THE CRAFT CENTER

Here, a few makeshift apatams are home to a corporation of painters (often children) who skilfully reproduce the motifs of Korhogo canvases on cotton strips woven in the surrounding villages: animals and totemic emblems from the traditional costumes of the initiated dancers of Poro and the panther-men, intermingled with geometric compositions. These figurative themes have been enriched over time with popular motifs: Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly in green-yellow-red, dancers, masks, etc. Here one sits under the apatams lined with drying pieces of fabric, observing some in action, asking others for an explanation on the techniques of realization and negotiating the favorite of one's choice. There are also stands of traditional weavers of cotton pieces from the region. Finished products range from "simple" cloth to dresses, tunics, bags, tablecloths... Prices are more reasonable than in Waraniéné, because the sellers come from non-touristy villages, but there are no bathrobes, no woven bedspreads, and less choice. The center, long confined to working with and selling Korhogo cloth, now has a small carpentry workshop and offers a wider range of northern handicrafts: wood carvings, pottery, bronzes and jewelry, beads, and even fetishes or Senufo hunter's jackets, musical instruments: balafons and gbofés, Sénoufos transverse trumpets, Malinke art from Mali or Burkina Faso...