Akwete is the headquarters of Ukwa East and the town that gives Akwete cloth its name, and it is where the cloth is still woven. The weavers work on an upright loom that stands with the warp stretched before a seated weaver, which is what distinguishes Akwete weaving from the narrow-strip horizontal loom of western Nigeria; the two photographs in this gallery are of that loom in use. The cloth is worked from sisal, hemp, raffia and dyed cotton - coarse raffia went to masquerade and, in the past, to warriors' headgear, while spun cotton goes into cloth for wearing - and it is known for its motifs, of which ikaki, the tortoise, is the one most often named. Evidence of the craft goes back to the mid-nineteenth century, its principal customers were the Ijaw trading groups of the Niger Delta, and Ndoki women still weave it for a market that is now global. The culture entry for Akwete cloth describes the craft; this place is the town where it is done. How a visitor sees the work is the weavers' arrangement, and the platform prints no price or time it cannot source. Photographs, via Wikimedia Commons: Weaving Akwete cloth on the loom - OBankz (Ekekeh Ubadire Obioma), CC BY-SA 4.0 (photograph 1 in this gallery). Weaving Akwete cloth on the loom - OBankz (Ekekeh Ubadire Obioma), CC BY-SA 4.0 (photograph 2 in this gallery). Licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
What to see
The upright loom
The loom that stands with the warp stretched before the seated weaver, photographed in use at Akwete.
The weavers of Akwete
The women who weave the cloth and carry its motifs, whose own account of the craft and its meanings is the source this record still waits for.
Its address is /tourism/akwete on www.buzzbuntu.com.