₦airaland Forum

Dear King,

Thank you for your feedback. Isiagu is a lovely outfit. You may or may not be right that it is better than Aso-oke. However, if you watched the video, my purpose was to promote indigenous Nigerian fabric and couture.

Isiagu does not fall into that category, because that fabric is not of Igbo, Nigerian or even Black African origin.

Please fact-check me: Isi-agu originated as a colonial-era upholstery material for chairs and curtains. Even today, it is still used as upholstery in the poorer parts of the world. If you doubt me, I can produce photographic evidence from fellow African countries where it is used as fabric for furniture.

The so-called traditional cap often worn with Isi-agu is also another colonial relic.

Please fact-check me: When British Christian missionaries accompanied Bishop Samuel Ajayi-Crowther to Igboland in the early 1850s, they realised they did not need their winter caps, known as head warmers or beanies, because of the humid heat of the savanna. So they threw them away. And the local people picked them up and began wearing them. And now, it has become their 'traditional' cap.

Aso-oke, on the other hand, is an entirely indigenous Lukumi Yoruba fabric crafted using a wholly Lukumi Yoruba technology. There is no outside influence or know how involved in the making of Aso-oke. It has been woven traditionally and worn by the Omoluabi nobility for centuries before colonialism.

Anyway, thanks again, and may God bless you.

#TableShaker

Dear Chimaobi,

Thank you for your feedback. You asked for photographic evidence? Please find attached a piece of furniture upholstered with the original antique colonial era upholstery fabric, which some of our people now refer to as 'Isi-agu'.

Also find attached a White European man wearing the same head warmer that some of our people now call their 'traditional cap'.

These materials were introduced into Igboland in the 1850s. If you can show me any documentary evidence of the existence of Isi-agu or your traditional cap before Bishop Samuel Ajayi-Crowther brought European missionaries to Igboland, I make a vow and covenant to pay you ₦10 million.

Do you even see what some of our people call okporoko (stockfish) today? It is also not of Nigerian origin. It was a prominent aspect of the relief materials used to address the Kwashiokor crisis between 1967 and 70. That is why and how okporoko became popular in Biafra and Igboland till today. We have Chief Awolowo and the nation of Norway to thank for Okporoko. Before the Nigerian civil war, Nigerians did not know anything like Okporoko.

Thanks again, and may God bless you.

#TableShaker

Dear Meno Rah,

Thank you for your feedback. But why the competition with the Lukumi Yoruba? Why are you triggered when I praise Aso-oke? Did you see anybody from other ethnicities express disdain when I praised Aso-oke?

And please fact-check me: Akwete cloth originated from the Ijebu people. You can read about it in the British historian, John Gillow's book, African Textiles: Color and Creativity Across a Continent, published in 2003.

The Ijebu have been trading with the Ijaw for centuries. Many prominent Ijaws are actually Ijebu. For example, former Bayelsa Governor, Seriake Dickson, is an Ijebu man. He is from the Awujale's lineage. His family went to trade in Ijaw land 200 years ago and never returned. Please fact-check me.

The Ijebu sold a fabric known as ikaki to the Ijaws for hundreds of years. A photo of fabric is in Mr. Gillow's book. It was only in the 19th Century that the Ijaws in Ndoki resold Ikaki fabric to Igbo women from a village known as Akwete.

Those women began making a version of Ikaki, which the Igbos called Akwete cloth.

Please, Meno Rah, fact-check me. If I have lied, I make a vow and covenant to pay you ₦10 million.

Thanks again, and may God bless you.

#TableShaker

Dear Ugwo,

Thank you for your feedback. Listen, I did not expose the history of your cap out of spite or out of the blue. I love and respect Ndi'Igbo. I posted a video where a group of Japanese tourists were admiring my Aso-oke, and a Nigerian from the Southeast insulted Aso-oke and told me to wear Isi-agu and your cap, which are better than Aso-oke, according to her.

I then politely explained that I only promote indigenous Nigerian fabrics and couture, and that Isi-agu and the 'traditional' cap that goes with it are not of African origin but are colonial relics.

Isi-agu is a colonial-era upholstery material for furniture and curtains, while the cap was a head warmer. Please assume I am lying and fact-check me.

Please find attached page 288 of the book, What Britain Did to Nigeria: A Short History of Conquest and Rule, by renowned historian, Max Siollun. Read the highlighted portion, and you will see that your so-called 'traditional' cap was given to you by the British.

It shows a lack of emotional intelligence when you get angry with me for telling you a fact of history. Am I the one who initiated that history?

Thanks, and may God bless you.

#TableShaker

Reno is not a table shaker but a table destroyer.

The guy no get chill at all

I can't upload pictures. Nairaland

Knowledgeable professors already said Oduduwa was fake which means yorubas don't even know where they came from

Is that what we're discussing here?

Don't derail this thread, get another thread for that.

Isi-agu Is Upholstery Material For Chairs and it doesn't Originates From The Igbos, that's what we're discussing

Afonja44:
Knowledgeable professors already said Oduduwa was fake which means yorubas don't even know where they came from

LivingSage:
Is that what we're discussing here?

Don't derail this thread, get another thread for that.

Isi-agu Is Upholstery Material For Chairs and it doesn't Originates From The Igbos, that's what we're discussing

If Oduduwa is fake then yoruba is fake

Yorubas might actually be the Igbo Osus that were sent to Evil Forest as outcasts which may explain the numerous inter-tribal wars they fought amongst themselves.


I will research on this further and create a thread.

Reno, you don try explain finish.

Igbo Chieftancy hats can be any hat the culture chooses and has changed a lot through out history from a white cap (still used in Aro Chukwu) to imported military hats (still used in Kalabari by the IGBO royal family), to the Okpu Agu which started in the 1700s to the red cap which was first used in Onitsha. The hat is not what is important, it's the man wearing it.

All fabrics are used for furniture, very stupid comment by Omokri

Reno my guy. You don dey shake table too much lately.

Reno is always spot on. His research ability is second to none. I will also hate him if I was Igbo, but thank heaven I am not.

This Reno omokri of a guy can too much sometimes I like his advice but sometimes he talks nonsense NB Reno omokri is from my state delta State but not from same village through anyway na him Sabi

Reno is a great guy.

Reno don destroy these people culture and traditions.

Well ! Now this is history !This Reno guy really knows his onions.

So isi-agu is not a Nigerian fabric?

I found this:

The Kalabari, have been using gold embroidered velvets imported by Europeans from India. Looking at the cloth, it’s obvious the ‘lion’ designs are not indigenous Igbo motifs.The design of the Isi Agụ itself resembles the wokor and other men’s wear worn in the delta areas which seem to have been designed based off of Victorian English dress shirts.In the case of why it’s isi agụ and not isi ọdụm, this design came very recently, and the double consciousness of Western and indigenous civilisation had already confused the ultimate Igbo ‘prestige animal,’ the leopard, agụ, for the Western one, the lion.

Again, lions are nowhere near as relevant in Igbo folklore and custom as leopards are.

https://iheanyiigboko./2019/01/13/twitter-thread-the-origin-of-the-isi-agu-traditional-wear-ukpuru/

Reno is a genius!

Ofodirinwa:
Igbo Chieftancy hats can be any hat the culture chooses and has changed a lot through out history from a white cap (still used in Aro Chukwu) to imported military hats (still used in Kalabari by the IGBO royal family), to the Okpu Agu which started in the 1700s to the red cap which was first used in Onitsha. The hat is not what is important, it's the man wearing it.

All fabrics are used for furniture, very stupid comment by Omokri

There is nothing like Igbo royal family. There was no royalty in Igbo forests before. It's a recent phenomenon. Always have an open mind to learn. We know it hurts but you still have to learn.

Shots fired ☄️ ☄️☄️🔫

Someone should call the cops 👮‍♀️ 👮‍♀️👮‍♀️ and 🚒🚒🚒🚒🚒

But did he lie? NO.