The state of knowledge at present about the weaving traditions of northern and central Nigeria is patchy at best. Two superb PhD theses have been written on aspects of Hausa weaving: by Shea (1975) on the trade in fine indigo dyed turkudi fabrics, and by Heathcote (1979) on Hausa embroidered dress. The book Nigerian Weaving (1980) is a useful introduction with superb photographs and a useful but often criticised text. The social organisation of Nupe men's weaving is covered by Nadel (1942) and Perani (1977) but little is known about the range of cloths produced. The Tiv, Jukun, and other groups, despite producing remarkable textiles, have hardly been researched at all.

Hausa weaving on the double heddle loom is notable in particular for the diversity of cloth types produced. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries weavers in the villages around Kano produced huge quantities of lightweight turkudi cotton cloth in strip widths of 1/2 inch or less, which was dyed and glazed with indigo in Kano itself by specialist craftsmen, then exported throughout the Sahel and Sahara. It was (and still is, though output has much declined) particularly highly prized by the Tuareg for use as veils. The three prestige cloths mentioned on the previous page, here called saki ("guinea fowl" - dark indigo check), tsamiya (local beige wild silk) and alharini  (imported magenta silk) were woven in strips about four inches in width for use in prestige robes, apparently mostly by weavers of Nupe origin. Cotton blankets are woven in weft faced strips of 8-10 inch width, while other weavers produce lightweight cotton cloths with supplementary weft float decoration for use as women's wrappers in strip with a width of up to 18 inches. All these types of weaving are still found, although mostly only on a very small scale.

Nupe men's weaving is best known for the prestige fabrics they produced for the making of robes. Nupe embroiderers were considered to be the most highly skilled in Nigeria. According to Nadel there were three guilds of male weavers active in the Nupe capital of Bida in the first half of the C20th, all of which could be traced back to origins among the Yoruba. Although there may be a very few Nupe men still weaving in rural villages the tradition is almost if not entirely extinct in Bida itself.

Jukun weaving today seems to be on the verge of totally disappearing, at least on the scanty evidence provided by our brief visit to the area last year. Only two weavers remain active in the capital town of Wukari, and a nearby village known for its weaving was destroyed during the outbreak of inter-ethnic unrest in 2001. This is particularly unfortunate since Jukun cloths woven in the early C20th are some of the most complex and interesting in the whole of the West African strip weaving tradition, incorporating figurative supplementary warp float patterning. Virtually nothing is known about the production and use of these kyadze cloths, although some fine examples owned by the Jukun ruler were published by Venice Lamb (1980). Wukari also seems to have been the origin of large handspun strip woven cotton fabrics that were resist dyed using a stitched indigo technique. Many of these were exported to Cameroon, were they stimulated the local production of similar cloths known as ndop. 

 

A young Tiv weaver. Photo: (c) D. Clarke, 2002

In contrast to the situation among the Nupe and Jukun, at least some types of weaving still seem to be flourishing among the Tiv. Imported cotton thread is woven in strips about 7 inches wide, usually decorated with warp strips in colours such as black, white, grey, brown, and purple. This cloth is widely used in the region on ceremonial occasions. A second type of cloth is created by indigo resist dyeing techniques on white handspun cotton strips of about 4 inch width. Tiv men also used to  weave wider panels of openwork cloth, which was also subjected to resist dyeing with indigo. These wider pieces were woven using a form of single heddle ground loom. 

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