TRADITIONAL HAUSA CLOTHS: A COMPARATIVE COLLECTION OF SOKOTO AND KEBBI STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Nigeria, among other African countries is known for her different
varieties of traditional cloths ranging from one ethnic group to the other. The evidence can
be seen from all the thirty six states in Nigeria; the clothing style of the eastern Nigeria diets from that of the northern Nigeria as so on.
Clothing is anything placed on the body to adorn or to motivate behavior (John and Foster, 1990). It includes all the different garments, accessories or
ornaments worn by people as well as their make-up and styles. Theories have attempted to explain the motivation factors underlying clothing choices and
decision. Such theories include: modesty, immodesty, protection and adornment theories (Marshal Jackson, Stanley, Kefgen and Touchie 2000). Modesty
theory focuses on standard regarding the area of the anatomy to be concealed and state that clothes are worn solely to conceal or cover nakedness (Marshal
et al. 2000). Various cultures have rules about modesty that relate to their use of clothing. The immodesty theory on the other hand states that clothing is not
to cover nakedness but to attract attention. The argument here is that wearing of garment is far erotic than in going without them (Marshal et al. 2000). The
protection theory view physical protection and psychological protection as major reasons of purpose of wearing clothes.
Dress or clothing is a kind of garment worn by people of all cultures since pre-historic times. Different peoples of the world have their unique dress culture.
The materials used for making dresses range from cotton, wool, silk fabric to flax fabric and rubber. Dresses that people in all cultures wear are determined by
a number of factors. The main factor that has determined, and is still determining, the variety of clothes in different times and locations, is climate (Braun,
2005). In Nigeria for instance, we have the rainy season and the dry season, with their characteristic cold and hot temperature. Dress culture therefore has to
bow to the prevailing weather condition. Dress culture has also been aected
by changing styles or fashion in vogue. Other factors that influence the dress
that people wear are the availability of materials, cost of materials, technology of the period, peoples’ social status, human migration, religious tradition,
assimilation of various traditions, social cosmopolitan outlook or modernity, travels and perhaps colonization, conversion and nationalism.
