The Dashiki fashion for Yoruba culture in Nigeria

For a true Yoruba son/daughter of the soil, dashiki is the signature cultural attire. Although it traces its roots to Eastern Ghana, the Yoruba people identify themselves with a dashiki.

Dashiki is a Yoruba name meaning shirt or inner garment. It is made of cotton and is a unisex traditional attire for the Yoruba people and often comes in colourful designs. Dashiki has both formal and informal versions with its formal version coming as a fully-tailored suit. The informal version comes as a V-shaped collar shirt with embroideries on the neck and sleeve lines.

In the African spirit of ‘black is beauty’, dashiki represents the beauty of a people, their culture and way of life. For the Yoruba, besides promoting culture, the garment speaks volumes of their norms and traditions as Nigeria’s third-largest tribe with an estimated population of 44 million people.

In a Yoruba cultural wedding, purple, blue and grey dashiki are common colours, each representing a set of values for the community. Grey stands for the tradition while purple represents royalty to the African culture and blue for harmony, love and peace. Black and red are regarded as the official colours in times of mourning.

Dashiki is simple and easy wear and remains fashionable among men and women due to its unisex nature, various colours and pattern.

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