The Kofar Mata dye pits of Kano

To any student in Nigeria studying between the 1960s to the mid 1980s, social studies was one of the pivotal areas of second school academic experience. Its two main components were history and geography.  Breaking it down further, contemporary and ancient history made the subject very interesting to students, so also was the study of geography, which had both the physical and the human aspect to it.

The human geography component of social studies brings to the fore one very interesting feature.  It’s the dying pits of Kano, popularly referred to as the Kofar Mata Communal Dye Pits.  These dyeing pits which have their origin going back to 1498 gave birth to the city’s famous textile industry. 

A day in the life of the dyeing pit shows that the dying process has not changed in centuries: water and ash, to give the dye a glaze, is mixed with potassium, to fix the colour. Finally, dried indigo twigs are added and the whole mixture is fermented in a six-meter deep pit for four weeks.

The garments are then dipped in the dye for between 30 minutes and six hours, depending on the depth of colour desired. Every minute, they must be taken out so that oxygen can aid the colouring process.

‘‘On a good day, one of the sixty dyers who work here could earn 2,000 naira ($15) dying five garments -- a good wage in a country where most of the 140 million people live on much less than a dollar a day. These days, the workers also have chemical dyes to produce different colours such as red, orange and brown’’.

Once an indigo pit has been exhausted, the sludgy residue at the bottom is dredged out and burned: the ashes are used to alleviate pregnancy pains and make other traditional remedies.

The dying pits have not evolved with the times as the techniques of dying of clothes and other textiles still reflects old technology and practices.  As such the art faces the risk of dying out in an ever fast evolving environment.  Somehow there seems to be a lack of passing on the skills or modernising the skills to attract the younger generation.

The result of the lack of evolution which once saw ‘‘ The purple cotton of Kano’’ as ‘‘famous throughout Africa's arid Sahel belt, in the days when the Nigerian emirate was a centre of trans-Saharan trade in salt and gold, rivalling the fabled riches of Timbuktu’’ has now led to what could be termed as a near sorry state, where ‘‘more than 100 pits have fallen into disrepair and many of them are clogged with refuse and stones’’.

Out of the ashes and flipping the other side of the coin over, this experience reveals yet an untapped ‘‘tourism Mecca’’ which needs to be exploited to the maximum.  Kano state and indeed Nigeria can expand its tourism industry by harnessing the opportunities which this unique community offers.  It is a tourist attraction for visitors from different parts of Nigeria and for visitors from other parts of the world. This community is a vehicle for vocational training in print dying and other ancillary activities where people who have an interest in prints /clothes dying, clothes making or textiles business administration can be offered first hand skills, with rapid employment generation.

In the long term the industry will survive as it offers an exotic service to its numerous customers.  In the era of industrialisation and the influx of cheap cotton prints, quality and originality are two major factors which will continue to provide oxygen to the existence of the kofar Mata Dye pits of Kano.

Olugbenga Adebanjo writes in from the United Kingdom. He is the founder and lead consultant of Beacon 6619 Media Solutions. Additional material by Reuters/ Daniel Flynn

Acknowledment:TUN Extra