Akwete cloth is woven by the women of Akwete, in Ukwa East, on an upright loom that stands with the warp stretched before a seated weaver - which is what distinguishes it from the narrow-strip horizontal loom of western Nigeria. The weavers work sisal, hemp, raffia and dyed cotton: coarse raffia went to masquerade and, in the past, to warriors' headgear; spun cotton goes into cloth for wearing. The cloth is known for its motifs - ikaki, the tortoise, is the one most often named - and the earliest evidence of the craft goes back to the mid-nineteenth century. Its principal customers were the Ijaw trading groups of the Niger Delta, the Ibani, Okrika and Kalabari, who commissioned their own patterns and colours. Ndoki women still weave it, for a market that is now global. Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons: Weaving Akwete cloth on the loom - OBankz (Ekekeh Ubadire Obioma), CC BY-SA 4.0. Weaving Akwete cloth on the loom - OBankz (Ekekeh Ubadire Obioma), CC BY-SA 4.0. Licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
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