This 'adire eleko' cloth was produced by a female Yoruba indigo-dyer during the 1950s or 1960s. The design is a version of the 'Coronation' design, also known as the Jubilee design, or 'Oloba' pattern, meaning 'owner of a king' or 'the cloth with the king on it'. Most 'Coronation' designed cloths have an oval medallion in the middle of the each panel depicting King George V and Queen Mary, which was copied from Jubilee souvenirs from 1935. Interestingly, this cloth doesn't contain this image, but consists entirely of the Islamic religious imagery and motifs that would normally surround the oval medallion design.

Cloths like this were worn by either men or women, wrapped around the body and secured by twisting the ends of the cloth together. This is still the most common method of wearing adire cloths today. Since 1960 however, when Nigeria gained independence, the popularity of adire cloth has increased enormously. It is now also used for European-style clothing and head-ties, while special cloths are made for religious celebrations. This particular example may have been created for personal use or to sell at the market.

'Adire' refers to a cloth that has been patterned by the technique of resist dyeing with indigo. Yoruba women extract dye from the 'elu' (lonchocarpus cyanescens) vine. After collecting the vine leaves, the women pound them into a pulp and form fist-sized balls. The process of dyeing that follows is lengthy, but essentially involves extracting the dye stuff from the 'elu' leaves as described, mixing them with a mordant (metallic salt dye fixative) extracted from ash, and then dyeing the cloth. The technique is taught to their daughters from a very young age by Yoruba mothers. During the dyeing, the women regularly make offerings to the Goddess Iya Mapo, who assists them throughout the process.

'Eleko' refers to the resist technique which involves the application of cassava paste to the surface of imported cotton cloth. The paste is made from cassava flour (or lafun) which is boiled with alum to form a thick starch. The design on this cloth was created with stencils, which are made by Yoruba men. The paste would have been applied to the cloth with either a brush or a feather quill through the stencil. Stencilled cloths such as this are usually less detailed than hand painted 'adire' cloths, and the pattern is also often repeated numerous times, as demonstrated on this cloth. When dyeing is complete, generally requiring several dips in the dye vat, the starch is scraped off leaving the cloth slightly stiff. The dry cloth is then placed over a flat log, and beaten with a wooden mallet which produces a high sheen on the cloth from the large amounts of indigo dye used.

The cloth is part of a collection of West African textiles, spindles, hand spun yarn and a thorn carving collected in West Africa by Dr C Marion Petrie. Dr Petrie was an employee of the British Colonial Service in Nigeria and Ghana between 1957 and 1966.

Source:

Powerhouse Museum