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Rang

Capital of adire

Abeokuta

A Yoruba city in south-west Nigeria famous for adire, cotton patterned in white on deep indigo blue.

View of Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria from the top of Olumo Rock
Photo: Melvin "Buddy" Baker, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Abeokuta is adire indigo

Abeokuta, the main city of the Egba people, lies under a great granite outcrop called Olumo Rock. It is the best-known home of adire, a Yoruba word meaning tied and dyed. Women here developed the craft into a large trade in the early 20th century, using imported cotton cloth. Patterns are made by resist. In one method the cloth is tied or stitched with raffia. In another a paste of cassava starch is painted on by hand or through a stencil. The cloth is then dipped in indigo, and the protected parts stay white or pale blue. Many designs have names and meanings. Adire is sold at Itoku market, now often in many colours using modern dyes.

Adire indigo#22346BResist white#E9EEF2Pale indigo#6F8FC2Olumo rock grey#7F7A72

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Abeokuta

IndigoA deep blue dye from plants, now mostly made synthetically and known for colouring denim
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Abeokuta" on Wikipedia. If you know Abeokuta and we have it wrong, tell us.

More colour cities

All colour cities
🇳🇬 City of the indigo dye pitsKanoAn old Hausa trading city in northern Nigeria where cloth is still dyed in deep outdoor pits of indigo.🇮🇳 The Blue CityJodhpurOld-city houses washed in blue crowd the foot of Mehrangarh Fort, on the edge of the Thar Desert.🇮🇳 Town of mud-resist block printBagruA small town near Jaipur where the Chhipa community prints cotton by hand in indigo, black and red.🇮🇳 Prayer flags over a high desertLehStrings of five-coloured prayer flags and white stupas stand out against the brown mountains of Ladakh.🇵🇰 City of saints and blue tilesMultanBrick shrines of Sufi saints are banded with blue, turquoise and white tiles, a craft still alive in the city.🇰🇷 Busan's pastel hillsideGamcheonA steep neighbourhood of small box-like houses painted in pastels, turned into an art village in 2009.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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