Akwete: This small town just north of the city of Port Harcourt is one of the last centres of a once much wider tradition of Igbo women's weaving. It is famous throughout eastern Nigeria for the quality of the cloths produced there which are highly prized for the Igbo women's ceremonial dress known as "Up and Down", in which two cloths are wrapped around the body, one at the waist, the other under the arms. Akwete women use a uniquely wide version of the loom, allowing a single width of cloth to form a women's wrapper. Among the huge range of designs produced is a version of the Ijebu aso olona, which they have woven since at least the C19th for sale to the Ijaw people of the Niger Delta to the south. As our small contribution to supporting the continued survival of this unique community of highly talented Igbo women weavers we will be bringing you from time to time examples of newly woven cloths we have obtained from the ladies weaving cooperative in Akwete as well as older textiles when available.

Nupe: the Nupe live along the river Niger in central Nigeria, around their capital of Bida. Bida was once the capital of a Fulani-ruled emirate renowned in West Africa for its craftworks, which include decorative brass casting, embroidery, and glass bead making, as well as both men's and women's weaving. Islam is now the dominant religion in the town, and women weave hidden in the passageways of labyrinthine mud-walled compounds to which non-family men are forbidden entrance. Among the textiles they wove in the past are elaborate marriage cloths known as duna (left), and some beautiful predominantly red wrapper cloths.

Eastern Yoruba: Among Yoruba and Yoruba related peoples such as the Igbomina, Ekiti, Yagba, and Bunu, there was relatively little of the male narrow strip aso oke weaving (which was primarily associated with the Oyo Yoruba.) Instead large numbers of women wove predominantly indigo-dyed wrapper cloths, both for domestic use and for trade. Aside from the superb accounts of Bunu weaving by Renne there is little documentation of the wide variety of indigo cloths that were woven in this region. It is a particular interest on mine at the moment and we are encountering numerous previously unrecorded local styles as we reach new areas. Today there is very little weaving in the area, with perhaps one or two elderly ladies still active in each area.

Northern Edo: the Northern or Akoko Edo are a culturally diverse range of peoples living in small villages to the south and west of the town of Okene. Alongside a lot of very obscure and localised traditions of cloth decoration, they wove fine indigo wrappers from hand-spun cotton. The picture below (taken in the 1960s)  shows senior women from the royal family in a small village called Somorika wearing locally woven cloths, some of which mix hand spun cotton with white linen-like thread obtained from tree bark.