African Barkcloth Panel Textile Uganda Barkcloth

Barkcloth produced by stripping lengths of bark from the mature mutuba tree, Ficus natalensis, which grow easily in the fertile central southern region of Uganda, where it has been produced for centuries. After the removal of the bark the tree trunk is wrapped for protection, typically in banana leaves, which grow nearby, allowing another bark to grow, to be harvested again and again on an annual basis for up to 30 years.

The lengths of stripped bark are cleaned of the outer layer, boiled or steamed, then beaten for several hours with a graduating series of heavy carved wooden hammers, causing the fibres to stretch up to five times in width and about one tenth in length. The production of cloth from strips of bark is a skilled male occupation which was traditionally passed from generation to generation.

TWO SIZES AVAILABLE
SHEETS VARY SLIGHTLY IN SIZE SOME WATER STAINS AND THINNING

33 x 33
18 x 20

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