Historicizing Dress (Aso-Ofi) Production in Iseyin Town, South West Nigeria

Abstract

This paper is a study on aso-oke production in one of the pre-colonial town in Nigeria. It historically addresses all the processes involved in the production of hand-woven textile in Iseyin, present day Oyo State. Though some scholars have discussed on textile production in Yorubaland and aso-oke specifically, little have been done on the relationship the people of Iseyin have with their textile production occupation. This study is then situated to focus on this area which has not been comprehensively studied in the past of the Nigerian people, as regard the people of Iseyin. The paper considers the acquisition, processing, weaving and usage of the indigenous textile in Iseyin town in the period preceding colonial rule by evaluating the entrenched traditional textile producers and industries in the area of study. The paper also shows how the traditional cloth was displaced by the western fashion which was introduced and publicised with the emergence of the British colonial rule in Nigeria. It examines the challenges faced by the indigenous textile industry which must have affected the present production and usage of the Yoruba cloth, as well as the changes which have taken place in the production process of textiles in Yorubaland through Iseyin. This paper therefore argues that the production of dress in Iseyin has no doubt been in existence before the coming of foreigners into the area known as Nigeria, and has also been impacted either positively or negatively by western culture. In a bid to achieve the above stated this paper adopts a historical narrative, and multidisciplinary approach, both primary and secondary data will be in use after critically assessed and interpreted. Dress in this context is referred to as woven textiles, as this was the only dress production in Iseyin at this point in time and was mostly used by the Yoruba people of present day Southwestern Nigeria.