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
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Yoruba: Machine-Stitched Resist Indigo-Dyed Cloth
Yoruba and Baulé Warp Ikat [1]
Nigerian Starch-Resist (by hand)
Nigerian Starch-Resist (by hand).
In towns of Yorubaland, Nigeria - Ibadan, Ilorin, Owo, Oshogbo - there was a fashion amongst women for making adire eleko (starch-resist) cloths. They were worn in pairs by Yoruba women. These cloths had a cassava starch-resist applied to them before they were dyed in indigo. Unlike the stencilled cloths of Abeokuta, they had patterns drawn by hand, featuring birds, lizards and well-known landmarks, such as the Ibadan town hall.
After 1929, production went into steep decline. It was only revived in the 1960s and 1970s, partly to cater for a large expatriate market attracted by Nigeria's burgeoning oil wealth. Since then, the starch-resist method has again suffered, as Nigeria has spiralled downwards in a cycle of corruption, inter-ethnic rivalry and ensuing poverty. The expatriate market has disappeared and there is now very little local demand.
Using this technique, a woman dips a sharpened quill of a large bird into a paste of cassava flour mixed with copper sulfate and water, known as lafun. She draws on one side of the cloth only. First, she folds the new mill cloth so that, upon opening it out, it forms a square grid. (A typical adire eleco of the 1960s consisted of a central section of twenty squares surrounded by thirty-two smaller rectangles.) Second, she outlines the grid in lafun and then proceeds to fill the squares with bold designs. The motifs within each square (such as birds or the sun) have a proverbial meaning. Moreover, the whole cloth is given a name that is recognized in the marketplace, such as "I am getting myself together." Within the overall design, the squares are repeated, at least twice.
The cloth is dip-dyed in an indigo bath as many times as is necessary to achieve the deep blue-black so prized by the Yoruba. In between dippings, the cloth is laid out on racks to dry. Great care is taken not to crack the lafun paste, which is only applied to one side of the cloth. As the starch does not resist the dye completely, the cloth takes on a light-blue pattern against a dark-blue background, when the dried paste is removed. The adire worker often adds her maker's mark.
A starched, but undyed, Yoruba adire eleko. The resist paste of cassava flour will be scraped or flaked off after dyeing.
Indigo-dyed starch-resist adire eleko cloth from 1960s in Ibadan Dun pattern.
Indigo-dyed starch-resist adire eleko cloth from 1960s in the olukun or Sea-Goddess pattern.
Adire eleko from Nigeria with pattern created by applying a resist-paste of cassava flour by hand. This pattern, made up of two particular motifs, conveys the message, "I'm getting myself together."
Indigo-dyed starch-resist adire eleko cloth with a pattern of banana trees and plantains. This cloth is unusual in that it is not really symmetrical.
Indigo-dyed starch-resist adire eleko cloth from the 1960s with a pattern of birds. The bird at the bottom is the maker's mark.
Hand-drawn starch resist adire imitating the stencilled King George V and Queen Mary pattern.
Reference:
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).
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
Tie and Dye of the Dida, Ivory Coast
African Stitch Resist
Yoruba Stitch Resist
Yoruba: Machine-Stitched Resist Indigo-Dyed Cloth
Yoruba and Baulé Warp Ikat [1]
Nigerian Starch-Resist (by hand)
Nigerian Starch-Resist (by hand).
In towns of Yorubaland, Nigeria - Ibadan, Ilorin, Owo, Oshogbo - there was a fashion amongst women for making adire eleko (starch-resist) cloths. They were worn in pairs by Yoruba women. These cloths had a cassava starch-resist applied to them before they were dyed in indigo. Unlike the stencilled cloths of Abeokuta, they had patterns drawn by hand, featuring birds, lizards and well-known landmarks, such as the Ibadan town hall.
After 1929, production went into steep decline. It was only revived in the 1960s and 1970s, partly to cater for a large expatriate market attracted by Nigeria's burgeoning oil wealth. Since then, the starch-resist method has again suffered, as Nigeria has spiralled downwards in a cycle of corruption, inter-ethnic rivalry and ensuing poverty. The expatriate market has disappeared and there is now very little local demand.
Using this technique, a woman dips a sharpened quill of a large bird into a paste of cassava flour mixed with copper sulfate and water, known as lafun. She draws on one side of the cloth only. First, she folds the new mill cloth so that, upon opening it out, it forms a square grid. (A typical adire eleco of the 1960s consisted of a central section of twenty squares surrounded by thirty-two smaller rectangles.) Second, she outlines the grid in lafun and then proceeds to fill the squares with bold designs. The motifs within each square (such as birds or the sun) have a proverbial meaning. Moreover, the whole cloth is given a name that is recognized in the marketplace, such as "I am getting myself together." Within the overall design, the squares are repeated, at least twice.
The cloth is dip-dyed in an indigo bath as many times as is necessary to achieve the deep blue-black so prized by the Yoruba. In between dippings, the cloth is laid out on racks to dry. Great care is taken not to crack the lafun paste, which is only applied to one side of the cloth. As the starch does not resist the dye completely, the cloth takes on a light-blue pattern against a dark-blue background, when the dried paste is removed. The adire worker often adds her maker's mark.
Reference:
[1] J. Gillow, African Textiles, Thames & Hudson Ltd, London (2003).
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