Ido

Ido (weaving accessories) were used by the Owina guild. Benin cloth can be finely woven from thin threads of cotton, or it may be woven with raffia and principally white or dyed red and indigo blue.

When the Owina was founded by Ọba Ohen, there were seven palace women who were weavers. Meanwhile, it was men who did the spinning. However, ‘Ọba Ohen … was annoyed that the women sold the cloth which they wove in the market and decreed that the weaving would be done by men and the women’s participation be restricted to spinning’ (Dark, 1973, p.67 ). In contrast, Paula Ben Amos notes (1978, p.51 ) that this type of loom was more commonly associated with women’s weaving in the region.

These Ido would have been used along with a vertical upright loom upon which long strips of fabric would be woven, which would in turn be sewn together to form larger pieces of cloth. Dark (1973, p.67 ) describes the use of a ‘loom sword’, which may refer to some of these weaving accessories – unfortunately, he does not describe how exactly it was used.