In the C19th the the rulers of the Yoruba kingdoms of south western Nigeria maintained elaborate palaces that were the major patrons for artists working in a huge range of media including wood sculptors, leather workers, calabash carvers, drummers, bead artists, iron workers and brass casters, as well as weavers, tailors and embroiderers. The imperial Yoruba state of Oyo was the most powerful of these kingdoms, while the ancient city of Ife remained an important cultural and religious centre. Cloth was central to the social, religious, political, economic, and cultural life of these complex and sophisticated African communities. In a book published in 1823 one Captain Adams, who made several voyages to the region between 1786 and 1800 wrote that "the cloth manufactured in Hio [i.e. Oyo] is superior, both for variety of pattern, colour, and dimensions, to any made in the neighbouring states." The Yoruba speaking region of Nigeria is one where two forms of weaving technology overlap and both the upright single-heddle loom used by women and the narrow-strip double-heddle loom mostly used by men are found. (See ABOUT AFRICAN WEAVING). In the twentieth century Yoruba women's weaving has declined drastically (see NIGERIA page for examples of Yoruba women's weaving). In contrast Yoruba aso oke weaving on the narrow-strip loom is without doubt one of the most vibrant and successful textile traditions in Africa today.

 

A late C19th image of an aso oke weaver, on of the earliest known photos of aso oke production. Photographer unknown, courtesy Foreign & Commonwealth Office Archive, London.

By the middle of the twentieth century aso oke was worn by the Yoruba only at major life-cycle events such as naming ceremonies for babies, engagements, weddings, important birthdays, chieftaincy title ceremonies, and funerals, as well as the major festivals and Christian or Islamic holy days. One of the reasons aso oke has not received as much recognition abroad as other African styles such as kente is the sheer variety of colours and styles explored by Yoruba weavers. Nevertheless a quite limited set of techniques  underlie the huge of patterns, specifically: ikat, the resist dyeing of sections of the warp thread, which was popular until the 1960s; supplementary weft float or brocade patterning, with designs of triangles, combs, koranic boards, checks, and more rarely writing or figurative designs floating on the top face of the cloth; and openwork.  The most distinctive feature of much aso oke is a form of openwork in which holes are created by using extra weft threads to tie together groups of warps, with the extra wefts themselves forming a pattern on the cloth surface. The basic designs in a majority of cloths however are formed by patterns of warp and weft stripes, and it was these which provided the basis for an elaborate repertoire of pattern names. Since the 1970s the custom of naming patterns has declined in importance. 

Today aso oke is more popular than ever among the growing numbers of Yoruba in Nigeria and is also widely used by other Nigerians and in nearby countries such as Ghana and Togo. Since the 1990s increasing numbers of women have taken up aso oke weaving. 

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