Importance of Akwete Clothing in South-Eastern Nigeria

Akwete clothing is one of the earliest Nigerian-made fabrics and it is made by the people of Akwete from Abia state in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria. Since about the 9th century AD, the Igbo people, particularly the women, have participated in various societal crafts including cloth weaving [1]. This skill was passed down from generation to generation and generated income for Igbo people who traded the woven clothes for other products from neighbouring societies [2]. Initially, akwete clothes were woven from local products like raffia and sisal-hemp fibres, but as interactions with Europeans increased, akwete cloth weavers switched to cotton [3]. Akwete clothing was famous among Igbo people and other South-Eastern societies and different designs were assigned to different societal statuses [2]. Akwete clothing played significant roles in the South-Eastern societies of Nigeria and was therefore affected by changes in economic, political, and social events such as trade, war, and education respectively [4,5].

Akwete cloth weaving was a popular job for most women and some men in pre-colonial times. The women prepared fibres for weaving by drying raffia and cotton fibres. Then, both men and women used looms to create the clothes: men used the horizontal looms while women used the vertical looms. The weavers created various motifs on the clothes and are named based on what the motifs look like. The motifs included “animals’ hearts, children’s fingers, combs, earrings, snake-back, stool and tortoise” [6]. Some motifs could only be worn by people of a certain social class. For instance, the tortoise motif could only be worn by royal families [6].

The Akwete weavers sold their clothes to neighbouring communities. Some of their best customers were the Ijo people who were middle men palm oil traders (bought palm oil from inland communities like the Akwete community and sold the palm oil to Europeans). During their trade visits to Akwete, the Ijo traders would buy Akwete clothes for themselves. However, the Ijo people began to prefer the foreign clothes they got during their transactions with Europeans. Coincidentally, Europeans gained access to the inland communities and began trading more with them and less with the Ijo middle men [4]. These two events led to a severed trading relationship between the Akwete weavers and the Ijo traders. To save this severed relationship, the Akwete weavers began making clothes that resembled the foreign clothes favoured by the Ijo people. Additionally, rather than wait for the Ijo traders to buy clothes in Akwete, the Akwete weavers took their clothes to Ijo markets. These two responses from the Akwete weavers re-established the collapsing trading relationship and maintained the significance of Akwete clothing among the Ijo people [4].

At the beginning of the 20th century, christian missionary groups began erecting schools in Igbo land as a form of evangelization [7]. With time, the educated women in those areas began to dislike locally made clothes like those of the Akwete weavers. Also, the girls who usually helped their mothers in weaving became occupied with school for five days a week and with church activities for the other two days. This led to a decline in both the demand for locally made clothes and the number of weavers available in the weaving industry. As a result, the cloth weaving industry was abandoned by many weavers who turned to more popular sources of income at the time - “farming and petty trading” [5].

Fast forward to the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, the cloth weaving industry in Igbo land starts making a come back. Due to the war, school activities were shut down and machine-made clothes became too expensive to purchase. Since cotton could grow in the area and there were still a few women who knew how to spin fibres, cloth weaving, once again, became an important occupation for women in the east. The Akwete weavers were employed by the “government-owned Aba Textile Mills” where hand-woven clothes were made and sewn into uniforms for the military [5]. However, in 1968, the great industrial town, Aba, fell and the Akwete weavers fled the area and spread their unique weaving techniques to Igbo communities [5].

To summarize, cloth weaving is an old and ancient craft that has existed for centuries among the people of Akwete. Akwete clothing was so significant to the Igbo people and other south-eastern communities that its techniques, designs and market forces were impacted by important historic events such as palm oil trade, introduction of missionary schools and the Nigerian civil war. So, whenever you come across a piece of Akwete cloth, remember the rich history behind the craft that produced it.

References

1. Ikegwu Jacinta Uchenna and Uzuegbu Joshua Okenwa. Akwete Traditional Weaving for Rural Tourism in Nigeria. 2015.
2. Facts About The Akwete (Igbo) Fabric. 2017.
3. Ibeto F.O. and Ogunduyile S.R. Design and Marketing of Textile and Clothing in Nigeria. 2015.
4. Lisa Aronson. Akwete-Igbo Weavers as Entrepreneurs and Innovators at the Turn of the Century. 1994.
5. Gloria Chuku. Women in the Economy of Igboland, 1900 to 1970: A Survey. 1995.
6. McPhilips Nwachukwu & Appolos Oziogu Ibebabuchi. Akwete cloth: An Igbo textile art. 2012.
7. C. N. Ubah. Western Education in Africa: The Igbo Experience, 1900-1960. 1980.