Dress and identity in Yorubaland, 1880-1980

Doctoral Thesis

Combining extant literature with archival and archaeological evidence, photo albums and oral interviews, eponymous names and witty sayings, folksongs and participant observation; this study, covering from 1880 to 1980, wrote a history of Yorubaland as seen through dress. Also subsumed in this study was a history of Yorùbá dress, especially its place in the construction of Yorùbá ethno-national identity. Yorùbá people conceived dress as an assemblage of modifications and/or supplements to the human body. These included coiffed hair and coloured skin, pierced ears and scented breath, etc. Underlying this conceptualization was the requirement of being an Omoluabi, an ethical category defined as a conglomeration of moral principles such as being lofty in spoken words and respectful, having good mind towards others and being truthful, possessing lofty character and being brave, hardworking and being intelligent, including having a good dress sense. All these formed Yorùbá individual...Show moreCombining extant literature with archival and archaeological evidence, photo albums and oral interviews, eponymous names and witty sayings, folksongs and participant observation; this study, covering from 1880 to 1980, wrote a history of Yorubaland as seen through dress. Also subsumed in this study was a history of Yorùbá dress, especially its place in the construction of Yorùbá ethno-national identity. Yorùbá people conceived dress as an assemblage of modifications and/or supplements to the human body. These included coiffed hair and coloured skin, pierced ears and scented breath, etc. Underlying this conceptualization was the requirement of being an Omoluabi, an ethical category defined as a conglomeration of moral principles such as being lofty in spoken words and respectful, having good mind towards others and being truthful, possessing lofty character and being brave, hardworking and being intelligent, including having a good dress sense. All these formed Yorùbá individual and group identity (Yorùbáness) as well as what Yorùbá dress was all about. To be a Yorùbá man or woman was therefore to dress well and to dress well was to be a Yorùbá man or woman. Understood in this way, Yorùbáness therefore was impossible without Yorùbá dress and Yorùbá dress was impossible without Yorùbáness.Show less

Yorubanness

Yorubaland