Adire ("tie and dye"); specific techniques include oniko (raffia-tying), alabere (raffia-stitching), and eleko (cassava-starch paste-resist)
The resist-dyeing of cotton cloth in indigo by Yoruba women of southwestern Nigeria, using tying, stitching, and starch-paste techniques to create white-on-blue geometric and symbolic patterns. In oniko, raffia is tied tightly around hundreds of individual corn kernels or pebbles to produce small white circles; in alabere, a stripped raffia spine is hand-stitched onto the fabric in a pattern before dyeing; in eleko, designs are hand-painted directly onto the cloth with cassava-starch paste using a chicken feather, or cut into metal stencils from tin sheets, before immersion. The craft's economic structure traditionally divides labor between alaro dyers, who manage the indigo vats, and aladire decorators, who apply the resist. Each pattern carries symbolic or narrative meaning rather than being purely decorative, and the fabric has become an internationally recognized emblem of Yoruba identity, worn by figures including Michelle Obama and featured in designs by Nigerian fashion label Maki Oh.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not independently inscribed
The tanning, natural-dyeing, and finishing of goat hides into soft, durable leather by artisans of Kano and Sokoto in northern Nigeria, historic hubs of the trans-Saharan trade for centuries.
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