Adire Cloth Item Number: 3561/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Large indigo patterned adire cloth. Indigo dyed cloth with startch resist designs covering front. There is a circular central design with 2 figures (kings?) with numerous concentric arc designs below. Along the bottom edge are five repeating dove motifs with grids of dots in between; above are two lines of letters and symbols. The rest of the cloth has a mix of designs of lions, animals, leaves, dots, and sun designs(?). The bottom is the selvedge; the top has a narrow finished seam; the sides have wide finished seams. The back is plain indigo.
Collected by the donor in Ghana, in 1971.
The cloth is dyed by a starch-resist method called 'adire eleko'. The starch is stencilled, or painted free hand, on the cloth before dyeing.