Clothing is the one thing you could easily use to identify a particular culture. Different Tribes around the world have there own clothing style. But how did all this began. In this article we will focus on how the different ethnic group dress in Nigeria. The history of Nigerian cloths and how it has improved over the years.
Hat Of Major Tribes In Nigeria
There are different kinds of cap worn by the different tribe in Nigeria. The Igbo cap is made of the color white and red. I do not know if the Fulani have there own kind of cap but the yoruba wear one that is slightly bent on the head.
It is unclear to me the origin of the red Igbo cab but it is mainly worn by the elders in the tribe and never by the youths. In terms of dressing, the Igbo usually tie a wrapper with or without a shirt.
The Fulani Carry a stick hung on their neck with a pointed hat. Remember when I said earlier in this post that I don't know if the Fulani have a hat that they wear, well, looking back now. It turns out they actually do.
Anyway, talking about the traditional attire of the Fulanis in Nigeria. They do wear shorts. At least that is what I have seen.
But personally, I do not think that their was a thing like shorts in ancient Nigerian culture. Because, these kind of clothings are mainly from European culture. From what I have seen.
Same goes for the igbos in Nigeria. One would think that the traditional clothes worn by the igbos today are not actually what their fore father's wore. It was infact when the Europeans came to Nigeria that they began wearing these clothes so the Igbo cultural attire displayed today from my own observation was imported. Even the material used in making them and also the hat worn by them that is usually made from wool are all imported.
For the yoruba that usually wear "agbada" or "bariga" looks more to me as something that began after they had contact with the Europeans. I would like to think that those from yoruba used there own hands to wove the clothing they wear and this was only meant to cover their private parts.
A quick Google search I just made clearly confirmed this. It is also amazing to see that humans irrespective of culture have also been conscious of their body. Hence they tend to cover that one area even when the culture is not known to have modern clothing.
How Ancient Nigeria Came To Wear Clothes
There are various reasons that have contributed to early man choice to wear clothes. I think out of all animals on Earth, only human exhibit this behavior.
First, the clothing that people wear protects them from the natural elements. I do not think that early people in Nigeria or humans in general ever thought about the concept of clothes. Several factors tho most have made the wearing of clothes inevitable for we humans.
First, because of our large brain it would have been very obvious to us that using a material, wether it is a leave or some other thing found in nature to cover ourselves will give us some protection from the natural elements. This would mean that we are able to live more comfortable and survive in our environment.
Since we are able to remember and pass message from one generation to another, this would have mean that this idea of clothings would have been passed on our offsprings. New generation too would have found better ways to improve on these idea of early clothing passed on to them. Which would lead to better and more comfortable clothing.
As you can see, this may have originally began as a purely survival mechanism. As the issue for which clothes were originally made for, clearly people would have started looking for how to make this clothing more fashionable. This again has to do with survival because the better looking we are the more chances there is to get a mate. Hence what stated out as a mere effort to survive the natural element were turn into something fashionable.
So this is were all cultural attires began from irrespective of tribe in Nigeria. Whether it is the Ancient Igbo yoruba or Hausa.
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