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INNOVATION AND CONFLICT: CLOTH DYERS AND THE INTERWAR DEPRESSION IN ABEOKUTA, NIGERIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1997

JUDITH BYFIELD
JUDITH BYFIELD
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
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Abstract

BY the twentieth century, the southern Yoruba town of Abeokuta was integrated into the international economy both as an exporter of cash crops and an importer of manufactured products. It became one of the primary producing areas of cocoa and kola nuts in western Nigeria. Abeokuta's integration into the international economy had a profound effect on its local textile industry. As weavers gained access to European threads and dyers gained access to European cloth, relations of production were transformed. Both sets of producers became dependent on European trading firms for their raw materials and were thus brought squarely into the nexus of international trade. Dyeing, which was predominantly a women's industry, benefited substantially from this economic relationship. Dyers' access to cloth as well as credit from the European firms allowed them to become autonomous producers of tie-dyed cloth, adire, that was in great demand across Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Senegal and the Belgian Congo.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 77 - 99
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper was originally presented at the conference ‘Artisans, cloth, and the world economy: textile manufacturing and marketing in South Asia and Africa’, held at Dartmouth College, 21–3 Apr. 1993. A revised version was also presented at the conference, ‘Making connections: women and the global economy’(SUNY-Albany, 22–4 Apr. 1994). I would like to thank the participants of both conferences, Deborah King, Margot Lovett and the journal's anonymous readers for their helpful insights and comments.