Resplendence: The Importance of Strategic Sartoriality and the Role of Aso-oke in the Culture of the Yoruba of Western Nigeria
My research examines the centrality of resplendence to the core value-system of the Yoruba society of western Nigeria: how strategic sartoriality informs and is informed by concepts of morality, traditional religious beliefs, kinship and beauty. I will explore the phenomenon of resplendence as it presents in Yoruba culture, specifically through the use of Aso-oke, the pre-eminent prestige cloth of the Yoruba, which serves as a multi-layered repository of genealogical memory and cultural continuity imbued with spiritual significance.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
Area of expertise
Supervisors
Gallery
More about Enitan
Degrees
LLB, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1997,
BA (Hons), University of Ife, Nigeria, 1984,
Experience
Textile maker, artist and label owner (Maverick Designs): Independent researcher, writer and lecturer.
Funding
TECHNE Associate
Publications
Bankole-Race, 'ASO IYI, ASO EYE: Beauty and Resplendence in Yoruba Aso-Oke Usage' (The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Beauty ed. Stephanie Bunn,2018, Routledge, Abingdon ).
Conferences
UNFOLDED CLOTH: Manipulation, Cloth, Art and the Diaspora (RAI Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future , London, 2020)
LIGHT ON SKIN: Cicatrisation and Beauty among the Yoruba (ASA18, Oxford, 2018).
UNFOLDING WORLDS: The Symbolism and Evolution of Folded Cloth and Language in the Yoruba Diaspora (EASA 18, Stockholm, 2018).
MOUNTED BY ORISA: PRAXIS AND REPRESENTATION OF PERSONAL LANDSCAPES IN POLITICAL REALITY (RAI, London,2018).
EMERE- OMI: Mermaids, Myths and the Marine Bride phenomenon in Yoruba culture (Island Dynamics, Copenhagen,2017).
RESPLENDENT COLOURLESSNESS (Pasold Institute, Glasgow, 2017).
'NATIVE MAGIC' AND WICKED PROBLEMS: Spirituality, Traditional Yoruba Weaving and Reality (EASA 16, Milan 2016).
CLOTH AS MEMORY: Yoruba Family Status and Memory through Aso-Oke and Adire (ASA 16, Durham 2016).
CULTURAL KLEPTOMANIA AND THE BOUNDARIES OF AUTHENTICITY (ASA15, Exeter 2015).
REFLECTIONS ON RESPLENDENCE : The Importance and Usage of Light as Status-enhancement among the Yoruba of Western Nigeria' (ASA 14, Edinburgh 2014).
ASO ASIKO (FASHION FORWARDNESS): Yoruba Traditional Textiles and Contemporary Fashion Aesthetics' (2ndNon-Western Fashion Conference, London 2013).
'WEAVING THE FUTURE ,WEARING THE PAST: Contemporising History through Aso-Oke' (Pasold Institute,London 2013)