Overview
Aso oke, literally "top cloth", is the hand-woven strip cloth of the Yoruba, woven in narrow bands on a horizontal loom and sewn edge to edge into wrappers, gowns and caps. It is the cloth of Yoruba ceremony, and its patterns are still commissioned family by family.
Origin and history
Strip weaving is long established across West Africa, and Yoruba weaving towns including Iseyin and Oyo in Oyo State, Ilorin in Kwara State and Ede in Osun State have supplied it for generations. Men have traditionally worked the horizontal narrow loom while women worked the upright broad loom. Locally spun cotton and wild silk were the earliest fibres; imported thread, and later lurex and synthetic yarns, were absorbed into the craft as trade grew, giving the metallic sheen common in modern ceremonial cloth.
Materials and techniques
The weaver works a narrow warp, often only a few inches wide, stretched out ahead of the loom and weighted at the far end. Bands are woven in lengths, cut and then joined selvedge to selvedge, so the pattern repeats across the finished cloth. Openwork holes, floating supplementary threads and blocks of contrasting colour are the main decorative devices. Three broad named types are recognised: alaari in deep red, sanyan in the greyish tone of wild silk, and etu in dark indigo.
Cultural significance
Aso oke is worn for weddings, chieftaincy installations, funerals and anniversaries, and families commonly commission a single cloth so that a whole group appears in matching dress. The type, weight and finish of the cloth signal the importance of the occasion and the standing of those wearing it, and a well-kept cloth is passed down.
Notable examples
Sanyan
Woven from the greyish-beige thread of wild silk, historically among the most prized types.
Alaari
A deep red cloth, traditionally coloured with imported or locally dyed red thread.
Etu
A dark indigo cloth flecked with pale thread, its name referring to guinea fowl plumage.
Connected history and culture
How this cloth is worn, and its place in Nigerian dress more broadly, is set out in Aso Oke and Nigerian traditional attire; the dyed cloth often worn with it is Adire.