In the hushed but hallowed space of the Yusuf Grillo Art Gallery, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, a piece of Nigerian history hangs on the walls. Not carved in stone, but dyed into fabric. Each of the fifty-odd Adire textiles on display is a chapter in a story Prof. Tunde Akinwumi has spent a lifetime trying to save from being forgotten.
Penultimate Saturday, scholars, former students and art lovers gathered at the gallery not only to celebrate the eminent art historian’s 80th birthday, but to also honour a legacy built thread by thread-a relentless pursuit to preserve Nigeria’s sartorial soul.
The event was the culmination of a week that began with a press conference, where the octogenarian first unveiled the treasures he began gathering in the late 1970s. ‘When I saw Americans coming to Nigeria to collect our fabrics, I said I would also start collecting,’ Professor Akinwumi recounted, his voice a blend of passion and concern. ‘These materials are no longer produced.’
From Ibadan sketchbooks to a life’s work
The story of this ‘titan of textiles,’ as colleagues call him, began in Ibadan in 1945. His journey into art was not inherited but discovered, sparked by a childhood fascination with the illustrations in catechism books. ‘I was so much fascinated by all the drawings,’ he shared in an interview. ‘Before I knew it, I was also copying, copying, copying, and I never knew I would become an artist later.’
This passion led him from the Government Teachers College in Ilesa to Yaba College of Technology, and finally to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he earned his BA and MA in Textile Design. His academic odyssey culminated in a PhD in African Art History from the University of Ibadan in 1990, where his research focused on a profound concept: Yoruba ‘circle of life’ ceremonies and the specific attire commissioned for birth, marriage, chieftaincy, and death.
‘Asoebi is just for people who are dead. That’s just one circle,’ he explained, bringing academic theory to life. ‘What about when you wed? Marriage. That’s part of the circle of life.’
A scholar’s fight against cultural extinction
The birthday celebration, however, was as much a forward-looking symposium as it was a retrospective. The central, pressing question hung in the air: how to save the authentic Adire Eleko from vanishing?
In his keynote address, Prof Akinwumi laid bare the stark reality.