Celebrating Adire Culture and History- The Ecobank Adire Exhibition
2025 Eco Bank Adire Event photographed by Halleluyah Aremu
If the 2024 Ecobank Adire Exhibition, which ran for the better part of four days, including a Sunday, served up an excellent showpiece, the 2025 event was even more glorious and colourful. Held at the Ecobank Pan African Centre just like the previous one, it was far more dazzling, magical, vibrant, and welcoming than its predecessor.
Entering the event location, the exhibition begins with every visitor being serenaded by drummers singing and hailing them with every form of native guile and lingo imaginable. What follows raises the stakes even higher: a mighty bamboo house resembling a huge cylindrical raffia basket, where pictures can be taken and stares can be leveled, then takes the stage. With not much to look out for on the outside, it is time to enter the exhibition proper.
The number of merchants, now almost double the year before, allowed for a richer experience with a greater display of Adire in different forms and appearances. At that time, there was probably nowhere else on Earth that had seen such a great exhibition of the wonderful piece of cloth the Yorubas of Western Africa love and cherish so much!
With the event competing with previous installations, it was still a surprise to see such a response from both the vendors, the host, and the visitors. Such was the vibrancy of the display that attendees and vendors jostled for each other's attention with so much flamboyance that it was a sight for every sore eye in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city.
2025 Eco Bank Adire event photographed by Halleluyah Aremu
For Nigerians, especially the Yoruba tribe, Adire has been – and will continue to be – a trademark to know the tribe by, an identity to be recognised as part of, and a form of culture to register with. Originating from the ancient town of Abeokuta, Ogun State, one of Nigeria’s largest agricultural state, guarded by the humongous shade of the Olumo Rock, it was there that the Adire was first dyed and made to be worn as a ceremonial attire, and then as a foreign export. It remains one of Ogun State's largest exports to present, although the art of making Adire is no longer native to the town.
An interesting fact about Adire, which was displayed not in the main exhibition but in a separate hall was that every Adire pattern symbolises a name or a history, akin to many other African cultures. An example is the Kente, native to Ghana. Every pattern tells a story of a family or an aspect of the town it originates from.
2025 Eco Bank Adire Event photographed by Halleluyah Aremu
Mrs. Nike Davies-Okundaye, a foremost Nigerian artist and Adire textile designer, echoes this truth in her own words, “The pattern of Adire is the way we used to communicate in the past. You have to wear your indigo to show your people that you love them and you belong to them.”
You would be forgiven for thinking the Ecobank Adire Exhibition would simply consist of materials for sale. Such was the diversity and creativity on display that there was too much to look at once! Every vendor was present to showcase their wear in grand style. Adire was styled in virtually any way you could think of. Bubus or BouBous, evening gowns, jackets, myriad bags, hand fans – you name it.
All of these made for an extensive showcasing of the culture of the Adire material, and its versatility, which is one reason why it has been readily accepted at home and abroad.
Bottom Line
Wearing Adire is always a source of pride for the Yoruba people, especially the Egba people, indigenous to Abeokuta (which translates to "under the rock" in the Egba language). The art of "tieing and dyeing" Adire transcends generations and centuries, spanning multiple centuries.
The Ecobank Adire Exhibition is worth attending time and again, as it repeatedly showcases the magic of the culture that the material embodies, while also revealing the potential and promise of the culture that lies in the various patterns and lines present on every Adire material.