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EveryHairstyle

Culture region, Mali

Mopti and the Fula country

The river port of Mali's inner Niger delta, a meeting place of the Fula herders whose braids inspired Fulani braids.

Mopti, where the Bani river joins the Niger in central Mali, is a port and market town of the inner Niger delta, where Fula, or Fulani, herders bring their cattle to the floodplain each year. Fula women are known for their braided hairstyles, decorated with amber, silver, cowrie shells and gold earrings, which inspired the style now known worldwide as Fulani braids.

The Fula style

The Fula are a mainly pastoral people spread across the Sahel and West Africa, from Senegal to Sudan. Women's hair is often braided with a crest or a central braid running front to back, side braids curving forward around the face and long braids hanging at the back or sides, adorned with beads and coins. Decorations have marked a woman's family, wealth and marital status, and some ornaments are handed down as heirlooms.

Fulani braids worldwide

From the 2010s, styles based on Fula braiding spread through salons in Africa, Europe and the Americas under the name Fulani braids, often called tribal braids. They usually combine a central cornrow, side braids and beads. Braiders and wearers increasingly note the Fula origin of the style. Conflict in central Mali since 2012 has made the Mopti region dangerous and has hit the herders whose culture gave the style its name.

Hairstyles of Mopti and the Fula country

Fulani braidsThe braids of Fula women, now worn worldwideCornrowsThe central braid of the Fula styleBraidBraids decorated with amber and coins

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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