West African Robes: some early photos of Nigerian robes

To mark the recent update of the robe section of our gallery, today I am posting a selection of early images of this style of robe in use. Although this style of robe was made in and closely associated with the nineteenth century Sokoto Caliphate in north Nigeria, taking in Hausa, Nupe and northern Yoruba peoples, such was it’s prestige that it was traded and worn across a much wider expanse of West Africa.

Photographer unknown. Lagos, Nigeria, Circa 1890.

Photographer N. Walwin Holm or J.A. C. Holm, circa 1900-10. The Alake of Abeokuta.

Photographer unknown, Cameroun, early C20th.

Photographer unknown, Burkina Faso, early C20th. the Moro Naba, king of the Mossi, Ouagadougou.

Photographer unknown, early C20th, Tuareg Chief, Zinder, Niger.

Photographer unknown, early C20th. Hausa dance troupe, northern Nigeria.

Photographer unknown, early C2oth, Shendam, east central Nigeria.

Click on the photos to enlarge. Please visit our robe gallery to see our current stock and for more information.

West African Robes–an updated selection of fine early examples

Flowing wide sleeved robes, usually decorated with embroidery, became one of the predominant forms of male prestige dress worn by chiefs and other wealthy men across a large part of West Africa from at least the Sixteenth Century. Their distribution owes much to the diffusion of Islam along key trade routes, although not everyone who wore them was a Muslim. There were a number of mainly quite rare local variants but the predominant type was associated particularly with the C19th Sokoto Caliphate centred on northern Nigeria and primarily the product of Hausa, Nupe and Oyo Yoruba textile workers (cotton spinners, dyers, weavers, tailors, embroiderers, beaters.) The Hausa name for these robes is riga, while among the Yoruba they were called agbada. It is usually not possible to attribute a specific ethnic origin to this type of robe on stylistic grounds alone. Although today they are often still made from hand-woven cloth, the painstaking and beautiful hand embroidery that was used in the past is very rarely seen. Fine old robes have become family heirlooms passed on from father to son and worn with pride at major celebrations.

For descriptions, details etcetera of all these robes please visit our updated gallery here.

Classic Hausa / Nupe robe image

The “eight knives” embroidery style on an indigo robe. Undyed narrow strip cotton cloth turban. Rare vintage card, before 1910, author’s collection.

Agbada, Riga, Boubou… Nigerian prestige gowns.

For some sources this motif is a Sufi inspired spiral towards the infinite. For others it is just the moon. My focus today is just on the graphic beauty it displays. For front views and more details  on these two early robes see our gallery here.

Agbada: embroidered robe traditions in Nigeria and beyond

Agbada is the Yoruba name for a type of flowing wide sleeved robe, usually decorated with embroidery, which is worn throughout much of Nigeria by important men, such as kings and chiefs, and on ceremonial occasions like weddings and funerals. The Hausa name for the robes is riga. Although today they are often still made from hand-woven cloth, the painstaking and beautiful hand embroidery that was used in the past is very rarely seen. Fine old robes have become family heirlooms passed on from father to son and worn with pride at major celebrations. In the past prestige robes were traded over vast distances and similar or related garments are found throughout much of West Africa.

Vintage postcard, circa 1900, author’s collection. (Click to enlarge) The Alake of Abeokuta was the senior king of the leading town of the Egba Yoruba in south western Nigeria.

During the late eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth century the existing order of power in much of what is now Nigeria was upset by the impact of an Islamic jihad inspired by the Muslim Fulani leader Uthman dan Fodio. Across the city states of the Hausa in the North, down to the Nupe people on the banks of the river Niger, and as far South as the Yoruba city of Ilorin rulers were swept aside to be replaced by Muslim emirates. The main Yoruba power of Oyo was defeated and their capital city abandoned in the 1830s. The new Fulani rulers brought with them a style of male dress consisting of flowing robes and huge baggy trousers adapted for horseback riding. They also bought an Islamic tradition of "robes of honour" where embroidered gowns and the flowing turbans worn with them became badges of office for both rulers and court officials. Emirs and other rulers purchased the finest robes for themselves and distributed numerous others to their courtiers. An elaborate trade network developed, with both Nupe and Yoruba weavers and embroiderers, along with specialist tailors, cloth beaters, and dyers, serving the the main emirates. Rulers of other courts such as Yoruba kings beyond the reach of Fulani power adopted the same style of dress, and in the twentieth century the gowns became the accepted dress of important men across a large area of Nigeria and into neighbouring countries. The best robes were tailored from highly prestigious cloths, including plain white handspun cotton fari, beige local wild silk tsamiya (Yoruba name sanyan), imported magenta (wine red) silk alharini (Yoruba alaari) and handspun indigo-dyed saki (known to the Yoruba as etu.) They were embroidered with variations on two classic designs known as "two knives" and "eight knives". It is thought that the embroidery may have had a protective role with elements related to Islamic amulet design (see the previous post on “magic squares” etc), as well as a practical function in strengthening the pocket and neck of the gown. In recent years changes in fashion, the introduction of embroidering machines, and the spread of luxury imported cloths have led to a decline in the demand for top quality hand-made robes and the old skills of weaving fine hand-spun cotton and of hand embroidery are almost lost.

Detail of “two knives” embroidery design on natural beige wild silk ground. Click on the photo to enlarge. For a full view of the robe go to our gallery page here.

Vintage postcard, circa 1910, authors collection. A chief of Shendam in central Nigeria. As well as his robe he wears embroidered trousers of the style shown below.

Vintage postcard, circa 1910, authors collection. The Moro Naba, king of the Mossi people in Ouagadougou, now in Burkina Faso. (Click to enlarge.)

To visit our web gallery and view robes currently in stock click here.

Some field photographs

The master weaver and cloth dealer Alhaji Kegunhe in his shop, Iseyin, Oyo State, Nigeria. 1997. Recently published in B.Gardi ed. "Woven Beauty: The Art of West African Textiles." (Basel, 2009) Iseyin is one of the two main centres of Yoruba aso oke weaving and the Alhaji was one of its most successful weavers and dealers. Each bag contains sufficient cloth strips to be sewn up to make a woman’s wrapper skirt, shawl, and headtie, an outfit known as a “complete.”

Every four days before dawn in Okene market, Kogo State, Ebira women weavers display their completed cloths for sale folded in piles on their heads. Okene, circa 2002. Today Okene is the main centre for women’s weaving on the upright single heddle loom in Nigeria, with several thousand active weavers producing shiny rayon shawls in a variety of patterns which can be found on sale as far afield as Accra.

Hausa men weaving white cloth in strips 1cm in width. The completed strips will be sewn together edge to edge to make veils and robes, dyed dark indigo, then exported to Tuareg peoples in Niger and Mali. Kura, Kano State. Nigeria 2005. These are the narrowest strip of cloth woven in Africa and are among the most expensive of locally produced textiles. The production of this cloth for export to the peoples of the Sahara was once the main industry of Kano but today only a few skilled practitioners remain.

A pair of Hausa cloth beaters at work in the village of Kura. Completed and dyed veils are beaten with a mix of powdered indigo, goat fat, and water that imparts a metallic dark blue sheen. The cloth will be folded over into ever smaller sections and beaten repeatedly until the tightly pressed cloth forms a solid rectangular block about 30cm long. It is then wrapped in brown paper for sale. These two men are among the last remaining exponents of an ancient and highly skilled craft. Kura, Kano State, Nigeria, 2005.

A Nupe woman weaver at work in her husband's family compound, Lafiagi, Niger State, Nigeria, 2006. Unlike the Ebira, Nupe women weave mainly for local and family use and their cloths are rarely found for sale elsewhere in Nigeria or neighbouring countries.

Click on any image to enlarge. All photos copyright Duncan Clarke. Do not reproduce without permission.

A Nupe woman weaver.

Taken in the small town of Lafiagi near the river Niger in central Nigeria in 2006, the photo shows a Nupe woman weaving a two panel wrapper cloth. The Nupe live to the north and north east of the Yoruba, mainly in Niger State, and today make up probably the second most numerous group of female weavers in the country after the Ebira. To see some Nupe cloths and other Nigerian women's cloths visit our website at http://www.adire.clara.net/nigerianwomensgallery.htm