Cloth (Aso Ofi)
Yoruba Artist
Nigeria
Details
Title
Cloth (Aso Ofi)
Artist/Maker
Yoruba Artist (Nigeria)
Date
ca. 1900–1925
Medium
Cotton and indigo
Dimensions
61 x 82 inches
Credit
Purchase with Fred and Rita Richman Special Initiatives Endowment Fund for African Art
Accession #
2005.187
On View
Currently not on view
This finely woven cloth is deeply saturated with indigo, a natural dye made from a wild plant used to color cloth blue throughout much of sub Saharan West Africa for at least 1,000 years. It was woven on an upright loom by a female weaver. In the past such cloths were worn by chiefs throughout the western Yoruba region as a sign of political office.
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