The two Yoruba loom traditions and who works them, the named prestige cloths, the full range of adire resist-dyeing and the indigo behind it, the industry's collapse in the 1930s and its revival, and why everyone at a Nigerian wedding is dressed alike.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
For among Yoruba people, cloth dey carry social meaning pass any oda thing wey dem dey make, and di proverb wey dem dey always quote to show am na say na person cloth we dey greet before we greet di person wey wear am. Na two main production system dey make most of am. Weaving dey produce aṣọ òkè, di prestige strip-woven cloth, for two different looms wey men and women dey weave separately. Resist-dyeing dey produce adìrẹ, cloth wey get indigo pattern, wey be women business wey center for Abẹ́òkúta and wey be big export business for di 1920s and 1930s before e come scatter within like three years. Di two dey feed into aṣọ ẹbí, di practice wey full social group dey wear di same cloth for event, wey be di way wey people take know Yoruba cloth culture pass today, and wey be twentieth-century practice instead of ancient one.
Yoruba weaving no be just one tradition. Two looms dey, dem dey produce different cloth, and na gender dey divide dem.
Di men loom na horizontal loom wey dey weave narrow strip with double heddle wey dem dey use foot treadle control . Dem dey stretch di warp along di ground for many metres for front of di weaver and heavy load wey dem dey drag dey hold am tight, and di weaver go sit down for di loom dey weave go front along di thread. Di double heddle na di main feature: two heddles for treadle dey make di shed change fast and e dey allow extra weft enter to create pattern. Wetin e dey produce na long narrow strip, and dem dey make cloth by cutting di strip into lengths and sewing dem edge to edge make e become wide cloth.
Di width of di strip no be fixed thing and different sources no agree, wey make sense to point out instead of to give false conclusion. Dem give figures like four inches, roughly ten centimetres, for older prestige cloths, and figures around fourteen to fifteen centimetres for commercial aṣọ òkè wey come later, with about twenty-two strips wey dem need for woman wrapper . Di meaning wey make sense pass na say di strips wide pass before during di twentieth century as production turn commercial business, but reader no suppose take any single width as di only traditional one.
Di technical fact wey dey important here na say dem must plan pattern before weaving start. Weaver wey dey work strip wey dem go cut and join later must know before time where every design go land, because di strips must match each other across di finished cloth and person no fit adjust strip once e commot from di loom . So dem dey calculate Aṣọ òkè patterns before dem start, dem dey fix di colours and structure from beginning, wey be different design process from working for broadloom where person fit see di whole width as e dey grow.
Di women loom na vertical upright loom wey get single heddle . E get fixed frame, one heddle, dem dey use hand open part of di shed with shed stick, and e dey produce broad cloth as one single piece. Di main cloth wey e dey produce na kìjìpá, thick heavy cloth wey dem spin by hand with cotton, wey dem mostly dye with indigo, and dem dey make am for wrapper and strong everyday work instead of for show.
Di way gender take divide here different from oda crafts around am. Weaving on narrow loom na men work, just like bead embroidery, carving and blacksmith work; pottery, dyeing, spinning and vertical loom na women work. No single rule dey wey dey give craft to one gender, and person must learn di pattern trade by trade.
Sányán na di cloth wey get highest prestige, wey dem weave from wild silk wey dem take from group nest of Anaphe moth, wey dey give am beige to greyish-tan colour, and dem dey usually mix am with cotton . Dem dey pack di silk from caterpillar nest for bush instead of to pull am from cocoons wey dem rear, and na why sányán cost and why di colour stay as di natural beige instead of to dye am.
Alááàrì na deep red or crimson cloth, wey dem weave from magenta waste silk wey dem dey import pass Sahara until early twentieth century . Na this one get big historical meaning: di colour na direct sign of long-distance trade, and person wey wear alááàrì wear trans-Saharan trade for body. Alááàrì wey come later dey use cotton with shiny thread.
Ẹtù na deep indigo blue wey nearly black, with very fine lighter stripes for warp and weft, sometimes na just one single thread wide . Di name mean guinea fowl, and di speckled look of di fine stripes against di dark body of di cloth na direct reference to guinea fowl feather. Sányán, alááàrì and ẹtù na di three classic prestige cloths.
Oda types wey get name dey show for literature with less certainty and from sources wey no plenty, like opa aro (dark blue with green stripes), ifun (light brown and navy), and waka (black cloth with red warp stripes), plus group of red cloths wey include aṣọ ìpo, wey dem connect with burial use .
Aṣọ olóná, "cloth wey get pattern," mean patterned weaving wey dey use extra weft floats carry designs cross di strip. Di set of aṣọ olóná wey get best record na Ìjẹ̀bú, and detailed technical description of am no dey available for di sources wey dem consult for this file; reader wey want that one suppose check di work of Duncan Clarke on Nigerian weaving or di work of Picton and Mack.
Ìṣẹ̀yìn for Oyo State na di historic centre for aṣọ òkè production and e still be so, with Ọ̀yọ́ and Ìlọrin wey also dey important .
By di middle of di twentieth century, aṣọ òkè don commot from wetin people dey wear every day come turn dress for only major life events . Na that space aṣọ ẹbí come commercialise.
Adìrẹ na indigo cloth wey get pattern. Di word come from a di, to tie, and rẹ, to dye or soak, so di direct meaning na tie-and-dye, even though most of di techniques wey e cover no dey involve tying.
Di main difference to note na between aṣọ aláró, cloth wey dem soak dye make e get one solid colour, and adìrẹ, cloth wey dem make pattern with resist, where dem protect part of di surface from di dye make e come out light against di blue.
Adìrẹ oníkó, na tie resist. Oníkó mean say the one wey get raffia, from ìkó, raffia palm wey dem strip. Dem dey tie raffia tight around small things wey dem pack inside the cloth, normally hundreds of single corn seeds or small stones, wey dey produce small white circles on top blue background . Dem fit also roll the cloth like rope or fold am like accordion con tie am, wey go bring out stripes and bands.
Adìrẹ alábẹrẹ, na stitch resist. Alábẹ̀rẹ́ mean say the one wey get needle, from abẹ́rẹ́. Dem dey take stripped raffia sew pattern enter the cloth before dyeing, and that line wey dem sew no dey allow the dye touch the cloth . One detail here na real design decision, no be just technical matter: dem fit loose the raffia immediately after dyeing, or dem fit leave am inside deliberately, so that the pattern go dey show small-small as the sewing dey loose through everyday wearing . Na cloth wey dem design to dey change over many years.
Adìrẹ elékọ, na starch resist. Elékọ mean say the one wey get starch paste, from ẹ̀kọ, cassava starch. Dem dey rub paste for the cloth, dye the cloth, and scrape the paste comot to show the design for the part wey dye no touch. Two methods dey, and the difference between them get historical importance.
The first one na freehand painting, wey dem dey traditionally apply with chicken feather or thin flat stick wey dem cut from calabash, wey dey draw the design directly . Na the master skill method be this, and e dey produce clothes wey each one unique.
The second one na stencilling, early twentieth-century innovation wey use metal stencil cut from the zinc sheet wey dem use line imported tea box . This na clear technology transfer wey dem fit put date on: colonial packaging material wey dem turn to design tool. Stencilling make repeat patterns fast and balance, e expand production well-well, and na im direct cause of both the big boom and the collapse wey follow after.
Olókun, "owner of the sea", wey dem name after the orisha of sea and wealth, and na the design wey get pass respect among elékọ designs . Olókun na still the orisha wey own beads for Yoruba tradition, so the same name dey follow both the cloth wey cost pass and the body ornament wey cost pass.
Ìbàdàn dùn, "Ibadan sweet", na one famous elékọ pattern wey dem name after the city .
Sùnbẹ̀bẹ̀, wey dem usually translate as the lifting up of beads, wey point to waist beads and dey carry meaning of sexy body and fertility .
Jubilee, wey dem first produce for the silver jubilee of George V and Queen Mary for 1935, wey carry royal pictures . This one get clear date and e show one thing: adìrẹ patterns dey react to current events, e take foreign pictures join body, and e dey take business opportunity. The tradition no be something wey close door.
Adìrẹ production na two different trades, no be one, and na women dey do the two .
The alàdìrẹ dey make the pattern: to tie, sew, or paint the resist. The alaró own and control the dye pits, from aró, wey mean indigo and by extension the dye and the pit. Woman fit buy imported plain cotton cloth (shirting), put the resist herself or hire person to do am, pay dyer for the vat work, and sell the complete cloth for market herself. The whole chain, the economics and the gender politics na the topic of Judith Byfield book The Bluest Hands .
The plant. Yoruba indigo na èlú, Lonchocarpus cyanescens, wey dem don reclassify now as Philenoptera cyanescens, one West African vine wey belong to Fabaceae family . E no be Indigofera tinctoria, the Asian indigo wey dey world market, even though normal sources dey mistake the two regular-regular. The difference matter because people believe say the Yoruba plant dey give dye wey dey last pass.
Processing. Dem dey mash the leaves and young branches until dem smooth, con mold them to round balls of about ten to twelve centimetres, dry them for sun, con sell them for market . The thing wey fit confuse person na say dem still dey call the balls aró, the same word wey dem dey use for the dye and the pit.
The alkali. Indigo pigment no fit dissolve and e no go dye anything as e dey so. Dem must reduce am inside alkaline solution to soluble leuco-indigo, wey the cloth go fit absorb, and wey go turn blue again once air touch am. The traditional alkali na lye from wood ash, wey dem filter with water to get potassium carbonate solution . Na this thing make cloth dey come out from Yoruba dye pot with yellow-green colour, con dey turn blue as e dey hang for air.
The vat. The ìkòkò aró na big clay pot wey dem bury partly inside ground, na why dem dey call am "dye pit" for English The pot na fired pottery, wey join the dyeing trade direct to the women potters wey dem discuss for the file on metal and pottery. Na the number of indigo balls wey dem put inside the vat dey control how dark the colour go be, and the numbers wey dem record for southwestern Nigeria start from about 50 balls for bright blue reach about 150 balls for blue-black . Dem con dey build the deep colour through repeated dipping and airing cycles.
Abẹ́òkúta. From early twentieth century, Ẹ̀gbá women turn adìrẹ from house craft to regional industry, with Ìtókù market for Abẹ́òkúta as the center . The thing wey make am possible na access to imported machine-woven cotton shirting through colonial trade routes: European cloth cheap, wide, smooth, and e dey hold painted starch resist far better pass hand-spun kìjìpá. Woman wrapper na two pieces of shirting wey dem sew together . Women control design, dyeing, sharing and selling, and the market reach Gold Coast and Senegal.
The highest point na the 1920s and 1930s, when adìrẹ be major craft industry for Abẹ́òkúta and Ìbàdàn .
After that e con collapse, and people understand how e take happen well. Synthetic indigo and caustic soda spread, plenty new people wey no get skill enter the work, and quality problems follow wey scatter the demand . Byfield put the time of the collapse between 1937 and 1939 .
Na chemistry explain why the thing fast so. Caustic soda, wey be sodium hydroxide, replace the wood ash lye because caustic soda dey work within hours instead of the days or weeks wey fermentation pot dey take settle, and e still cheap pass. Apart from that, caustic soda na alkali wey harsh well well, wey dey spoil cotton thread. When dem mix am with synthetic indigo, e produce cloth wey fine for eye inside market stall, but wey dey tear or wash commot color when person use am. Dis na clear example of quality-signalling failure: people wey wan buy cloth no fit know which one good and which one bad before dem buy, so dem stop to pay money for good cloth, and because of dat, dem stop to make good cloth. The industry no fail first because of foreign competition; e fail because cheaper method make people no fit separate good cloth from bad cloth for where dem dey sell am.
Dem continue to make complex design reach early 1970s, and small revival happen for the 1960s wey interest from Peace Corps push small, but the market never return reach the big level wey e dey before . Imported Dutch and English wax print, and later the fake ones from China, come take the position wey adìrẹ hold before.
The revival wey start since 1980s dey real, and the main person for inside na Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye . Dem born am for Ògìdì inside Kogi State into family of weavers, people wey dey make adìrẹ, indigo dyers and leatherworkers; she train for Òṣogbo and she be product of the Ọ̀ṣogbo art school environment. She open her first Nike Art Centre for Osogbo in 1983, and now she dey run four centres wey dey give free training. One of dem, the Nike Art Gallery for Lekki inside Lagos, get pass 7,000 art work and people dey describe am as the biggest art gallery for West Africa . The purpose wey she give na to bring back adìrẹ as work of art, instead of just ordinary market craft.
For fashion side, Amaka Osakwe brand wey be Maki Oh na the one dem dey mention pass among today revivalists, as Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyong'o wear adìrẹ-derived cloth wey she design . In 2022, Bamidele Abiodun, First Lady of Ogun State, launch Adire Market Week to promote the cloth and support local makers .
Aṣọ ẹbí mean family cloth, from aṣọ, cloth, and ẹbí, family or relative. For practice, na fabric wey the host of event choose, wey guests go buy, and each guest go sow their own cloth with am, so dat the whole group go show up for the event wearing the same cloth.
People dey drag where the origin come from and the argument heavy . One position talk say uniform dress to show family relation na something wey dey before colonial time, especially for burial. The other side talk say aṣọ ẹbí as a named institution belong to friendship association for early twentieth-century Yoruba society, especially inside Lagos.
The explanation wey reconcile the two sides, wey evidence support pass any of the extreme views, na say to wear uniform take show family connection na old thing, but aṣọ ẹbí as institution wey get name, wey widespread, and wey market dey drive, na twentieth-century and Lagos thing. The main proof na material matter: wetin make am spread na cheap mass-produced fabric wey dem import from England after the First World War . Forty guests no fit wear the exact same cloth if na hand-woven cloth dem use, because hand-woven cloth na strip by strip dem dey weave am for small quantity, and no two yard dey exactly the same. To wear uniform for large group require cloth wey uniform for plenty yards, and dat kind uniform yardage only start when industrial textile import enter.
For social side, e start among blood relations, especially for burial, where family dey wear cloth wey sometimes carry picture of the person wey die, and e come spread reach friends circle, social clubs wey dey put their logo on top the cloth, and whole community . The cloth dey make people see the celebrant circle clearly, and because different levels of cloth dey with different prices for different class of guests, e dey also make people rank inside dat circle dey open for everybody to see.
For economic side, the way e dey work straight. Hosts dey buy the cloth wholesale and sell am to guests with extra price on top, and the money wey dem make dey help reduce the cost of the event. Therefore, Aṣọ ẹbí na three things at the same time: e dey show say people stand together, e dey transfer money give celebrant, and e be like compulsory contribution for guests, since any guest wey refuse to buy the cloth go clearly show say dem dey outside the circle. The money wahala wey dis thing dey cause na hot topic for public debate inside Nigeria, where people dey always attack the practice say e dey encourage spending pass person power .
The cloth wey dey reign today na mostly Ankara wax print and lace, no be aṣọ òkè or adìrẹ, though aṣọ òkè still remain as higher-status choice for close family members and for the aṣọ ìyàwó group for wedding .
The criteria Yoruba critics actually use to judge a carving, why the language and its praise poetry are the entry point rather than the ornament, and what goes wrong when European art-historical categories are applied to this material.
The beaded crown and what it does constitutionally, why the king's face is veiled, the birds at its apex, the beads themselves and their trade history, and the men's workshops that made them.
The facial marks that told a stranger which lineage and which town you belonged to and which have now almost vanished, the threaded and plaited hairstyles and what they signified, and the everyday cosmetics of camwood, indigo and antimony.
Farming, iron, cloth and glass; the market system and the women who ran it; cowrie money; and the routes that tied Yorubaland to the Sahara and the Atlantic.
The smith and his god, the paired brass figures that carried the authority of the Ogboni society, the women who built pots without a wheel, the carved and burnt calabash, and the leather trades of Ilorin and Oyo.
A technical and social study of adìrẹ, Yoruba indigo resist-dyed cloth, covering the resist techniques and their makers, indigo chemistry, named designs, the regional schools of Abẹ́òkúta, Ìbàdàn and Òṣogbo, and the twentieth-century revival led by Nike Davies-Okundaye and the contemporary market.