Revitalizing Velvet: The Making, Unmaking, and Remaking of African Heritage in Yoruba Communities in Nigeria

Abstract

Clothing is one of the basic needs of men. The Yoruba people are known with different types of indigenous types of cloth. The most popular is Aso Oke. However, with the introduction of Velvet to West Africa through Portuguese trade in the sixteenth century A.D. as revealed by Akinwumi and Adeakin (2009). The Yoruba people came in contact with Velvet fabrics, embraced it for use during both important social and traditional ceremonies such as; traditional weddings, burial of the aged, house warming and age passage among other. At a point in time according to Akinwum and Adeakin (2009) Velvet almost seize the center stage from Aso Oke the acclaimed Yoruba number one traditional wear. Five objectives were set to guide the study and Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. One hundred and fifth respondents were randomly selected from Osun, Ondo and Oyo State which was 000.882% of the total population of the study area. A well-structured and validated questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The data collected statically analyzed using simple percentage and mean. Findings of the study reveal that, the perception of people on velvet fabric in contemporary fashion among Yoruba people is positive. The use of velvet fabric (aran) by important personality or celebrity, Model and use as aso-ebi, Velvet fabric (aran) has the capacity to make people look rich and gorgeous if it is made trendy and spiced up by the fashion designer. The study concludes that one of the surest ways to sustain the use of Velvet among the Yoruba people is ensure its use to combine its with other suitable factory-made fabrics to create trendy styles beyond local boundaries.

Keywords: Revitalizes, Velvet, African Heritages, Yoruba Communities.