Fermenting Textiles

What makes a dye? A transdisciplinary exploration of a centuries-old mud dyeing technique, as used by the Marka-Dafing hunters of Burkina Faso (West Africa), uncovers the coloration mechanism of mud dye or (ga) vouwo on cotton fabrics. Weaving together traditional craft, anthropology, microbiology and art, Fermenting Textiles highlights the complex interactions between bacteria, environmental and plant materials while also underlining aspects of sustainability in the dyeing process and emphasizing how craft and science can inform one another.

Vouwo is used to make camouflage shirts for hunting. In contrast to other well-known mud dyeing techniques involving an iron-tannin complex such as Japanese Dorozome, in Vouwo dyeing, the entire cloth is left to ferment slowly in the vat for up to one or two years. It is periodically supplemented with fresh materials such as termite soil, iron ore, and the bark, roots, leaves or pods of several plants, including Acacia nilotica, all yielding pigments and bearing medicinal properties – until a dark brown color has been achieved on the fabric. At the end of the dyeing process, the dye can be used as the basis for a new dye, drunk as a medicine, or simply thrown on the compost to activate its decomposition.

Like every macro-organism or macro-object, also the Vouwo mud-dyeing vat is associated with a rich microbial community or microbiome that originates from river mud and termite soil used in the dyeing process. While some of the dark color is generated by the chemical reaction between the tannins present in the added plant materials and the iron ore, also anaerobic soil bacteria contribute by developing – in their energy metabolism – iron sulfide, precipitating as a dark color on the fabric. However, some bacteria such as the aerobic soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis, and potential fecal contaminants such as human Escherichia coli can form large aggregates – termed biofilms – on the surface of the dyeing vat and on the fabric, which prevents the dyeing of the textile. This can be counteracted by adding higher amounts of the pods of the plant Acacia nilotica, which has led us to show that this plant contains compounds that act as powerful anti-biofilm agents. This finding is also consistent with its traditional use in treating chronic infections caused by bacterial biofilms.

Fermenting textiles is a prime example of the principle of »human-curated plant-microbe interactions« (Hengge) that can be observed in many traditional craft practices. These practices do not only use natural organic materials, but they make empirical and usually unwitting use of complex interactions between microbes and other living agents. Additional examples are food plant fermentation or traditional plant-based healing practices. By using organic and therefore fully biodegradable materials, these traditional practices are also highly sustainable. Close and trustful cooperation between traditional practitioners, anthropologists, and microbiologists can reveal the underlying biological and molecular life processes. This jointly obtained knowledge offers high potential to inspire the development of novel sustainable products and solutions adapted to current and future human and more-than-human needs, which do not destroy, but are compatible with the functioning of the biosphere of our planet.

Fermenting Textiles is also presented in a unique inter- and trans-disciplinary research exhibition that stresses the agency and sentience of matter in the fermentation process and its materiality in the process of becoming (Art Laboratory Berlin, 16 May – 6 July 2025). The exhibition not only shows the craft of traditional Marka Dafing master dyer Adama Séré in combination with an anthropological description by Laurence Douny and a visual life re-enactment of the plant-microbe interactions in the dyeing vat staged by Regine Hengge and José I. Hernández Lobato, but connects these to the art and design project Craft Portrait: Dorozome by Pauline Agustoni and Satomi Minoshima, who have collaborated with traditional mud dyeing artisans on the Southern Japanese island of Amami Oshima.