Made from a length of white commercial cotton cloth, folded over, with a neck hole cut and hemmed at the fold. Strips of cloth sewn on to make short sleeves, but the underams and sides are unsewn. Entire shirt, front and back, is covered with ink-drawn grids with Arabic writing in the squares.
According to the donor, this is a tunic or healing shirt (diousene in Peul/Fulani) to be worn hidden under regular clothes. Inscribed with magic squares in Arabic script designed to bring the owner "power over others, luck in love and protection from ill-wishers." Commissioned by the donor from an Imam at Bafodea, northern Sierra Leone, spring 1980. Made at night, hidden in secret. References: Related to a warrior's robe from Senegal at the Musee de l'Homme. See Prussin, Hatumere, 1986, p 90 and for discussion. Illus. Fig. 4.11, p. 62 in Kreamer, Christine Mullen, and Sarah Adams. 2007. Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art.