(1 Jun 2012) LEADIN
Dye workers in Mali are risking their health in order to make the country's striking bazin fabrics.
The vibrant colours are the hallmarks of this African dress - but workers getting less than ten dollars a day are paying the price.
STORYLINE:
In this open air workshop, amid the bubbling pots and under a baking sun, beautiful fabrics are created.
This is one of Mali's dyeing factories where the nation's vibrant dress is created.
The product is bazin - the pride of Mali.
Different colours are cooked up in the various steaming pots and pans. Starch and fixing agents - like sodium oxide - are added to hold the colour fast.
This workshop belongs to enterprising 42-year old Timbuktu native, Aicha Arby, who has been the main-player in the town of Bamako since she started her business in 1989.
Back then the business was a small concern, but she now employs 100 staff.
Arby says: "My clients come from abroad, from Africa, the whole of Africa, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Senegal mainly."
Nearly 80 per cent of her product is exported to neighbouring countries, to France and even to as far afield as the USA.
Arby lives by bazin and she'd never be seen wearing anything else.
"Here in Mali, our great trademark is rich bazin fabric, it's premium quality. It's what I wear and what I make," she says.
For her workers the dyeing is hard work; carrying heavy buckets of starch and stirring the fabrics in the vats of boiling water.
However, the occupation is relatively well paid for Mali. Dyers receiving around $9 USD per day. The average wage in Mali is $60 USD a month.
Nana Sankara is a dyer. She says: "I've been working here for five years. Working with her (Aicha). There are hard and easy parts to the job."
There are risks that Sankara is all too aware of.
"The problem is that it isn't good for your health," she says.
The dye is carcinogenic and the vapours can cause skin and lung cancer, respiratory diseases, and burns.
Sankara's colleague Kouyate Awa Diabate says: "We work here because we make money. We also know the job."
She says there are other hardships in addition to the health risk from the chemicals:
"You know what's difficult? We work under the sun. The sun beats down on us."
White bazin and dye come from Germany and the Netherlands.
Dye supervisor Ladji Keita explains how the process works:
"We put the dye into hot water and then add chemicals, sodium oxide. When the bazin is put into the water it gets dark. When it is rinsed the colour shows through."
After it has been rinsed the fabric is put in starch and left under the sun to dry.
The next laborious task is beating out the starch - this is done by a team of two called tappeurs.
Normally, 4,200 meters (13,800 feet) of fabric is dyed each day in Arby's workshop.
A metre of dyed bazin costs around 12 USD. On a good day Arby can turn over 9,000 USD.
But she says her business has been affected by the crisis in North Mali and production has fallen by almost 50%.
Separatist Tuareg rebels, Islamist armed groups, and Arab militias seized control of northern Mali in April this year.
Arby's brother, Sekou Traore, helps sell the fabrics in her shop.
He says: "The crisis has led to a reduction in clients. Clients are afraid of coming to the country."
The pair say they hope that peace will come soon.
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