Adire: resist dyeing, pattern and authorship

A named textile practice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes adire as the Yorùbá term for resist-dyed cloth and identifies Abeokuta, Ibadan and Oshogbo as major centres in its account. This entry retains the cultural name alongside the English technique description. [S6]

Reading one making process

For its illustrated Olokun cloth, the museum describes adire eleko: designs applied with cassava-flour starch before dyeing. Protected areas and dyed areas form the pattern. The record identifies cotton and indigo and dates this particular cloth to the first half of the twentieth century. [S6]

Pattern and individual authorship

The museum connects the Olokun pattern to the sea and prosperity, lists motifs including fish and geometric forms, and notes a maker’s mark on the hem. Its discussion recognises that individual interpretations differ. Those observations belong to this documented example, British Museum Af1971.35.17. [S6]

Research to extend this entry

A fuller archive should document specific workshops, individual makers, variations in technique and practitioners’ own explanations of motifs. Colour, motif and religious meanings require local attribution. Specialist language review remains pending for this initial entry.

Sources & limitations

Source references identify the evidence behind each passage. Interpretation and open questions are labelled in the text.

1. S6 · The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End — Adire
   Exhibition text · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

   Adire section; Olokun cloth, British Museum Af1971.35.17. Checked 2026-10-13.

   The text discusses a specific Olokun-pattern cloth and adire eleko. Its motif interpretation must not be extended to every adire textile. Images have not been reproduced.

Related textile records

• Gèlè: Yorùbá head ties, artistry and cultural memory
• Aso oke: woven cloth and changing materials