Sayma Siddique Mitu – Art in Tanzania intern
Colours speak🌹
Long before industrial pigments were sealed in tubes, African communities told stories through colours from leaves, bark, roots, and flowers. A splash of indigo celebrated an event, ochre mourned a loss, while soft henna decorated the bride’s hands. In the rural parts of Tanzania, Ghana, and Ethiopia, nature was not merely a backdrop; it was the very palette.
Plants were not only for food or medicine, they were also an art in themselves. Extracted carefully by hand, with some ash or oils, then diligently applied to any surface, botanical dyes add profound meaning to a painting, mask, or cloth. These were not random choices but certainly purposeful expressions of personal identity, culture, and spiritual life.
Plants as Natural Dyes: The Chemistry of Tradition
Planted right in the middle of the African rainforests and Savannahs, certain plant species sustain centuries-old techniques of artistic expression. From crushed leaves to boiled roots, nature provides botanicals with hues that no chemical dye can ever rival. These are more than colours; they represent chemical conversations between the plants and the people.
There’s Indigofera tinctoria, known widely for giving that deep blue dye. Its leaves, when fermented, release indican, which, upon oxidation, yields a beautiful blue of excellent permanence. In certain parts of West Africa, indigo-dyed cloth is considered to be a sign of wealth and protection.
Henna (Lawsonia inermis) may then be used, with rust-colored accents, and applied onto body surfaces in North and East Africa, mainly before ceremonies for a wedding or semi-spiritual purpose. The pigment, lawsone, chemically bonds with keratin in the skin and hair to impart reddish stains, which can last for weeks.
Bixa orellana, or Annatto, yields a reddish-orange cast through its seeds. Beyond merely body painting, it also dyes ritual objects, colour being the sign of energy and life force. Other plants, such as turmeric or acacia bark, produce golden yellows or deep browns after boiling and straining, thereby turning into stories–through the flora of everyday.
The value attached to the arts of colour is often a sequential oral transmission process, especially from an elder grandmother to her granddaughter and frequently from an elder to an apprentice, as it brings together science, symbolism, and survival in one stroke.
🎨 Art in Practice: Where and How It’s Used
In African tribal life, colour is never just for decoration—it is language. And plant-based dyes have long been the ink.
In Tanzania and Kenya, the application of red ochre mixed with animal fat holds a place in both body and hair adornment traditions. Pigments are mainly mineral in nature, while oils and final finishes from plants such as castor or aloe are provided to impart shine and protection from the sun. For the Maasai, red is a daring notion and is hence a mark of cultural pride.
Further west, the Badie tree (Bridelia ferruginea) is tapped for those dyes employed in cotton fabrics carrying traditional Adinkra symbols in some parts of Ghana. The bark is boiled down into a black ink used to print wisdom, proverbs, ancestral values, and the design of a plant-filled symbol with layered meanings, worn especially in rites of passage and funerals.
Plant dermatoglyphs are, perhaps, among those rare forms of decoration used during festivals by hunter-gatherer societies such as the Hadza of Tanzania. It is a communal effort: collecting the roots, crushing them on a stone, then mixing them up with oils or animal extracts for durability. The marks are beautiful; they also identify someone as “us.”
Natural dyes are more than materials—they’re silent storytellers. Artisans used to soak fibres of raffia in leaf extracts to attain earthy tones before weaving. Others carve wooden masks and rub in plant oils or dyes to give them life.
🌿 Conclusion: Rooted in Colour, Alive in Culture
Africa’s plant-based dyes are not just pigments; they’re living stories. Each hue tells of heritage, ritual, and harmony with nature. In every plant crushed for colour, there is a whisper from the land.
There was nature’s palette, before synthetic colours, that was raw, radiant, and rich with meaning, brilliant, bold, and bound to human expression.
