Iyalaro Silifatu Adunni Suliman |
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| Iyalaro Silifatu Adunni Suliman is an African equivalent of the Japanese "living treasure." She is a master indigo dyer in the Yoruba tradition of western Nigeria. Indigo has been used in the dyeing of fabric in Africa for more than 2000 years. Its presence in Nigeria was recorded in the 16th century. No other people on the continent have developed the art to a higher level than the Yoruba. Among the Yoruba, the art of adire is traditionally reserved to women. The production of adire cloth from the designing through the dyeing to the marketing and wearing is done almost exclusively by women. Indigo dying has been practiced for generations by the women of Silifatu's family. Her mother, Wulemotu, came from a family of dyers in Abeokuta, an ancient city famous for its production and marketing of adire cloth. Wulemotu married a man from Ibadan and went to live in her husband's compound where her only daughter, Silifatu was born about 1934. Wulemotu practiced the art of adire alabire, a tie-and-dye form of indigo resist. A woman from Ijebu Ode married into the family of Wulemotu's husband and they became fast friends. Wulemotu named her only daughter after her friend Silifatu who was a designer of adire eleko, the hand-painted, starch resist method of design. The elder Silifatu fulfilled a promise to her friend and took her young namesake as an apprentice. The younger Silifatu worked with the elder from the age of seven to 14, learning the painstaking techniques and numerous traditional patterns of adire eleko. After she had mastered the hand-painting, she returned to her family to learn the raffia resist forms of designing from her mother. Silifatu left her mother's house to marry Karimu and she bore him two children, a daughter Sherifatu, and a son, Asimiyu. Silifatu carried on her career as a designer of adire in her husband's house, but after the birth of her children, she decided to expand her knowledge of the craft, and she went to study with Omobowale, an indigo dyer in Isale Ijebu Street in Ibadan. This was in the late 1970's. The various aspects of adire production are normally divided into areas of specialization - the raffia resist, hand-painted starch resist, stencilled starch resist (the only type produced by men) and finally the dyers who prepare the indigo, maintain the dye pots, and do the actual dyeing. It is very rare for one person to master all aspects of adire as Silifatu has done. Unfortunately, by the 1970's the wearing of adire was falling out of fashion. Daughters preferred school to the long and arduous apprenticeship necessary to learn the art of adire, and besides very little market for the cloth remained. Silifatu's own daughter became a teacher. Silifatu herself became discouraged; people no longer bought her cloth and many considered the work to be dirty. But fashions change and the fashion for adire was beginning to come back. When most Nigerians were buying expensive imported fabrics, artists were beginning to wear the traditional dress again in a statement of renewed cultural pride. Foremost among the new textile artists was Niké, one of the most successful Oshogbo artists. By 1992, Silifatu had grown discouraged and had virtually ceased making adire. Then a friend, a cloth seller in the Ibadan market, introduced her to Niké who was visiting the market looking for adire. Silifatu showed photographs of her work and Niké invited her to come to Oshogbo to teach. Eventually she relocated to Oshogbo to be near the Centre, and she brought three more women to join the Centre. Silifatu's career has been revived by her association with the Niké Centre. She has all the space and resources she needs to do her work, and the Centre helps her to market the adire she and her students make. Silifatu was also featured in an award-winning German film by Thorof Lipp on the art of adire and the Niké Centre. At an age when most people are retiring to enjoy peaceful old age, Silifatu travels the world to teach and demonstrate the ancient art of adire - the art of Yoruba women. Click here to return to blackartstudio.com homepage. | |