Nigerian Tie and Dye [1]ArtClothMarie-Therese Wisniowski

Preamble
For your convenience I have listed below other posts in this series:
Diversity of African Textiles
African Textiles: West Africa
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part I
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part II
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part III
Stripweaves (West Africa) - Part IV
Djerma Weaving of Niger and Burkina-Faso
Woolen Stripweaves of the Niger Bend
Nigerian Horizontal - Loom Weaving
Yoruba Lace Weave
Nigerian Women's Vertical Looms
The Supplementary Weft Cloths of Ijebu-Ode and Akwete
African Tie and Dye
Nigerian Tie and Dye
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast

Nigerian Tie and Dye
The adire oniko (meaning tied resist) cloths of the Yoruba are used as women's wraps. Small wraps are first folded, then tie-dyed to create spiral designs.

Nigerian tie and dye business.

Yoruba indigo-dyed adire oniko tied-dyed woman's wrap, southwest Nigeria.

Concentric circles of ties radiate out from the middle until the tied, but undyed, cloth has a cone shape. Beans, grains of rice or chips of wood may be new sections of fabric teased up and tied with raphia or cotton. One of the Yoruba etu (Guinea-fowl pattern) is so prized that, when it is untied, it is never washed and ironed, leaving the cloth gathered into hillocks. Tie and dye is often combined with a stitched resist.

Hausa indigo-dyed woman's wrap tie-dyed in the three basket design.
Bought in 1999 at the dye-pits, Kano, where the cloth is dyed.

Cloth being dyed in an indigo pond.

The Hausa of northern Nigeria produce many tie-dyed cotton cloths that are similar in style to some of the simpler Yoruba samples. A long narrow woman's wrapper with three motifs of bold concentric circles of tied dots - known as the Three Basket pattern - is typical of their work. If the twine is bound tightly around the fabric before it is placed in a dye pot, the area that is bound will not be dyed. When the twine is undone, an undyed circle will be revealed. Concentric circles are produced by binding the fabric at intervals, while a pattern of small rings is created if several bunches are tied.

Rare Adire eleko design called “Ojuteke.”

Sometimes stones are inserted into bunches to control the shape of the resist area. If the cloth is folded or pleated and tied before dyeing, as Yoruba often do, a zigzag or criss-cross pattern results.

A Hausa woman tying resists into cotton cloth in Kano.

Fulsni women, Nigeria. One wears a resist-pattern wrap.

Yoruba cotton folded, tied and Indigo dyed in the Sabada pattern.

Reference:
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).