Female Nudity and Dress Codes in Pre-Colonial Nigeria: A Case Study of Nigerian Women, Through the Archives

Abstract

Europe’s rapacious contact with Nigeria, the massive proselytization of the indigenous people of Nigeria to Christianity and Islam, and Britain’s colonization of Nigeria influenced, and to a great extent continues to influence, the cultures and cultural identities of the Nigerian people in multifarious ways. Falola (2003) asserts that “the termination of European rule has not put an end to European influence in Africa” (Falola 2003:116). This dissertation, however, is focused on only one aspect of those influences: the cultural shifts in dress codes dating back to the 18th century. Thus, this dissertation uses primary archival research to interrogate how, when and why the indigenous people of Nigeria assimilated and modified European cultures of dress. However, as the analysis demonstrates, various regions and cultures in Nigeria – Nigeria being a large, culturally diverse country – were affected differently by a variety of factors, powers and contacts in the years leading up to, during, and after the colonial era. Summarily, this research maps a historiography of Nigerian cultures of female dresses and dress codes, through materials sourced from archives in the United Kingdom.