MDJ

Flagship · OngoingIndependent research

BLUEPRINTS

Tracing Textiles and the Crafting of an Indigo Imaginary from the Imamate of Futa Jallon to the Republic of Guinea.

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A · Era timeline

Pre-colonial

Futa Jallon

18th–19th c.

Colonial

French West Africa

1891–1958

Independence

First Republic

1958–1984

Post-1984

Second Republic

1984–2010

Contemporary

Living Practice

2010–

Fieldwork · Labé · Photograph by Max Diallo Jakobsen
Fieldwork · Labé · Photograph by Max Diallo Jakobsen

An ongoing independent research project on the history and legacy of indigo-dyeing in Guinea, from the Imamate of Futa Jallon to the Republic of Guinea.

LABÉ, JANUARY 2024. It was a familiar scene. Mariama Sow sat on her worn wooden stool, and I sat facing her. The air was dry, the ground cracked from months with no rain, and the evening chill was already creeping in. She rested her hands on her knees, watching me with quiet amusement. It felt good to be back.

The last time I had been here, six months earlier, I was still trying to orient myself, searching for a way to recognise a place I had known only in childhood memories. “She is family,” my mother had reminded me as we drove into the village, “they all are.” On my final day then, just before leaving for Conakry, Mariama Sow handed me a plastic bag. Inside, wrapped carefully, was a piece of leppi — the word in Pulaar for local hand-woven indigo-dyed fabric.

Indigo's historical and cultural significance is as vast and varied as the landscapes it traverses. But in that moment, Mariama Sow told me a very simple story. One of inheritance, livelihood, and loss. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, I draw on oral histories, archival research, and direct textile analysis to contend with what indigo represents in Guinean society at different points in time.

The blueprint is not the plan that came first — it is the trace that allows the building to be read backwards.

— BLUEPRINTS · Working manuscript
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B · Index

All research, by year.

Essays, exhibitions, screenings, presentations, and forthcoming work — pulled directly from research.maxdiallojakobsen.com.

2026

2025

2024