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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) George and Nancy Axinn have a great deal of experience living and working in other cultures as international development specialists. Both have been affiliated with MSU since the 1950s. They spent several years living in southeast Nigeria in the 1960s. George coordinated the Michigan State University / University of Nigeria (Nsukka) program, and Nancy conducted research and taught at the University of Nigeria's Nsukka campus in the field of home economics and family ecology. Both Nancy and George recently retired from the MSU faculty, but remain very active in their respective fields. George is currently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Resource Development at MSU. During their sojourn in Nigeria they did a good deal of traveling and collected a variety of objects, from textiles to wood figurative sculpture. They also befriended another MSU faculty member, Miriam Kelley, who was participating in the MSU Nsukka program from 1965-1969. Kelley, who sadly passed away in 1991, collected many textiles during her visit to Nigeria. These were bequeathed to the Axinns with the expressed wish that they be donated to the MSU Museum. In 1992, 1993, and 1995 the Axinns donated these textiles as well as a number of other important cultural artifacts that they had collected to the Museum. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s) Adire eleko is a cloth produced by Yoruba textile artists using a resist-dye technique. The dye that is most commonly used is indigo--a deep-blue pigment derived from the indigo plant (Indigofera). Designs are produced by painting or stenciling a starch made from cassava flour on the surface of the cloth before dying. The starch is made of the flour mixed with water that is boiled and then strained. Picton and Mack (1989: 155) report that a small piece of copper sulfate is added while the mixture is boiling to make the solution last longer. The starch is very carefully applied to the cloth and allowed to dry. When immersed in the dye the starch resists/repels the penetration of the pigment into the fabric. After the dye has been set and the process is completed, the starch is washed out of the cloth. The main center for painted adire eleko is the city of Ibadan. Other types of resist-dyed adire are produced in the city of Abeokuta. This particular cloth was made using a piece of red cotton damask cloth and four stencils. The four patterns are repeated within a grid-like composition. Another type of Yoruba adire, a tie-dyed cloth called adire oniko (7366.184), is on display in the exhibition. Further Information Books and Articles Jane Barbour, et al. Adire Cloth in Nigeria: The Preparation and Dyeing of Indigo Patterned Cloths among the Yoruba. Ibadan: Institute of African Studies Unversity of Ibadan, 1971. John Picton and John Mack. African Textiles. 1st US edition. New York: Harper & Row, Publisher, Inc., 1989. Claire Polakoff. African Textiles and Dyeing Techniques. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1982. Internet Resourcesnone
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