The British Council has thrown its weight behind CN Daniels Couture to promote African textiles through a cultural and creative platform aimed at preserving textile heritage and supporting local producers.
The Programme Manager for Arts at the British Council in Nigeria, Uju Abassi, said this in Abuja during a press briefing on the project, which the council is hosting and supporting.
“We know Nigerians are very talented, but the creative sector is not yet properly structured. In the UK, the creative industry is the second highest employer of labour. In Nigeria, we are not there yet, but the potential is there,” Abassi said.
She said the British Council supports creatives through training, retraining and mentorship, adding that the goal is to help turn creativity into a more organised and sustainable industry.
“Our support has been around training, retraining and getting mentors both in Nigeria and the UK for our creatives. We are also trying to harness their knowledge, because we know we are talented in Nigeria,” she said.
Abassi explained that the project emerged from the council’s creative showcase programme, which provides spaces for creatives to present their work.
“After COVID, we noticed from the information we get from creatives that space is a big issue. People want to showcase what they have learned. So we decided to create opportunities, find the space and give it out to creatives to showcase what they have been trained to do,” she said.
She said the project was selected from over 700 applications received by the council.
“We did a call and got more than 700 people interested in using the space. We went through every single application, and this was one of the projects that stood out because it addresses the past, the present and the future of our creativity in Nigeria,” she said.
Abassi added that the British Council was pleased to host the initiative and support its growth, noting that the organisation has offices in four locations across the country and has been in Nigeria for decades.
“We didn’t contribute to the concept. It’s purely his. But we think it is very valuable and it should be showcased out there. That is why we are supporting it,” she said, adding that a bigger event linked to the project would hold in March.
In his remarks, the Creative Director of CN Daniels Couture, Nnamdi Daniels, said the initiative was created to ensure that African societies tell their fabric stories properly and preserve the history behind them.
“The whole aim of this is to make sure we tell our fabric story. You cannot tell that story without the weavers; it is impossible to separate the two,” Daniels said.
He said that although Nigeria no longer has many large textile factories like it did in the 1970s and early 1980s, there were still weavers across the country producing quality local fabrics.
“There are people weaving Aso Oke in Ibadan, Akwa-Ocha in the Delta and Akwete in Abia. These are fabrics that cannot just be done in China or anywhere else. We still have people doing proper local textiles,” he said.
According to him, the goal is not only to mention these fabrics but to tell the real stories behind them and take those stories to the international stage.
“People see traditional rulers and leaders wear these fabrics and sometimes even we Nigerians do not know what they stand for. But the man is wearing cultural heritage, and that is what we want to tell the story of,” he said.
Daniels said the project would help people identify fabrics and understand their origins and meaning.
“We want to get to a point where you see a fabric and you can say, this is from here, this is how it started, and this is the story behind it,” he said.
He added that the initiative would preserve these histories through proper documentation and archives.
“It preserves it, gives an archive to it and also brings it to the international market, where it becomes a desirable fabric,” he said.
Daniels said the platform would also amplify the voices of weavers, artisans and other cultural custodians, while tracing the journey of fabrics from ancient times to the modern era.
On her part, Creative Director of Stylist by Maureen, Mrs Maureen Daniels, said the project would benefit local fabric traders and producers by increasing demand for African textiles.
“This is a global platform where people can tell their stories through fabrics, textiles and heritage. When it goes global, the demand for these fabrics will increase, and that means more business for the local women and men producing them,” she said.
She explained that designers source fabrics from local producers, adding, “We do not create fabrics ourselves. When big orders come, we go back to those women and men who are weaving and trading these fabrics. It gives them a bigger market and better income.”
She added that the initiative would also help bring traditional fabrics into everyday modern fashion, especially for young people.
“You don’t have to wait for a special occasion to wear Aso Oke anymore. You can wear it in a modern way, with trainers or a T-shirt. That is how we bring it into today’s fashion,” she said.
A climate change and sustainability consultant, Mr Kenneth Offor, said the project could also help identify producers already working with sustainable methods and support them to scale up.
“There is a lot of support now for people who want to move their processes in a sustainable way. With this, we can identify those already doing it and see how we can scale it up and also bring international opportunities back home to them,” he said.
Offor added that the real impact would be felt at the grassroots.
“The question is how this will benefit the local business and the people in the villages. If it helps move what they are doing into proper business and better markets, then it will truly change lives,” he said
The event was also attended by stakeholders from the creative and business sectors, including the Managing Partner of Nexia Nigeria, Mr Alexander Pedaler.
