TORTOISE ICON (IKAKI) ON AKWETE FABRIC
[1,2]: A chief’s daughter and bride dressed in akwete cloth with ikaki symbols
[6]: A woman weaves akwete on a vertical loom with a variation of the ikaki motifl
From: Igbo culture, Nigeria 🇳🇬Source [1,2]: @ukpuru
Source [5]: “The Women Weavers of Akwete” by Otosirieze (@otosirieze) on Open Country magazine (@opencountrymag)
Source notes [1,2]: “Opobo/Bonny (Ibani) chiefs daughter in wedding dress made out of Igbo cloth (made in Akwete, a cloth known to Igbo people as mkpuru). Jonathan Adagogo Green, 1890s/1900s.”
Source notes [5]: “The first Akwete weaver was a woman called Dada Nwakata, who is said to have received the gift in a dream, at the start of the 19th century. It has been suggested, though, that she studied the cloth brought by the Portuguese between the 14th and 16th centuries, adapting and improving upon the weave structures, and developing unusual designs.”Observations: simplified abstraction, symmetry, considering repeatability/repetition in the design of the icon/motif, using margins in graphic composition
