Beyond Gendered Art Practice: Ten Contemporary Women Cloth-Weavers in the Sustainability of Aso-Oke in Oke-Ogun, Nigeria

Abstract

Several art and craft productions in Africa have been gendered culturally and vocationally. Woodcarving, Metal-Smithing, Bronze-Casting, Pottery, Stone-Carving and Cloth-Weaving are some examples where women are excluded, forbidden or restricted. Such gender roles in the production of arts and crafts have been distributed based on variables such as socio-cultural placement of the sexes, domestic roles, physical strength, industrial proximity, economic advantages and sacredness of the products. This paper focused on a popular cloth originating from the Yoruba ethnic group and presently used globally. Oke-Ogun in northern Yorubaland, in Oyo state, Nigeria, has been reputed as a major producer of woven cloth known as Òfì and also called Aso-Oke (meaning "cloth from Oke"). The importance and functions of the Aso-Oke to the Yoruba culture and as a utilitarian item has transcended centuries of developments, aesthetically, technologically and entrepreneurially; so also, the gendered roles in the production of the cloth. This paper investigated the ventures of contemporary women cloth weavers of Aso-Oke in Oke-Ogun and how their new roles have impacted and contributed to the sustenance and development of the art, restructuring of gender responsibilities, and women economic empowerment. The women were observed, interviewed, and documented across Oke-Ogun in Kisi, Eruwa, Saki, Iseyin, Igboho, Igbope, and Okeho. Ten of the outstanding women weavers purposively selected from Kisi and Igboho were featured with their various cloths visually examined and aesthetically analysed. Also, their enterprises were evaluated to assess the growth and development of the cloth globally. Conclusively, the paper established that due to the courageous incursions of women weavers, Aso-Oke cloth-weaving has been sustained and expanded in Oke-Ogun, both in its art form and functions, as a dignified entrepreneurship and a base for a new cloth-weaving culture.