R6139/6 Textile; Adire

Indigo cloth with a grid pattern

Adire (Museum Accession number R6137/6)

Adire eleko indigo resist dyed cloth. The design is comprised of circles in square grids with the text ‘SanumiOluwa’ which means ‘Lord have mercy on me’ in Yoruba. The pattern is created using the starch resist (adire eleko) technique: cassava paste is applied to cloth through a stencil or painted on, areas where this is painted resist the indigo dye. Collected as part of the Fashioning Africa project.

Creator: unknown

Place: Nigeria, West Africa, Africa

Date: 1990