Àdìre is the Yoruba textile indigo dyed cloth in South-Western Nigeria made majorly by the Yoruba women, using a variety of resist-dye techniques. Àdìre translates as tie and dye, and the earliest cloths were probably simple tied designs on locally-woven, hand-spun cotton cloth much like those still produced in Mali. In the early decades of the twentieth century however, the new access to large quantities of imported shirting materials made possible by the spread of European textile merchants in certain Yoruba towns, notably Abeokuta (in Ogun State, Nigeria), enabled women dyers to become both artists and entrepreneurs in a booming new medium. The cloth's basic shape became that of two pieces of shirting material stitched together to create a women's wrapper cloth.
New techniques of resist dyeing were developed, most notably the practice of hand-painting designs on the cloth with a cassava starch paste prior to dyeing. This was known as Àdìre Eléko, along with a new style more suited to rapid mass production (using metal stencils cut from the sheets of tin that lined tea chests, using sewn raffia and/or tied sections, or folding the cloths repeatedly before tying or stitching them in place). In the 1920s and 1930s Àdìre was a major local craft in the towns of Abeokuta and Ibadan, attracting buyers from all over West Africa. Most of the designs were named, with popular ones including the jubilee pattern, (first produced for the silver jubilee of George V and Queen Mary in 1935), Olokun ("goddess of the sea"), and Ibadadun ("Ibadan is sweet").
By the 1960s Àdìre production caught the interest of US Peace Corps workers in the 1960s. In the present day simplified stencilled designs and some better quality tie & die and stitch-resist designs are still produced, but local taste favours "kampala" (multi-coloured wax resist cloth, sometimes also known as adire by a few people).Today, simplified stencilled designs and some better quality tie & die and stitch-resist designs are still produced.
Right in the heart of Abeokuta is the Kemta Adire Market which is very popular in Nigeria and around the World. The market is known for its famous product Adire which has been in existence for over a hundred years. The market has the historical background of been a hereditary market which is passed on to generation from generation. The distinct nature of the Adire Market is the fact that virtually all the traders in the market are descendants of the families who have live and passed to the grave beyond bequeathing the portion of the market that is theirs to their descendants. Austin Jacobson in his trip to the market noted that Àdìre first emerged in the city of Abeokuta, a centre for cotton production, weaving, and indigo-dyeing in the nineteenth century. The prototype was tie-dyed Kíjìpá, a hand woven cloth dyed with indigo for use as wrappers and covering cloths.
According to the Iyaloja of Kemta Alhaja Somodale Akamo, Kemta is the main Àdìre market which is located in Abeokuta, the nerve centre of the state, not only is Àdìre the sole cultural identity of the Ogun people, it is has also made the state popular both locally and internationally and the market is passed on from generation to generation.
The people of Kemta now organize an Annual Adire Festival which is organized to give thanks to God an invite people to celebrate with them and also exhibit the art of beauty and clothing that has been handed from generation to generation. This festival attracts tourists from all parts of the world making it one a rapidly developing multicultural festival.
