Yoruba Blanket

This indigo-dyed blanket was woven by Yoruba textile artists in the early 20th century. It is strip-woven, composed of many strips of blue and white striped cloth, each woven separately on a narrow loom and then sewn together to make a single large textile.

Indigo is a very popular dye material in West Africa, and it is the most used non-industrial dye in the continent as a whole. Indigo is beloved by dyers as well as buyers because of its fastness and depth of color. A skilled dyer could produce a whole range of blue tones with the dye she made from this single plant.