Indigo dye pits of Kano
Tintorería de índigo en pozos (Kano)
- Date
- c. 1498 · confidence low
- Place
- Kofar Mata, Kano, Nigeria
- Credited to
- Hausa dyers of Kano
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Excavated, lined pits where indigo is fermented with ash to dye cotton in deep tones. They made Kano one of the great textile centres of the trans-Saharan route.
The date of 1498 is traditional; indigo was used in the region earlier (it already appears in Tellem textiles).
What it led to
- dyed textiles exported across the Sahara
- Hausa dyers' guilds
- the indigo turbans and robes of the Tuareg