Pants Item Number: Cb79 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Description
White pants with red cuffs and multicoloured embroidery. The men’s white cotton pants are made from 6.5 cm woven strips seamed together. The front and back are very wide and seamed at sides and across the bottom leaving the corners open and gathered into two cuffs. The cuffs are green and red striped, with the occasional wide yellow stripe. The top edge is turned over to form an easing for a drawstring. The lower front of the legs are embroidered in red, green, blue, yellow, and pink, in a complex interlocking design.
History Of Use
Typical Hausa style of trousers, white cotton with embroideries, reflect Islamic influence on the indigenous cultures of Northern Africa through long established travel and trading patterns and cultural contact. The strips of cotton are woven by men on "men's looms" and sewn finely together to form large pieces of fabric. Women's looms are used to weave the much wider stripes seen in other costumes. Men also do the embroidery.
Cultural Context
Worn by men.
Iconographic Meaning
Many of the Dagi knots and other complex motifs of the embroidery have Islamic symbolic significance and are seen in Islamic architecture, Koranic writings and drawings etc., and have been created by Koranic scholars.
Item History
- Made in Nigeria
- Collected during 1910
- Owned by Norman Lowden
- Owned by Yvonne Adams before August 3, 1976
- Received from Yvonne Adams (Donor) on August 3, 1976
What
- Name
- Pants
- Identification Number
- Cb79
- Type of Item
- pant
- Material
- cotton fibre and dye
- Manufacturing Technique
- woven, sewn, dyed and embroidered
- Overall
- height 184.0 cm, width 99.0 cm
Who
- Culture
- Hausa
- Previous Owner
- Norman Lowden and Yvonne Adams
- Received from
- Yvonne Adams (Donor)
Where
- Holding Institution
- MOA: University of British Columbia
- Made in
- Nigeria
When
- Collection Date
- during 1910
- Ownership Date
- before August 3, 1976
- Acquisition Date
- on August 3, 1976
Other
- Item Classes
- textiles
- Condition
- good
- Accession Number
- 0321/0009