Project Abstract

<p> </p><p>The problem of this study is that of the selection, documentation,<br>explanation and preservation of some of the traditional motifs found on the<br>crafts of Southern Kaduna and adapting them for contemporary use on<br>fabric using Resist Techniques of fabric decoration.<br>The general objective of the study is to select and manipulate traditional<br>designs on crafts of Southern Kaduna and adapt them for use as motifs on<br>contemporary resist fabric decoration, thereby ensuring the sustainability<br>of such motifs. The purposes of the study are<br>1. To identify the traditional crafts of Southern Kaduna and the design<br>motifs on them.<br>2. To extract some of these motifs and adapt or transfer them onto<br>fabrics using resist techniques of textile decoration method.<br>The study adopts survey method for data collection to obtain relevant<br>information from the subjects in the sample as suggested by Adetoro<br>(1997). Exploratory approach and product development (R&amp;D) was used<br>for sourcing for designs on crafts as suggested by Itten (1997), Belfer<br>(1976) and Anderson (1961). Other parameters of investigation used in<br>exploratory methodology include population of the study, sampling, pilot<br>study and experiments for adaptation of designs to textile fabrics using<br>resist techniques. Three survey instruments were used in the study. The<br>first one which is a questionnaire (Appendix II) was used for pilot and the<br>second one Appendix III (A) questionnaire was used for collecting data of<br>the fifteen traditional crafts of Southern Kaduna. The third one (Appendix<br>III B questionnaire) was used for the assessment of the resist pieces of<br>fabric produced from the modified traditional design motifs extracted from<br>– 8 –<br>the crafts of Southern Kaduna for comparison with those produced within<br>the recent period. This was done by presenting the two motifs to a<br>randomly selected sample of 117 respondents, comprising 51 lecturers<br>and 66 textile students comprising 33 students each from the Fine and<br>Applied Arts and Home Economics Departments of the Kaduna State<br>College of Education, Gidan-Waya. The comparative assessment<br>questionnaire is a five Likert scaled instrument.<br>The randomly selected, modified, and adapted motifs used in this study<br>are<br>1. Nok-head which is a symbolic motif that articulates the artistic<br>culture of Southern Kaduna.<br>2. Dangyet is a symbolic motif of women maturity and dignity.<br>3. Kikyak is a symbolic motif of weaving and peace.<br>4. Udung is a symbolic motif of crown of terracottas excellence<br>5. Chon is a symbol of sharpness and strength.<br>Based on the analysis of the study, the following findings were made<br>1. The production of traditional crafts in Southern Kaduna is on the<br>downward trend.<br>2. Fifteen different crafts are still being practised in Southern Kaduna.<br>3. The traditional crafts of Southern Kaduna have symbolic motifs with<br>traditional names and are adaptable on textile fabrics, using the<br>resist techniques of fabric decoration.<br>4. Cultural and environmental factors such as festivals, annual cultural<br>day celebrations, naming ceremonies, marriages, burial, initiation<br>rites and aesthetic values are guiding the use of the traditional<br>Southern Kaduna design motifs.<br>– 9</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <br><p></p>

Project Overview

<p> 1.0 INTRODUCTION<br>In Africa, generally, traditional designs and crafts have tremendous<br>influence on the lives of people, including Nigerians. Willet (1973) supports<br>this point of view by emphasizing that the life styles of Africans are linked<br>with their political, social and religious practices. He further expressed<br>regret over the alarming speed with which this rich cultural heritage and<br>tradition are declining. Newman (1974) also observed that African<br>traditional heritage is likely to disappear as he predicted thus:<br>We are in the dearth of all that is best in Africa… and<br>this is a well known phenomenon where patrons and<br>paramount kings have lost their power, rituals are dying,<br>carvers are putting down their tools, Arts forms flourish<br>and die everywhere, dyeing pots and pits are drying up.<br>Newman (1974,p.9).<br>As rightly observed above, the traditional dyeing pots and pits that are<br>drying up now, are perhaps never to be wet again to enkindle the fire of the<br>flamboyant designs, crafts and culture in Africa including Nigeria.<br>1.1 Background of study:<br>This study was motivated through the observation that various<br>designs found on crafts in Southern Kaduna may be very suitable as motifs<br>on resist fabric in textile design decoration. A pilot study was conducted<br>– 20 –<br>which made the study feasible and encouraged further work in the area.<br>From the pilot study a number of craftspeople were found practising<br>different crafts in Southern Kaduna..<br>Nigeria as a pluralistic society with a teeming population of creative<br>individuals and groups of diversified cultural background, offers immense<br>opportunity to study different types of traditional designs and crafts.<br>According to Akodu (1985), several cultural groups with distinct beliefs and<br>crafts exist in Nigeria. Postulating the same view, Sigo (2001), opines that<br>there are two hundred and fifty distinct groups that enrich Nigeria culturally<br>and distinguish themselves in designs and crafts. Out of these cultural<br>groups, is Southern Kaduna, upon which this study is focused.<br>Comprising the Nok Culture area, Southern Kaduna is the nucleus of<br>the well known ancient design civilization. According to Fagg (1990), this<br>fact was unveiled and revealed when the first discovery of its figurines was<br>made in the alluvial tin mining in 1921. Sharing a similar view, Eyo (1990)<br>describes Nok Culture area as the entire area within the radius of 250km,<br>from Nok village in Jaba Local Government Area. Jamkur (1992) equally<br>shares the same view and describes Nok as the founding name of the<br>ancient Nok Terracotta culture.<br>Dike and Oyelola (1998) reported that Nok Culture consists of early<br>designs and crafts of Nigeria which date back to the era of fabrication and<br>implementation of tools by Nigerian ancestors. They further opine that Nok<br>– 21 –<br>Culture, which flourished between 500 B.C and 200 A.D. and which is<br>considered to be the oldest in Africa South of the Sahara, emerged from<br>the deep socio-politico-religious beliefs and philosophies of their<br>generation. Suffice to say that the present inhabitants of this area have a<br>design culture, which seems to be disintegrating and needs<br>documentation. The disintegration is due partly to lack of patronage by the<br>consumers. This, development, according to the unanimous views of<br>Nkrumah (1971) and Daoud (1974), is attributed to the effect of colonialism<br>which makes Africans and indeed Nigerians crazy for foreign goods. Thus,<br>the terracotta traditional cooking pots and dishes, have today been<br>replaced with aluminium pots and plates from Europe, America and China.<br>Similarly Nigeria home-made textiles have been replaced with such foreign<br>textiles like English wax, Hollandaise, China checks, and a host of other<br>foreign goods. Now the craftsmen are dieing and getting older and weak<br>while the youths are reluctant to take their places. This situation keeps on<br>re-echoing the puzzles of whether the crafts should also die and disappear<br>into extinction. The search for the answers to these re-echoing puzzles is<br>the core of the problem and the background of this study.<br>Standfield (1971), Eicher (1976), Wangboje (1985), Alder and<br>Bernard (1993), unanimously opined that Nigeria has always produced<br>diversified crafts. According to Ahuwan (1976), and Adetoro (1972), some<br>of these crafts include: weaving, pottery, dyeing as well as Textile Resist<br>– 22 –<br>Techniques, (known as adire-eleko in Yoruba), cotton spinning,<br>embroidery, wood carving, leather work and blacksmithing which carry<br>geometrical shapes and figurative motifs such as lizards. These crafts are<br>commonly practised in our pluralistic society, where undue attention is<br>given to larger ethnic groups, while the smaller groups such as the<br>Southern Kaduna group are forgotten or downtrodden to the background.<br>Due to the imminent decline of the crafts of Southern Kaduna and the fear<br>that some of the design motifs like the Nok-head, Nok-hair-do and kikyak<br>will become extinct with the crafts, the need for this study becomes more<br>and more imperative.<br>1.2 Statement of the Problem.<br>The problem of this study is the selection, documentation,<br>exploration and preservation of motifs found on crafts produced in<br>Southern Kaduna and adapting them for contemporary use on Resist<br>Technique of fabric decoration.<br>1.3 Conceptual Framework<br>In order to treat this problem effectively, it was necessary to critically<br>survey, identify, unveil, study and document some of the traditional design<br>motifs found on the crafts of Southern Kaduna for adaptation on textile<br>fabrics using contemporary resist techniques of tie-dye and batik. Also<br>– 23 –<br>questionnaire was developed to survey the assessment of Southern<br>Kaduna indigenes with regard to the traditional designs and their<br>adaptation.<br>1.4 The general objective of the study<br>The general objective was to select and manipulate traditional designs on<br>crafts from Southern Kaduna and adapt them for use as motifs on<br>contemporary Resist Fabric design, thereby ensuring the sustainability of<br>such motifs.<br>1.5 Specific objectives of the study<br>The specific objectives of the study are to :<br>1. Select some designs from a defined population of traditional crafts in<br>Southern Kaduna.<br>2. Examine the cultural and environmental factors guiding the use of<br>such designs.<br>3. Manipulate motifs on the designs in contemporary format.<br>4. Use the newly developed motifs from traditional types on fabrics as<br>Resist techniques of fabric decoration.<br>5. Select through random sampling, a sample from a defined<br>population of Southern Kaduna to respond to a questionnaire<br>– 24 –<br>developed to assess the relationship of the newly modified southern<br>Kaduna mofits with the traditional ones.<br>6. Collect samples of motifs from the traditional crafts and those fabrics<br>designed from their adaption and present them to selected subjects<br>for their comparative assessment.<br>7. Develop a questionnaire validated by the supervisors, which are<br>used to guide the study.<br>8. Prepare the analysis of the survey in Tables and present results to<br>enable conclusions and recommendations of the study to be made<br>1.6 Research Questions.<br>Hypothesis according to Adetoro (1997), connotes one of the<br>many ways of expressing a broad research problem in a condensed<br>testable form. It provides a framework for interpreting research<br>findings in a simplified and meaningful manner. Kerlinger (1977),<br>states that a research problem is just a broad question which is not<br>directly testable. In this study research, questions are opted for<br>because they provide findings and a solution to a research problem.<br>The basic purpose of any research, according to Kolo (1998),<br>is to answer questions, solve problems or develop theories of<br>interest to the researcher and to add to the reservoir of knowledge<br>already available on the subject. Sulaiman (1998), further opines<br>– 25 –<br>that research questions are used to guide the research. In line with<br>these views, the following research questions were proposed and<br>used to guide this study:<br>1. Which are the traditional crafts of southern Kaduna from which the<br>Nok-head, kikyak, dangyet, udung and chon are extracted?<br>2. What cultural environmental factors are guiding the use of such<br>designs?<br>3. Which of the motifs on the crafts of Southern Kaduna can be<br>manipulated in contemporary format?<br>4. Which of the newly developed motifs from the traditional types can<br>be used in resist techniques of fabric decoration?<br>5. What randomly selected subjects from the defined population of<br>Southern Kaduna will respond to questionnaire developed to assess<br>the relationship of the newly discussed motifs with the traditional<br>types?.<br>6. What available samples of motifs from the traditional crafts and the<br>fabric designs from their adaptation can be selected for their<br>comparative assessment?.<br>7. How are the traditional design motifs of Southern Kaduna, the<br>contemporarily modified and the resist samples produced from them<br>are assessed<br>– 26 –<br>8. How is the analysis of the survey prepared and presented to enable<br>conclusions and recommendations as well as contribution to the<br>study to be made?<br>1.7 Justification/Significance of the Study<br>Investigations carried out so far reveal that scholars like Fagg<br>(1990), and Eyo (1990) have written extensively on Nok culture<br>which Southern Kaduna is part of. Nevertheless, most of these<br>scholarly documentations are on sculpture. Commenting on these<br>efforts, Vansina (1970), emphasizes the need for African students to<br>diversify their research, rather than limiting themselves to the<br>aesthetic appeal of sculptures. In response to these scholarly views,<br>this study is focused on the design motifs of the crafts of Southern<br>Kaduna. It is fascinating to note that Southern Kaduna people who,<br>as opined by Alao (2001), constitute 53 groups out of the estimated<br>250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, have some originality in some of their<br>aspects of design and crafts. Some of these, like the ‘agwab’ which<br>was used as penis sheath by male adults and ‘dangyet’ which was<br>used by dignified women as hip wear, have disappeared. Even<br>pottery and matting which used to be popular crafts have started to<br>disappear, and will disappear completely, if they are not recorded.<br>– 27 –<br>The need to document and attempt to revitalize Southern Kaduna<br>people’s crafts is imperative.<br>Similarly, Wangboje (1985) encouraged the conduct of local<br>research into the tradition and local materials in order to meet the<br>challenges of the time, and to produce products that are relevant to<br>the need, taste and culture of a society. This study further responds<br>to the call by Jamkur (1992), for more relevant research on Nok<br>culture, and also responds to the government incessant call for<br>Nigerians to look inwards rather than outwards for their needs. The<br>fact that Nigerians are living in an era of democracy with some<br>economic hardship that is making the people to patronize homemade<br>goods, makes this study relevant. According to Jari (1985), the<br>home-made goods which many Nigerian now rush for include textile<br>products such as adire, eleko, okene, akwete, aso-oke and aso-obi.<br>This recent development makes this study not only justifiable and<br>imperative but timely. In the present democratic dispensation and<br>the seemingly rising feelings of nationalism, cultural inclination with<br>the ardent desire for industrialization and economic emancipation,<br>the significance of this study, in this direction therefore, cannot be<br>underrated.<br>– 28 –<br>1.8 Scopes and Limitation<br>This study attempts to investigate designs on randomly<br>selected traditional crafts in Southern Kaduna, adapting them to<br>contemporary forms for use in resist textile fabrics and presenting<br>the two types of designs to a selected group in Southern Kaduna for<br>assessment. In order to make the study feasible and to accomplish it<br>within the specified period, it was delimited to the study of the design<br>motifs from four randomly selected crafts of Southern Kaduna which<br>is the present Nok culture area of Kaduna state from which 33<br>design motifs have been identified. 33 design motifs were randomly<br>selected from four crafts for the resist techniques production. These<br>are: weaving, pottery, carving and resist production known as<br>Kampala. The four selected crafts represent 20% of the 15 different<br>crafts that were identified during the pilot study, which is twice the<br>10% population sample recommended by Roscoe (1969). Since it is<br>not possible for a researcher to cover every member of a population<br>in research, especially when the population is too large, Roscoe,<br>(1969) recommends 10% of the population as a study sample,<br>provided the population is not less than 30 and not more than 5,000.<br>In this study, the identified motifs are more than 30 and less than<br>5,000 and therefore suitable for Roscoe sample. The four randomly<br>selected motifs represent 10% of 33 design motifs identified.<br>– 29 –<br>The Nok culture geographical area of Kaduna state from<br>which this study sample was drawn, comprises 12 Local<br>Government Areas (L.G.As.) lying south, within and slightly North of<br>Kaduna town. The adapted design motifs and the design of the<br>traditional crafts are compared for their similarities and<br>dissimilarities. Only 10% of the design motifs identified based on the<br>recommended study sample by Roscoe (1969) as already explained<br>above are randomly selected for the practical adaptation on textiles<br>using resist techniques (batik and tie-dye comprising starch resist<br>printing, and wax painting) production, to determine their suitability<br>as textile design motifs for textile fabrics. Questionnaire was<br>developed, validated by supervisors and administered to randomly<br>selected respondents. (Appendix III B).<br>Due to the cultural inclination of this study, data collection was<br>limited to the socio-political area of the Southern part of Kaduna<br>state. It was confined only to the crafts of the Southern Kaduna<br>people living in Kaduna state.<br>1.9 Pilot study:<br>Adetoro (1997) contends that pilot study is a preliminary<br>survey embarked upon by the researcher to test the feasibility of the<br>study. In line with this view, a pilot study was conducted between<br>– 30 –<br>December 2000 and March 2001 in Sanga, Kaura, Jema’a, Lere and<br>Zango Kataf local government Areas. It was continued in the ancient<br>town of Nok in Jaba, Kagarko, Kachia, Kauru, Chukun and Kaduna<br>South local government areas where different crafts and craftspeople<br>were identified using the introductory letter and the<br>questionnaire in Appendices I and II respectively.<br>During the study, 1303 crafts people were found practising the<br>15 different crafts with some design motifs. This made the study<br>feasible and encouraged the researcher to prepare for the actual<br>study. The findings in the pilot study were used in determining the<br>samples of crafts and craftsp <br></p>