Decolonizing cultural names: A driving force behind the choice of certain African wax-printed fabrics as uniforms for Igbo women’s groups in south-eastern Nigeria

Abstract

In West Africa, Nigeria to be precise, African wax prints are seen as one of the Indigenous
garbs characterized by bold and colourful designs. The Igbo(found in the Eastern part of
Nigeria) women folk make use of these fabrics for various occasions such as uniforms for
various groups or associations worn during weddings, chieftaincy title taking, christening of
new born, women monthly meetings, burial ceremonies, church activities, home and abroad
women meetings (August meeting) and also as casual wear. One of the major places they are
imported into in Nigeria by some textile merchants is Onitsha (a commercial nerve centre)
situated in the Eastern part of the country where the Igbo reside. They are given some unique
numbers which could be found printed on the selvedge during their production in Holland
for proper identification and registration such as 14/0927, A2161, 14/D954, S4118 and others.
The number refers to the print design. They have created and produced around
20.000 designs in the last 168 years and this helps with registration. However, these numbers
are mostly for official records in the factory in that the merchants rename some of them once
they land on Eastern Nigeria soil. This study argues that though the fabrics are designed and
made in Holland, the indigenous names they are baptized with decolonize them, making
them possess an Igbo identity to the indigenes that make use of them. Some of these names
are in the Igbo, pidgin, and English languages. This action in return makes them popular in
demand and usage among the Igbo. It also argues that the de-colonial approach utilized by
these merchants (they import large quantity of these printed fabrics into country by sea or
air) to rename these fabrics has not been sufficiently documented by scholars. The objectives
of this paper are to find out why these indigenous names are given, why the women prefer
the fabrics with names and also document some of those fabrics and the names given. This
paper employs the use of participant observation method, interviews and photography as
research instruments. It employed the trickle theory in fashion and the theory of adaptation
(natural selection). It found out that the indigenous names given to these “Igbo hollandaise”
are one of the major reasons behind their usage as uniforms for different women groups. It
concludes that the decolonization of these names played a huge role in the world of African
textiles and its economic growth in Igbo communities.