THE IRO AND BUBA - NIGERIAN STYLE (YORUBA CULTURE) (Patreon)

Hey My Darlings,

While in Nigeria, I made it a point to dress up in my traditional attire.

What I have on is called the Iro(Blouse), Buba (wrapper), Gale (headgear) and Iborun (drape over the shoulder)

It is worn by women from the Western part of Nigeria - The Yorubas.

The iro and buba (pronounced “ee-roe” and “boo-bah”) are the most essential parts of a Yoruba woman's traditional outfit. The iro and buba are essential because they are the skirt and blouse and are the basis for the outfit. The complete outfit in actual fact consists of 4-5 separate parts

My gel e and iborun are made from a fabric called Aso Oke (pronounced ah-SHOW-kay) is short for Aso Ilu Oke which literally interpreted means clothes from the countryside. It is also sometimes refereed to as Aso-Ofi. Ofi refers to the seat of the weavers sit on when weaving the cloth.

It is a hand woven cloth made mostly by the Yoruba tribe of south west Nigeria. There is a vast tradition of strip woven textiles in Africa and West Africa in particular; for example Kente from Ghana or Akwete from Eastern Nigeria and Burkina Fasso’s Faso Dan Fani.  The woven strips produced are typically sewn together to make traditional clothing.

The clothing made from Aso-Oke is worn to special occasions such as festivals, weddings, coronation and the like. It is also what traditional rulers wear especially during such festive occasions. It is seen as the most special of traditional fabrics in Nigeria. It serves traditionally as formal wear. Aso-Oke is often also worn as Aso-Ebi (ebi meaning friends, and/or family) where similar colours are worn by all to a particular event to symbolise unity.