Category Archives: African Textile Directory

The Akwa Ocha Fabric

Akwa Ocha, a popular hand-woven cloth, is peculiar to the people of Anioma (Delta North senatorial district) of Delta State, which has three sub-constituencies; Aniocha/Oshimili, Ika and Ndokwa. These areas are the Igbo-speaking part of the state.Akwa-Ocha, which literally means white cloth, is designed and woven for all-purposes but can also be customized to suit […]

The Damask Textile

Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or satin weave. Damask is usually used for mid-to-high-quality garments, meaning […]

The Senator Textile

The Senator fabric remains in the trend of men’s African traditional attire, though it is sometimes referred to as Cashmere or Wool in Nigerian parlance but even though it looks like it, it is not cashmere fabric, neither is it wool. More men are gradually getting into the world of senator fabrics. It is simple, […]

The A’nger Textile

A’nger is a fabric by the TIV speaking people of Benue State, Nigeria. It is a traditionally hand-woven fabric with black and white yarns to create beautiful features that make the cloth appear like live Zebra skin. Sometimes called and linked with its cultural source as A’nger U Tiv. Traditionally, A’nger is normally used in […]

The Akwete Textile

Akwete cloth is a unique hand woven textile produced in Igboland for which the town of Akwete in Abia state, South Eastern Nigeria is famous. The raw materials used in its production are wool, cotton, silk, raffia, cotton and the bark of certain trees (hemp). It was originally referred to as “Akwa Miri” (Cloth of […]

The Lace Textile

Lace has become an integral part of African Fashion, a popular fabric that is shipped around the world to make garments. What we now regard as lace became popular in the early sixteenth century even though lace-like textiles had been used for centuries. By the seventeenth century, lace-making had spread throughout Europe due to trade […]