The dyeing (a "strange and cumbersome technique", according to the 1973 opinion of J.B. Donne) begins with a step invisible in the finished product: the cloth is soaked in a dye bath made from leaves of the "n'gallama" ("Anogeissus leiocarpa") tree that have been mashed and boiled, or soaked. Now yellow, the cloth is sun-dried and then painted with designs using a piece of metal or wood. The paint, carefully and repeatedly applied to outline the intricate motifs, is a special mud, collected from riverbeds and fermented for up to a year in a clay jar. Because of a chemical reaction between the mud and the dyed cloth, the brown color remains after the mud is washed off. Finally, the yellow "n'gallama" dye is removed from the unpainted parts of the cloth by applying soap or bleach, rendering the finished cloth white.