Oba Adenle sat for this portrait wearing an Abeti Aja fila sewn from damask fabrics although he had the sanyan fila of the same aso oke. Yoruba older men sometimes complete their outfits this way by mixing and matching the Yoruba fabrics with imported ones as fila.
The Abeti Aja – “like the flaps of dogs’ ears” is, surprisingly, very popular among young men these days.
Oba Adenle’s gobi style fila which is perhaps the most common style is upturned and faces the front rather than the usual down-turned left or right side-facing style.
[Photo from Late Ulli Beier to Blogger, 2010.]
In this 1967 photograph taken by Depo Adenle, Oba Adenle’s apparent love for the Abeti Aja shows! The fila here is made from the same aso oke fabric as the outfit.
At work in above photograph, the most popular Yoruba fila style can also be seen, the gobi. For example, when retired General Obasanjo became a civilian president in 1999, the style was dubbed “power shift”, a playful allusion to the presidency moving to the Southwest. Men’s f ila took on playful political undertone: if it was turned “eastwards”, it was ”power-shifts to the East” and if “westwards”, it was “power-shifts to the West”. Whichever way, many people wore their fila in the gobi style.
[Above picture by Biodun Ogunmola, December 2004.]
The gobi style is in the middle while on the right is one of those generic – not as in inexpensive but as in “goes with everything” – fila!
Dr. Adenle ALWAYS wears gobi style. Some, as the one in this picture, are sewn in the style that has the bottom part embroidered by hand just as for the agbada while for others, he has them just simple hand-STITCHED with what was known in sewing classes of old as “running stitches” – three or four rows at the bottom.
This young groom likes the old way, wearing the standard gobi style.
The mix-and-match design of the couple’s aso oke weaves is very beautiful: two dominant colors pay homage to the Sanyan heritage with a thin barely-there dark hue between the whites.
And another groom, but here in the old-fashioned abeti aja. This was a fila style young men of my generation did not take to, but it’s now the rage at Yoruba traditional engagement ceremonies where MOST young men spot the style.
Weavers now turn out what are called T’oko, T’aya aso oke which are mostly unified by colors but not by patterns. Note, though, that the fila for the young men are always made from the ladies fabrics.
I think Our Guy in America is spotting gubi here but who knows, and what does it matter! It may even be the “Lagos look” which is sewn to just sit on the head and therefore requires no expertise. The important point is that the couple looks radiant in their outfits made from imported fabrics.
The Lagos Cap
I call it the Lagos Cap because it was there I first saw it several years ago.
Below Our Lagos Guy in Alaari is the standard – or may be I should now say classic gobi - style sewn from Alaari.
As three of the last five photographs show ALL the men in the three photographs wearing Alaari fila or complete – including the little boy wearing a modern & cheaper take of the classic Alaari, I should mention what may not be a surprising information: the Alaari IS the most popular of the three classics – going by readership of this blog, ESPECIALLY the Ondo variety. In fact, until I started posting the series on “Yoruba Engagement Aso Oke” which came much later than the classics, it had the most viewership.
Personally, my favorite is the indigo/black Etu which is supposed to be second in line to Sanyan. I’m sure every aso oke-wearer has his/her favorite!
The Males in the three photographs AND the one wearing Sanyan ALL have their fila worn in gobi style.
Based on the random samples contained in this short essay, and buttressed by what I’ve always noticed around Yorubaland, I believe we can conclude that the gobi style of fila for men is the most popular!
Above – and below – everybody spots the gobi style, including the toddler on whom the style looks particularly attractive.
[Photoraph: 2004.]
Lagos’ governor, Babatunde Fasola, seems to concur on my rating of the gobi style as the numero uno fila; so does the guy in the above picture!
Little corner for two; high school grad … fila for every occasion!
Way back in 1970, Gobi style on Depo Adenle
At parties, having fun with friends … gobi rides high!
Young couple finds a quiet corner at an Ibadan party, 2001; gobi on guy stands out!
Blogger, spotting an aso oke Iborun with her Western outfit Left, joins a parent, her son & a friend at the High School graduation of the University of Ibadan International School, 1998. The kids top their modern male outfits with equally-modern fila.
What better way to get into pre-wedding mode than kidding around in this May 1998 photograph of blogger’s friend and her kids – and mine – at Ibadan, Nigeria. As nobody can notice my UN-Las Vegas NCAA basketball championship Tee from 1990, I’m announcing it, but none can miss Mak’s purple fila rakishly donned in – how else – gobi style! It was his – and the sister’s – first visit to Nigeria, and on seeing the ubiquitous fila style everywhere in Ibadan, Yorubaland’s capital, he got himself one an started wearing it around. I think he looks terrific!
AND, FINALLY, The Awo Cap:
Sitting 2nd Left is Chief Nats Makinde now of blessed memory.
This 1955 photograph was given to blogger and Significant Other by Mr. Nats Makinde for the biography, Samuel Adenle I, Ataoja of Osogbo: Portrait of a Yoruba Oba” which they co-authored. These were an Egin [Ondo Town indigenes] association at Osogbo of the period
Of the twelve men in the photograph, two are bare-headed, a lone guy wears a gobi style while the remaining 75 percent said “yes” to the Awo Cap! It was taken to mark the “15th anniversity of the Ondo District Union on November 20, 1955.”
Nats Makinde was the pre-eminent photographer at Osogbo of the era; he was also the representative who covered local news in and around Osogbo for The Post. He was a meticulous record-keeper and had loads of old Almanacs, always my favorites, and he gave me an OGO OLUWA ALMANAC 1959 with luminaries, incl. the Alake Oba Ademola (in the center) around whom were Awo, Tafawa Balewa, Justice Udo Udoma, Chief Enahoro … AND also the 1957 Action Group Almanac [See Below]. All were used for the biography of Oba Adenle.
worn here by his recently-departed Son, Chief Oluwole
And, on the Original:
[Photograph of Awo. Gift from Nat Makinde, 2006.]
Most of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s remember seeing Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo always wearing the abbreviated Fez cap, and with his legacy of visionary leadership, service to the masses and forward-looking planning, all shades of politicians in Southwestern Nigeria’s Yorubaland, including dyed-in-the-wool reactionaries and known looters, now wear the Awo Cap. They must feel, if the cloth makes the monk, people will buy my “Awoist” claim when they check out my cap; we say, I say – not so fast!
All pictures on Awo Cap (minus his son’s) are from the biography of Oba Adenle. The man at the top right wearing abeti aja Fila is Chief S. Ladoke Akintola.
Postscript: I’m still looking for fila ode - a hunter’s cap. It resembles a little the gobi but there is surplus pouch-y and long end that is bent as if it can hold something!
2. The gobi may not be the name in every area.
TOLA ADENLE, April 20, 2013. 2.37 p.m. GMT
