional manufacture :
Once the fallen shea seeds harvested, they are washed and put in the sun to dry. Then, each shea pods are splitted, so as to extract its bean..
See how water heater can be converted :)
The beans have to be roasted, milled to become a paste. Some water is added..
The mix will have to be kneaded until it turns into yellow/white colour (Ivory)
The oil that is got after will be filtered. At a room temperature the oil turns into the butter. Since then, even in our journey, we always have some of this pure butter. It repairs quickly skin, lips and hair. And moreover it smells nearly like chocolate !
It is said that in Africa it is also used for cooking purposes !
This is where all the flowers have been stocked !
The concerned BOAT !
The way back to Abidjan was far more easy then the way to come that was a real raid.
We still are wondering about the fact that the inhabitants and crafters of Korhogo wear the same usual modern "made in china" clothes. The weaved clothes seem to be now only made to be exported and sold to the rare tourists.
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